A rchive Date
[ 29-01-2019 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[https://nationalpost.com/opinion/kelly-mcparland-canadas-ndp-sides-venezuelas-oppressor
Canada's NDP sides with Venezuela's oppressor
Kelly McParland
January 28, 2019 11:26 AM EST
If there was an award for “Political Party in the Process of Losing its Way,” New Democrats would run away with the nominations.
They have a leader who has failed to impress and who they may or may not want to win his by-election for a seat in Parliament. The former leader is now a political analyst who seems to specialize in noting the failures of his successor. They hold power in two important provinces, but the respective premiers are virtually at war with one another. And the party’s standing going into this year’s election is, to say the least, un-encouraging.
But if you want a real sense of just how disconnected the New Democrats have become from Mother Earth, spend a moment pondering their response to the crisis in Venezuela, which found itself with competing presidents when opposition leader Juan Guaidó took the oath of office in hopes of toppling the disastrous regime of Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro is successor to Hugo Chavez, the charismatic autocrat who sent one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries hurtling down the road to basket-case status. Maduro lacks Chavez’s political talents and rules by fear and force, prompting a mass exodus of up to three million Venezuelans seeking relief and safety in neighbouring countries.
Guaidó acted after Maduro was sworn in for another six years after “winning” an election widely panned as a farce. Canada joined a host of other countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and the U.S., in recognizing Guaidó, the head of the National Assembly, as the legitimate president.
“Having seized power through fraudulent and anti-democratic elections held on May 20, 2018, the Maduro regime is now fully entrenched as a dictatorship,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in announcing Canada’s position. “The suffering of Venezuelans will only worsen should he continue to illegitimately cling to power.”
There is no dispute about the level of pain endured by Venezuelans.
The International Monetary Fund pegs its inflation rate at 10 million per cent. There are shortages of everything. Massive lines form for the most basic of goods. Crime is rampant, 90 per cent of the population lives in poverty, and food is so scarce the average Venezuelan lost 24 pounds in weight in 2017, according to a university study. Maduro retains power only through the backing of a deeply corrupt military.
It would seem a situation made for condemnation by the NDP, which views itself as motivated more by principle than a thirst for power, and which proudly proclaims its devotion to the poor, the powerless and the disenfranchised over entrenched elites. Yet Freeland’s announcement was denounced by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and high-profile MP Niki Ashton, who seemed more upset that Canada would find itself on the same side of an issue as the U.S. than with the plight of Venezuelans.
“Canada should not simply follow the U.S.’s foreign policy, particularly given its history of self-interested interference in the region,” Singh said. “The question of who is to lead Venezuela should be in the hands of Venezuelans. All countries should be free to make their own democratic decisions through free and fair elections, independent of authoritative pressure or foreign interference.”
Ashton tweeted: “PM Trudeau sides with Trump’s regime change agenda and Brazil’s fascist President in support of someone calling for a military coup in Venezuela.”
Neither Singh nor Ashton, or former MP Svend Robinson, currently trying to make a comeback, seemed to grasp the picture. Ordinary Venezuelans are being ground to dust by a corrupt military regime, and all they can see is their hatred of Donald Trump.
Singh, who was criticized recently when seemingly caught unaware by a TV interviewer, once again appears poorly informed.
Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have marched in street protests against Maduro precisely because of their inability to vote in free and fair elections. In the run-up to the most recent vote, in May, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein reported receiving credible reports of “hundreds of extra-judicial killings in recent years, both during protests and security operations”. The situation, he said, “does not in any way fulfill minimal conditions for free and credible elections.”
A Supreme Court justice fled the country, protesting that Maduro “does not deserve a second chance because the election he supposedly won was not free and competitive.”
The Lima Group, an organization that includes 13 Latin American countries, refused to recognize Maduro as president. Nineteen countries of the Organization of American States followed suit. Britain and France both rejected the election results, while European Council president Donald Tusk asserted that, “Unlike Maduro, the parliamentary assembly, including Juan Guaidó have a democratic mandate from Venezuelan citizens.”
The EU says it will recognize Guaidó as president unless Maduro calls a “fair, free and transparent” election within eight days.
Yet Canada’s New Democrats are so blinded by their need to signal their dislike of the U.S. president that self-righteousness places higher on their priority list than the plight of millions of struggling Venezuelans.
If Donald Trump suddenly declared open borders for all Mexicans seeking to enter the U.S., would the NDP announce its opposition on the basis that anything Donald Trump is for, it’s against?
As it is, Singh, Ashton, Robinson et al find themselves allied with Russia, China, Turkey and the Venezuelan military in backing Maduro’s continuing right to torment his country. Hundreds of people have been jailed, political opponents banned, censorship imposed, protesters killed. Maduro remains propped up by force of arms and billions of dollars in aid from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The NDP seems OK with that. As long as they don’t have to be on the same side as Donald Trump.
Twitter.com/kellymcparland
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