Prime Minister Mark Carney will not be giving a major speech on foreign policy to the United Nations General Assembly when he visits New York next week.
Instead, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will address global leaders on the government’s behalf from the green marble podium.
On July 11, the UN issued a provisional speakers list which had Carney slated to speak the morning of Sept. 27. An updated list issued Sept. 5 says Anand is Canada’s delegate and will address the General Assembly on Sept. 29.
Carney’s office said he will be in New York from Sunday to Wednesday.
In a Friday news release, Carney’s office said the prime minister will take part in events at the UN about “efforts to stabilize the dire situation in Haiti,” the work Canada is doing to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, and the conflict in the Middle East.
He will also attend a summit on reforming financing for development projects as governments cut foreign aid and funding for climate adaptation.
“In a more dangerous and divided global landscape, Canada is strengthening our international partnerships to build prosperity and advance shared solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges,” says the news release.
Anand said Friday morning that while Canada will be formally recognizing Palestinian statehood at the UN, that won’t mean an immediate normalization of diplomatic ties or upgrading the Palestinian Authority’s delegation in Ottawa to a full embassy.
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“Recognition is binary. You either recognize or you do not,” Anand told reporters in Mexico City. “Normalization is a process, and the process of normalization involves increases in diplomatic relationships. It involves opening embassies.”
Anand said that while the process of normalizing ties with the Palestinian Authority will take place at Canada’s discretion, recognition must come now because various players in the region have made it harder to make Palestinian statehood a reality.
The government has said the Israeli government’s military campaign in Gaza and its policies targeting the Palestinian territories it occupies — coupled with Hamas violence — have destabilized the region.
“Given what is happening in Gaza, recognition now is extremely important and necessary because the viability of a two-state solution is eroding,” Anand said.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan tabled a private member’s bill Friday aimed at closing a “loophole” that allows the U.S. to buy some Canadian arms and send them abroad while bypassing some of Canada’s vetting protocols.
The bill, which is targeted mainly at preventing certain arms from reaching Israel, would also apply to some arms shipments bound for Saudi Arabia, she said.
“That loophole has become a back door to Canadian weapons, components and technologies. They cross the border unimpeded with no permits, no oversight and no reporting,” Kwan said Friday at a news conference on Parliament Hill.
The government insists it has banned exports of Canadian arms to Israel that could be used in Gaza, while permitting exports of arms and technology used to protect civilians, such as rockets or circuit boards for the Iron Dome missile shield.
Activists say the restrictions are not tight enough and dozens of senators have been demanding more clarity.
“The Liberal government has given Canadians half-truths and empty promises about arms exports to Israel,” Kwan said.
Alex Paterson of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East said the vote on Kwan’s bill will decide whether Canada is “committed to a rules-based international order” or is “a sidekick to two far-right states, willing to arm them no matter what the body count.”
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