The view from Canada: “The old, grey Commonwealth ain’t what it used to be”
Posted by AlexT - 20/10/09 at 12:10 pmA Canadian journalist, Doug Saunders, has written for the Globe and Mail about the Commonwealth’s relevance to Canada. He certainly doesn’t pull his punches.
“It no longer means anything to us, for a very good reason: It no longer does anything for us.
As the Commonwealth celebrates its 60th birthday in London, the Canadian government is doing everything it can to distance itself from this awkward, enormous, ill-defined organization.”
He goes on…
“Today, the 450 million citizens of European Union nations have the right to live in Britain, work there and settle there as full citizens, without so much as filling out a form. Canada, as a Commonwealth member, has tight visa restrictions. And if you’re from Nigeria or Sri Lanka, you’ll have a hard time even visiting Britain or Canada.”
And to conclude…
“…today, when more important organizations have eclipsed it, there is a problem: If it changes itself to become “relevant,” ending its cozy but meaningless clubby status, it will become a challenge to the more valuable relationships its members already hold.
Any effort to give it a purpose will rip it apart. Sixty years after its creation put an end to the colonial era, it might just be time to say farewell.”
A damning indictment from Canada. But is it accurate? The 100-plus comments underneath the article seem to suggest it is. Surely some of our readers will be able to answer Saunders’ question: what does the Commonwealth do for you?
Category : The Commonwealth's Relevance
Tags: Canada, Commonwealth
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October 23rd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I object to the title ‘The View from Canada’. It should be ‘A View from Canada’ because it does not reflect many positions expressed here. Most Canadians are very appreciative of the Commonwealth and its potential. Saying ‘The View’ means that this is the official position of Canadians and the Candian Government, and it certainly is not. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is very enthusiastic about the Commonwealth and is a staunch monarchist.
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I would say the current Canadian government is quite supportive of the Commonwealth and, espcially the Crown. There is no support in Canada to the idea that the Head of Commonwealth can be anybody but the Sovereign. (It’s the Crown or nothing.)In fact, we have two Royal tours in the next few months and the Prime Minister is a self-proclaimed Monarchist. Canadians feel more hurt than angry about real & perceived U.K. slights. And most so-called republicans are simply asking the question, ‘Are we benefitting from this now that the UK is in the EU? and countries such as Australia seem to prefer relationships with the US to us. As for the rest of the Commonwealth, Canadians would love greater economic and trade ties, but for some time the British Government has been downplaying the importance of Commonwealth ties in favour of the US and EU ties. In short, Canadians would like to see the relationships restored and strengthened, but are growing pessimsitic after so many disappointments. I suspect this is true in other Commonweath countries, such as Australia, who wonder just what the benefits are. This situation could easily be turned around and it is my hope that the UK will soon have a government which values its ties with Canada and the rest of the Commonwealth. Labour never has. (Except in Churhill’s day, when Sikhs, Aussie and Canucks save the UK’s butt.That has also been forgotten in the UK.)
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Not that I agree with it, but the article does raise the question of how relevant the Commonwealth is to each country. In New Zealand we’ve traditionally been very close to Britain but our government seems to care more about economic relationships with Asia and Australia than the rest of the Commonwealth. It’a only coincidence that some of our biggest trading partners are Australia, Britain and Malaysia. Governments are more interested in short-term economic benefits than their heritage and connections to other Commonwealth states. The Commonwealth may need to take on an EU style relationship, with freer immigration and economic policies, if not the whole Commonwealth than the states still ruled by the Queen (ie Canada, Jamaica, Australia). The Commonwealth has over 50 states, many of them economic powerhouses, which can work together for the benefit of all Commonwealth states, a union of states with shared values and heritage, which all look to the same goals.
October 24th, 2009 at 12:27 am
I enjoyed reading Mr Saunders article as a journalist, he pulled no punches to be sure, in his view points on Canada & our relationship with the Commonwealth. Most Canadians that I speak too, view the Commonwealth as a neat, and yet archaic institution of yesteryear. I support the commonwealth as I feel it is still relevant even in this post-modern age. That being said, it must be more ”visible” to the modern world, and it’s role define to the public in general, rather staid old ways. I also recommend it’s logo needs to be modernized to reflect today’s society as it looks rather ”dated” in appearance. I support membership to Republic of Ireland (Eire) and also, Palestine-Israel to part of the Commonwealth family as well. Finally, I think a more more discussions need to be talked about in regards to a free trade commonwealth zone, as I think it would be very influential to the organization as a whole, ie. everybody benefits from it’s prosperity. Happy Birthday to our Commonwealth family! ”Cheers”!
