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The United Nations votes Liberal

By Kevin Steel ⋅ July 3, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The UN wants Canada to get on with implementing the previous government’s child care agenda

The UN may be slow to act when it comes to stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons development or halting the Sudanese genocide, but meddling in Canadian politics? For that, the UN has lots of time, judging by a pronouncement that urged the federal Conservative government not to abandon the former governments’ nationalized day-care plan.

On May 19, the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights wrapped up its spring session with a report insisting Ottawa “take into consideration the right to work of women and the need of parents to balance work and family life, by supporting their care choices through adequate child care services.”

Given the affection the last government had for the UN, perhaps it’s not surprising that the world body seems eager to push a Liberal party policy. What’s odd is that the UN session, which began on May 8, barely touched on child care at all. Only one unnamed “expert” (as the UN calls them) noted in passing that Canada had experienced “regression . . . with regards to poverty, housing, social assistance benefits and childcare.” That was it. Meanwhile, the committee didn’t seem nearly as concerned about the fact that the other countries covered in the report–Monaco, Liechtenstein, Mexico and Morocco–don’t offer state-run day care either.

The last time child care in Canada was raised before a UN body was on Sept. 17, 2003, when the Committee on the Rights of the Child heard from Liberal Senator Landon Pearson, who gave a glowing report on the then Liberal government’s grandiose national day-care program. The UN commission did not respond to inquiries requesting the names of the experts behind the report, or an explanation of how they drew their conclusions.

But the unusual intrusion into Canadian affairs doesn’t surprise Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women Canada, a women’s group that favours the Conservative policy of day-care allowances. She’s certain “someone has tipped [the UN committee] off that this is a political issue in Canada,” prompting members to weigh in on the issue. The reason? Although the committee’s recommendations aren’t enforceable “they are used as a propaganda tool or a platform by people back home to promote their agendas,” says Landolt. She predicts the report will give ammunition to the Liberals to claim that the UN is against the Conservative program, and favours the centrally planned system–even if Canadian voters don’t.

[This article appeared in the July 3, 2006 issue of the Western Standard.]