Good First Sunday Morning of September!
Apologies for this abrupt start, perhaps before you have your morning coffee! The deadline for signing my petition, described below, is 9:20 am BC time, 12:20 ET!! Please go here and sign (details at end of this letter!)
It is time for “back to school!” For me, Back to Parliament (on September 15)! And for my baby granddaughter Lily, a gradual introduction to day care! Thank heavens my daughter Cate and her partner won the lottery of rare access to good day care! Lily was given a rare spot in the BC/Canada $10/day child care! As my daughter’s mat leave comes to an end tomorrow, the news was such a relief! Cate is an educator and I am so proud of her. Some of you may know that as a single mom, I did not qualify for maternity leave. When Cate was born in 1991, I was on a part-time contract with the Sierra Club of Canada. As Executive Director since 1989, I knew, even better than our board of directors, that there was no money to replace my salary (then $24K a year) much less to find money for a competent replacement. We already had a “baby in the office policy” – initially to encourage moms home on mat leave to bring their babies and volunteer in our bustling office. It has always struck me as so bizarre that North American society has a routine assumption that the best place for a new mother and infant is to be home alone. Social isolation is the worst thing for a new mom. I could barely survive on the few days I tried it. How to even have a shower? Where to put the baby? I ended up going back to work when Cate was 14 days old. The day before, I had received a request from the staff of the minister responsible for Parks. My Sierra Club team phoned me in a bit of a panic, “what do we tell her?” I said “Just let her know that I can be there as long as she does not mind if I bring a 14-day old baby with me.” What a treat! The minister was Progressive Conservative Pauline Browse – still a friend and champion of creating the Rouge – our first national urban park. When I went to her office, there was a baby blue box from Birks on her desk – a lovely nursery night light! So sweet of her! As anti-nuclear champion Helen Caldicott always said, “When you are speaking or lobbying – bring a baby! If you do not have one, borrow one!” No doubt the best lobbying trick ever. As for my awareness of the weird North American cultural perspective, due to our efforts at Sierra Club forming partnerships with NGOs in the Global South, we often had visitors from Latin America and India. As activists entered our office, stepping over baby toys, they often exclaimed “Oh! This is the first office we have seen in Canada with babies! This feels just like home!!”
Until we got the news of child care in late August, I was beginning to panic for Cate. The elementary school where she taught last year has lots of teachers with new babies, but there is (apparently) no way the system could allow a space for workplace child care. It has been part of Green Party policy for ages that every child has a right to high quality early education and child care, and preferably workplace child care. It spares frazzled parents from driving in one direction to day care and then driving in a different direction to work. Workplace childcare makes public transit for babies and parents so easy, not to mention the mountain of studies that workplace childcare enhances worker productivity and relieves parental stress.
I am so glad we are moving to province-by-province agreements for childcare, but this morning, let us pause and thank Ken Dryden, who passed away two days ago. As Paul Martin’s minister for families, Ken Dryden negotiated agreements with every province for universal, affordable child care. And the last Martin federal budget included the funding. Tragically, along with Kyoto and the Kelowna Accord, also firmly committed with funding and workable plans, all that was lost when Harper won his 2006 minority government.
This morning I am still reeling from the increased hostility of the Trump administration to international norms and the rule of law. The US is now denying visas to any holders of Palestinian passports.
As the BBC reported last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been blocked from attending the UN General Assembly session in New York in September, after he and 80 other Palestinian officials had their visas revoked – according to the US State Department. Not unprecedented. In 1988 the US denied a visa to Yasser Arafat, but still shocking as the world moves to recognize the state of Palestine.
Now that move has been expanded – reports say that the US suspends most visas for Palestinian passport-holders.
As more nations have announced their intention to recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, it is unprecedented for the US government to deny entry to the US. For critical multilateral sessions at the UN. This is especially the case when the nation about to step into a role in the world as a recognized state within the United Nations is the subject of the debate. When the United Nations was formed, no one could have imagined such a thing.
Back in 1960, at the height of the Cold War with nuclear weapons in place, a state of increased tensions prevailed around the insane concept of “mutually assured destruction”. Even then, the USA allowed the President of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, to enter the US to speak at the United Nations.
There was the famous story of Khrushchev banging his shoe on the desk, although when I searched for verification, it turns out there is more controversy about the truth of it. This bit of United Nations archival material seems to settle the matter!
But no one could have imagined the White House deciding to bar entry to the United Nations because it was on US Soil.
It has led me to wonder if we should not begin the process of moving the United Nations HQ to Montreal. It is a logical place, with many international large conference places available (such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the secretariats for the Biodiversity Convention and North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation.) Or maybe the United Nations belongs in Geneva with the Swiss being historically neutral? Still, logistically, Montreal is the most convenient. To avoid massive costs and dislocation, consulates, embassies and staffs could stay in New York and the General Assembly itself, as well as ECOSOC and other key organs of the UN could move to Montreal.
The idea does seem to have some support. I found this critique from Professor Rébar Jaff. In pursuing his opinion, I discovered the extraordinary story of Jaff family, escaping Iraq to Iran and as refugees allowed to come to Canada.
Rébar Jaff graduated with a BA in Political Studies and English Literature from the University of Manitoba in 2007. He is currently completing his PhD in Comparative Politics at the University of Ottawa. First joining the UN as an intern in 2007, he became a staff member in 2010. He is now a Political Affairs Officer and Secretary of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
He published this on line recently, “As someone who has worked with the United Nations and studied the intricate machinery of international diplomacy, I write this with conviction and urgency: It is time to move the UN Headquarters out of New York. And Canada—specifically the bilingual, globally minded cities of Ottawa or Montreal—offers the UN’s working languages and the right home for a new era of multilateralism.”
I think Canada’s government should start asking questions about the suitability of a global instrument for peace being located in a country that puts it at the mercy of a madman. Trump must not be allowed to decree who is allowed into the global community, by, quite literally, banishing them from the host nation.
And back to our nation… while the Prime Minister pronounces on his Canada first strategy, how can this be allowed to pass without notice? Note: PETITION deadline 9:20 am BC time today September 8!
“We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to order the Auditor General to conduct an independent, objective and systematic assessment of how well Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is managing its activities, responsibilities and resources; and prohibit AECL from issuing a contract to Nuclear Laboratories Partners of Canada, or any other private body, until the audit is complete and its results are made publicly available and discussed in Parliament.”
For now hoping all my dedicated readers can find a few more lovely late summer afternoons to relish in the glories of slightly less work! That all are safely away from fires, avoiding the health threats of wildfire smoke, able to take deep breathes, pause, reflect and re-energize. Back to Parliament! Yes, work for me, but for all of us!
Much love,
Elizabeth
P.S.: Breaking news.