October 24th, 2009 at 12:44 am
42% of the people in the Commonwealth, which is 800 million people, live on $1 a day or less. Freedom of movement within the Commonwealth is nothing more than fantasy. And while it is noble to think of the charitable opportunities it is not a burden that should be shouldered by the richer countries nor a benefit enjoyed by the poorer countries of the Commonwealth alone. There are bigger more economically powerful organizations trying to figure out how relationships between richer and poorer countries can be improved for the benefit of all.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Commonwealth, like the UN, is where the members address the human rights violations of countries of their choice. All human rights violators are not treated alike. If the oppressors are clever enough they can keep their cases off the table. The best example is Sri Lanka. When i.political and economic oppression began as soon as independence was granted, ii.periodic state-sponsored pogroms were unleashed on the Tamils in 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, iii.a draconian PTA/ER were mercilessly erasing Tamil villages with impunity by armed forces and ”disappearances” following arbitrary arrests have been going on in tens of thousands and iv. nearly a million Tamils have been fleeing the country in the last fifty years, what has the Commonwealth been saying? Leave alone doing. We needn’t have gone through the violent struggle for justice. What has been happening since the Tigers were crushed in mid-May shows that the government was interested in erasing the struggle just as it sent an army of occupation in the early 60s when massive civil disobedience was launched by the Tamils. Pogroms were unleashed when the Tamil parliamentarians sat in satyagraha(non-violent sit-in in 1956 and decided in an annual convention to launch a massive civil disobedience. What did the successive Sri Lankan governments tell the Tamils? You cannot have peaceful struggle for justice. You cannot have armed struggle for justice. The whole of the highly militarised Northeast has been cut off from the rest of the country and thus from the rest of the world as the only airport to go out of the island is in Colombo. In the last three years Tamils trying to flee across the Palk Strait have been tackling the very hostile Navy. The sea creatures have many tales to tell on this.The media have been barred from the highly militarised Northeast. Thosadns of abduction-murders of the last three years and previous years of decades go uninvestigated. Hundreds of thousands of IDPs have been languishing in camps all over Northeast. But in the lasteighteen months the IDPs coming out of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu have been held compulsorily in camps without access for media and restrictdaccess for aid agencies. Most unreasonable is that the Sri Lankan government forced ICRC to close its offices in the East and negotiations are going on to keep the offices in the North to keep functioning. ICRC has no access to the nearly 10,000 suspected LTTE cadres and their relatives don’t know where they are being kept. Last month the Chairman of National Peace Council travelled to Jaffna and found that it is still an open prison. Sri Lanka is one of the worst places in the world for journalists and aid workers. There is a lot more to say. Any squeaks from the Commonwealth? The credit goes to the expert damage control exercise of successive Sri Lankan governments and the absence of a mechanism for representing the oppressed around the world at intergovernmental bodies.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Baroness Glenys Kinnock, Britain’s Minister of State with responsibility for the Commonwealth, has responded today in the Globe and Mail to Doug Saunder’s piece…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/therell-always-be-a-commonwealth/article1352926/
What do you think?
November 9th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
The lack of interest in the Commonwealth is all the UK’s fault. If they had not completely turned their backs on the Commonwealth to embrace Europe, their would still be a lot of support for the Commonwealth around the world. The British Government has a lot to answer for and needs to wake up and change its attitude.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
So much of the above is true. It is quite disgraceful that a global poll carried out in the summer by the Royal Commonwealth Society reported that \In general, of the countries polled, the Commonwealth was least valued in Great Britain\.
