Canada’s Commitment to Tolerance, Democracy, and the Rule of Law

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Canada’s Commitment to Tolerance, Democracy, and the Rule of Law
By Oleg Nekrassovski
Many Canadian policies affect other countries. But what are the key values that such policies
promote? As the present paper will strive to demonstrate, Canadian policies, that affect other
countries, tend to promote the values of tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law (Martin,
2010).
In 2001, Canadian forces landed in Afghanistan and began a campaign against the
Taliban, who were viewed as intolerant, authoritarian extremists; while simultaneously working
on establishing a more democratic government for Afghanistan. It soon became clear to
Canadian military and public officials that a new Afghani government, which they were working
on establishing, will require its own army if it were to remain in power unassisted. So Canada
became one of the first, among the NATO coalition forces, to adopt as a priority, the training and
mentoring of the new Afghan army (Lalani, 2010).
Consequently, Canadian operational mentor and liaison teams (OMLTs) managed to fully
train five brigades in Kandahar. In addition, a subsequent financing of this effort by the Canadian
government allowed a further training of 50,000 people for what came to be known as the
Afghan National Army. Moreover, the Canadian forces equipped this new army with modern
field weapons, uniforms, and other equipment (Lalani, 2010).
Also, in order to enforce the law in a country under a new, democratic regime, Canada
helped to establish a new Afghan police and became a leading contributor to the Law and Order
Trust Fund, which is responsible for the training and salaries of this new force (Lalani, 2010).

Canada’s promotion of tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law, is also evident in
Canada’s relationship with China. In one particular case, a Fujian businessman, named Lai
Changxing, stayed in Canada and did everything in his legal power to avoid being deported to
China, where he was wanted for criminal charges. And despite a specific request by the Chinese
government, to deport Changxing to China, the Canadian government did nothing, and instead
explained that by Canadian constitution, the Canadian government cannot interfere with the
proceedings of the, sometimes slow, Canadian court system (Houlden, 2010).
Also, Canada, unlike China, is highly supportive and tolerant of all democratic
movements including separatism. This has been most clearly demonstrated by the fact that
Canada was prepared to allow its own province (Quebec) to separate if the majority of the
residents of that province decided that this is what they wanted. Hence, it is not surprising that
through a unanimous vote in the House of Commons, the Dalai Lama, a leader of the separatist
forces of Tibet, was given an honorary Canadian citizenship. This move, of course, annoyed the
Chinese government, which views the Dalai Lama as a traitorous separatist, and hence, for all
practical purposes, a political criminal (Houlden, 2010).
China was even more angered when the Dalai Lama was received, in Canada, at the
Government House by the governor general and by the prime minister in his House of Commons
office as if he was a leader of another official state; and even by the fact that the flag of the
Tibetan “government-in-exile” was placed on the prime minister’s desk (Houlden, 2010).
A similar situation concerns China’s views on Canada’s relationship with Taiwan. China
considers Taiwan an inalienable part of its territory, which managed to illegitimately break away
from the Chinese state. Canada, however, again in virtue of its support for most forms of

separatism, saw nothing wrong with engaging in official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. These
relations, of course, clearly signified Canada’s official acknowledgement of Taiwan as an
independent state, and consequently enraged China (Ping, 2010).
But Canada’s relationship with China had its good times too. In the early 1960s, at the
height of USA’s war on communism, the officially communist China was struck by severe
famine. Canada decided to step in and help, and initiated Sino-Canadian wheat trade despite
great opposition from the United States, and despite the fact that it was a member of NATO, an
officially anti-communist military organization of Western countries (Ping, 2010).
Also, several years later, in 1970, with the war on communism still in full swing,
Canada’s then prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, made an iconic decision to establish diplomatic
relations with China. This made Canada one of the first Western countries to make an official
recognition of the People’s Republic of China (Ping, 2010).
Canada’s tolerance and democracy are also evident in its policies towards the various
wars waged by the United States. Unlike other allies of the United States, Canada was openly
opposed to the Vietnam War. And it even dared to provide refuge and protection to U.S. citizens
who were subjects to the associated conscription, but who did not want to take part in this war.
More recently, USA’s expectation that Canada would take part in, or at least support, the
invasion and occupation of Iraq, was firmly rejected by Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
(Brahimi, 2010).
Canada’s commitment to tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law, is even more evident
in its role in the United Nations. The first UN peacekeeping force, it turns out, was created in
1956 by Canada’s then Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson. Moreover, Canada took part in the

drafting of almost every major legal document produced by the United Nations, including the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Law of the Sea Treaty, the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, and even in the UN charter itself (Fréchette, 2010). And of course, Canada’s
overzealous involvement in countless UN peacekeeping missions, especially in the early 1990s,
is legendary. In fact, in the early 1990s, Canada quickly stretched its limited military resources to
their absolute limit by eagerly taking part in numerous peacekeeping operations all over the
world including those in Cambodia, Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia
(Fréchette, 2010).
In a related incident, Serbia, due to religious intolerance, engaged in a great abuse of
human rights of its citizens in Kosovo. Consequently, Canada saw it as its humanitarian duty to
stop them, and as a result took part in supporting NATO’s aerial bombings against Serb targets
(Fréchette, 2010). However, Canada, which was always strongly in favour of the rule of law in
international relations, was very concerned during this episode that NATO’s actions were not
authorized by UN’s Security Council. Consequently, Canada soon began to work hard in favour
of setting up, in the UN, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty,
which was finally set up in 1999 (Fréchette, 2010).

References
Martin, P. (2010). Canada and the Middle East. In F. O. Hampson, & P. Heinbecker (Eds.),
Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see us (pp. 195-201). Montreal &
Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Lalani, A. (2010). Canada and Afghanistan: Regaining the muscle-memory of leadership. In F.
O. Hampson, & P. Heinbecker (Eds.), Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see
us (pp. 202-209). Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Houlden, G. (2010). Canada-China relations: Growing connectivity and friction. In F. O.
Hampson, & P. Heinbecker (Eds.), Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see us
(pp. 122-131). Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Ping, M. (2010). Return to realism and restart the relationship. In F. O. Hampson, & P.
Heinbecker (Eds.), Canada among nations 2009-2010: As others see us (pp. 132-143).
Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Brahimi, L. (2010). Canada among [the United] Nations: A personal reflection. In F. O.
Fréchette, L. (2010). Canada at the United Nations: A shadow of its former self. . In F. O.

Canada’s Commitment to Tolerance, Democracy, and the Rule of Law

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