>From Ottawa Workfare Watch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information about this see: http://www.comnet.ca/~gilseg/rights.htm Canadian officials duck UN Questions Human rights committee accused Canadians of stonewalling queries on poverty, justice By Aileen Mc Cabe GENEVA- A Canadian delegation stonewalled, ducked questions and was as unco-operative as witnesses from undeveloped countries, says the committee examining Canada's compliance with the social, economic and cultural covenant of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "I say poor Canada. Canada deserves better that this" Said committee member Mahmund Ahmed, a retired Egyptian ambassador. "I don't think(the delegation) is doing justice to Canada" He said. The delegation, led by the Canadian ambassador for disarmament, Mark Moher, and including officials from the departments of justice, immigration and heritage, said they were being "as co-operative and forthcoming as possible." But after two days of questioning that ended yesterday, members of the United Nations committee were astounded by what Mr. Ahmend called the "stonewalling". When asked his opinion. another committee member Arirranga Pillay, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Muritius, said: "I haven't been satisfied with the answers. There's a lot of waffling and sometimes you get the impression that they don't want to answer. When they are cornered they just move on and that is it. Maybe, they haven't done their homework properly or they are embarrassed at answering the obvious, which is there is a great deal of poverty in Canada and yet it is such a rich country." Another committee member, Panama's Oscar Ceville, said the only time the committee had encountered such unco-operative witnesses was "with some undeveloped countries" John Foster, a University of Saskatchewan law professor who was in Geneva to convince the committee to question Canada on the human rights implications of the now-defunct Multilateral Agreement on Investments, said in a an interview that he was embarrassed by Canada's showing. "Even thought we're fighting (the Canadian government delegation) in some ways , there is a certain national pride in looking good". He said. Committee chairmen, Australian history professor Philip Alston, evaluated the Canadian performance saying: "of all the groups we've heard in the last week (Germany, Israel and Cyprus) there is a much greater level of generally not acknowledging any particular problems, giving answers that could be applied to any state." He said the committee was being fobbed-off with replies that consisted of phrases like "this is under review", "a study is underway" and consultations are ongoing" It was left, he said, with a "a pile of generalities" from Canada, not answers. Mr. Moher was clearly furious with the criticism and refuted the claim, but Mr. Alston was not swayed. "Let me take up your challenge Mr. Ambassador", he drawled, and then proceeded to list a series of questions Canada had ducked, dodged or otherwise not answered. The committee members had been thoroughly briefed by Canadian pressure groups, socially active non-government organizations (NGOs) and over nine hours of hearing they asked questions that would leave many a Canadian cringing. They queried the high levels of poverty across the country. They put specific emphasis on poverty amoung women and asked about the effect that had on children. They honed in on the growing instance of homelessness, quoting lamentable facts and figures. They poked freely at some of the worst skeletons in Canada's closet, too, things like the conditions of native people on and off reserves and the general levels of literacy. After the heavy criticism of the delegation, Mr.Moher and his team appeared to change tactics for the last few hours of questioning. They moved from "generalities" to reciting just about every federal program on the books that might possibly address the problems under the microscope. The tactic didn't find favour. Exasperated, French committee member Philippe Textier quipped: "From these replies I get the impression we are being shown the woods, not the trees." The committee is expected to release its report on how well Canada is complying with the UN's social, economic and cultural covenant next Friday and there is little doubt now it will be scathing. While annoyance with the Canadian delegation's replies may have hardened attitudes, the negative evaluation will have more to do with the federal government's focus on deficit-cutting since 1995 and the affect it has had on social spending. The federal government will certainly regret the embarrassment if it receives a failing UN grade, but the committee has no power to make it change policy or policy direction. Still, activists like Jacquie Ackerly, spokeswoman for the National Anti -poverty Organization, says the report is likely to make a difference because "it will give poor people and the NGO's that work with them something to work with, something to use in civil society to bring our case farther forward" Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