A good start for the UK would be to include the Commonwealth in the Geography GCSE syllabus in schools. How can it be ignored in modules on Globalisation and the Development Gap for instance?. In the new AQA Geography A syllabus, the EU features in them, as does China, but the Commonwealth has been \global\ for decades. How can the powers that be ignore the fact that the Commonwealth is made up of almost twice as many countries as the EU and has over 3 times as many people (30% of the world’s population), particularly given that it is a “growing association of states working to promote democracy and good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law, as well as sustainable environmental, economic and social development”?
We must make sure that this Commonwealth Conversation continues until the Commonwealth is back in its rightful place in the world.
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March 2nd, 2012 at 9:49 pm
YOU ”YELLOW CANADIAN PIECES OF SHIT”-HAMILTON POLICE FORCE-HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, DISLOYAL NOT ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE-CANADA WIDE, ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE-CALEDONIA, ONTARIO, CANADA, PEDOPHILE SATELLITE OPERATORS-CHILD MOLESTERS-LOWDENS-BINBROOK, ONTARIO, CANADA, PHALENS-BINBROOK AND ST.CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA, VANDENBERGS-BINBROOK AND CALEDONIA, ONTARIO, CANADA, HILLYARDS-WEST HAMILTON MOUNTAIN CALEDONIA, ONTARIO, CANADA, ASSOCIATES, CANADIAN GOVERNMENT-POLITICIANS, CANADIAN SUPREME JUSTICE SYSTEM, CANADIAN ”COWARD” FORCES-REGULAR FORCE/RESERVES, DID IT TO THE COMMONWEALTH!!!!!! YOU ”CANADIAN COWARDS MENTIONED, HAVE YOUR COUNTRY OF CANADA AND COMMONWEALTH LIVING IN ”HIGH TREASON AND ESPIONAGE” FROM 1998-ERA TO THE PRESENT DAY-FEBRUARY 2012!!! YOU COWARDS HAVE THE WHOLE WORLD GOSSIPPING ABOUT THIS COWARDICE AND YOUR ALLIED MILITARIES ARE BEING ”FORCED” TO SERVE IN COMBAT OPERATIONAL AREAS WHILE BEING ESPIONAGED!!!! YOUR Q.E.II WAS HERE VISITING CANADA IN 2010 AND YOU-CANADA WERE LIVING IN ”HIGH TREASON”!!! IF THAT IS NOT HYPOCRITICAL, THEN HAVE A R.C.M.P., HONOUR GUARD SALUTING THE QUEEN AND OPENING THE DOOR FOR HER IS AS CANADIAN HAS IT GETS!!! YOU ”CANADIAN COWARDS” MENTIONED ABOVE WANT YOUR CIVILIANS GOSSIPPING ABOUT THIS COWARDICE; AND AGREEING WITH THE ”COWARDS” MENTIONED ABOVE COMMITTING ”HIGH TREASON AND ESPIONAGE”!!! NO WONDER OUR ALLIED MILITARIES HAVE NO RESPECT FOR ”CANADA”!!! YOU CANADIAN PUNKS MENTIONED ARE GOING TO HAVE Q.E.II/THE ROYAL FAMILY ”HIGH TREASONED UNTIL THEY ARE ”DECEASED”; WHICH IS AS ”YELLOW AS YOU CANADIAN PIECES OF SHIT ARE”!!!!
YOUR ALLIED MILITARIES WHICH YOU ARE SPYING-ESPIONAGE ON, MUST BE SICK OF YOUR ”CANADIAN COWARDICE”!!! EVERYBODY THAT IS COHERENT IN THE COMMONWEALTH, IS AWARE OF YOUR CANADIAN PUNKS GAMES!!! IF YOU ”YELLOW CANADIAN ASSHOLES” DO NOT HAULT THIS CANADIAN COWARDICE;YOUR CANADIAN HYPOCRISCY WILL NOT BE WELCOME ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!!
IT IS TIME TO ”PAY THE PIPER” YOU CANADIAN COWARDS MENTIONED, OR CIVILIANS WORLD WIDE WILL BE INFECTED FOREVER!!!!
FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II/THE ROYAL FAMILY, ALLIED MILITARIES-NATO EX-CLUDING THE CANADIAN ”COWARD” FORCES, I REMAIN Brian ”THE LION” Murza-R33894777, W.W.II Naval Researcher/Author, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.