Canada under Conservative rule

Somewhere, packed inside a plastic container in a store unit near Toronto, there's a box of my photographs. You know the kind — goofy poses, sightseeing snaps, formal portraits from formal occasions.

And there's one I cherished. Used to be proud of it, not so much now.

It's me, in a grey suit — my wife says the shirt collar button should have been done up (it wasn't) — the day I became a Canadian citizen. It's me holding my new certificate of citizenship and I'm pictured with a Mountie — wide-brimmed black and gold hat, full red serge jacket — looking something straight from an Eddie Nelson movie.

The Mounties always get their men, and they got one happy newly-minted Canadian with a wide smile and a proud heart.

I used to be sooooo proud of that photo — not because of the grey suit and the ill-fitting shirt, but because of what it stood for. Me, a new citizen in Canada, a country that gives many from around the world a new start, new opportunities, a new lease on life.

If you look at most appointment sections or career ads in newspapers in the English-speaking world — outside of North America, that is — they are choc-a-bloc full of adverts for immigrating to Canada. Having taken that option myself more than 20 years ago, I know full well their appeal.

But Canada has changed. And not for the better either. It used to be known as a nation that was open-minded, receptive to diverse peoples, welcoming of differing opinions.

Back to my wife for a minute. Shortly after the Palestinian National Authority was set up, she was fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks in the Gaza Strip, covering the first tentative steps of independence.

It wasn't really independent: Israel would open and close the borders at will, cut off power, turn off water as it saw fit, with most of the water going to irrigate and supply the few colonies it had there then.

Her guide and adviser for most of the fortnight was also Canadian, a UN employee named Ron Wilkinson. (In one of those ‘it's a small world' moments, it turns out she went to college with his son, Jeff. Sorry, I digress.)

After the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the boundary between Egypt and Israel was redrawn in 1982. Some 5,000 Palestinian refugees were stranded on the Egyptian side of the line and were unable to get back to Gaza.

Landing rights

They were in a desperate place — Camp Canada — and they believed that they would be repatriated back within six months. Not the case. They were stuck for years there, and it was only through exhaustive efforts from Canadian government officials and UNRWA, that the situation was resolved — although not finally until 2001.

In essence, Canada has always been a friend to Palestinians and the Palestinian cause.

Sadly, that's not the case under the current Conservative government in power in Ottawa at the moment.

This is the same government, mind you, that has also dug its heels in by refusing for the past six years to grant more landing rights for both Emirates and Etihad. The two UAE carriers are limited to three flights a week each to Toronto only. There's an open skies policy in effect in Canada, but the government still refuses to allow more landing slots or to let the UAE airlines fly into Montreal, Vancouver or Calgary.

But back to the Palestinians. Palestine was overwhelmingly approved for membership of Unesco, the United Nations cultural body earlier this week during its annual conference in Paris. Its application was approved overwhelmingly by a vote of 107-14. There were 52 abstentions.

Canada, I'm not so proud to tell you, was one of the 14 nations who voted against Palestine.

And sadly, when Palestine's application for full recognition at the UN General Assembly comes up this month, Canada will be voting against it. I guess the powers that be in Ottawa are too obsessed with keeping in lockstep with their American neighbours and keeping onside with the Israeli lobby.

If Ottawa were a patient, its diagnosis would be that it's suffering from spinal atrophy and political amnesia.

And until such a time as the Conservatives hang on on to the reins of power, there's no cure. Just migraines for the rest of us.

That photograph of the Mountie and me will be in the storage box for a long time more.