Refugees and Foreign Affairs

Winnipeg, Manitoba – September 5, 2021 - The refugee crisis in Europe suddenly hits home to most Canadians with the release of the photo of the dead child Aylan Kurdi. It is time for us to acknowledge the folly of our foreign policy. The government responding to the media questions claim the solution is more than just accepting refugees. While that is true, the solution is not as simple as the war against ISIS. The crisis was years in the making as our allies supported dictatorial regimes thinking they were friendly regimes that would uphold their interests in those countries and regions. At this point in time, it is increasingly difficult to introduce open and real democracy in those countries. A real democracy, that is free from corruption, would have prevented the emergence of ever worsening extremism. Extremism that has now turned those nations into uninhabitable places, where mothers and children would rather risk their lives escaping by sea than to suffer another day in their fallen country.

We should stop supporting dictatorial regimes no matter where they are. Our government has turned a blind eye to the plight of the Egyptians in deference to the authoritarian regime there. Among its many victims was one of our own, journalist Mohamed Fahmy[1]. We sell arms to the Saudis [2] and until recently we were silent on Russia’s persecution of dissenters [3]. All these cases show that when we don’t deal with dictatorships at their earliest stages, we create a malignant regimes that supports terrorism [4] and causes its countries, and the world to suffer from their transgressions.

We must immediately work to introduce democracy, not the type that we have right now, but a democracy that is free from corruption, unlike that in Iraq. A democracy with real Open Government is the only form of democracy that will prevent corruption that turned so many countries with rich resources into nations where their citizens suffer from abject poverty. If we want to neutralize ISIS and whatever worse succession that will follow it, we need to give the persecuted people hope through genuine democratic reform.

Following World War II, the world came together to rebuild Germany and Japan and prevent them from becoming failed states. A fate Germany experienced after World War I that allowed Hitler’s popularity to rise [5]. The world needs to come together. That can never be achieved when our leaders use war as the only solution. Refugee families like that of Aylan Kurdi, who washed ashore on a Turkish beach, whose application for refugee status was turned down even though a Canadian family had offered to take them in through private sponsorship. We live in one world and we have to work together to fix this problem which has been decades in the making. We need to act soon. But no one country can tackle this problem alone. The world will be a better place if we have a policy of zero tolerance for despotic regimes and do not engage in business with them. What can be done? Be resolute in seeing to their demise. Be generous in rebuilding their country, and introduce a corruption resistant Open Government [6]. A genuine Open Government must be introduced not only in Canada but around the world.

Media Contacts: pr (at) pirateparty.ca

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[1] http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mohamed-fahmy-2-other-al-jazeera-journalists-sentenced-to-3-years-in-prison-1.3208392

[2] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-arms-deal-with-saudi-arabia-shrouded-in-secrecy/article22547765/

[3] https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/pussy-riot-leader-canadian-connection-evokes-call-government-181409700.html

[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-yousaf-butt-/saudi-wahhabism-islam-terrorism_b_6501916.html

[5] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/09/14/140419140/the-economic-catastrophe-that-germany-cant-forget

[6] http://www.uclalawreview.org/the-benefits-of-a-big-tent-opening-up-government-in-developing-countries/