Human Rights

These subcategories reflect a review of major themes in story content. Human Rights includes: Foreign Affairs, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Immigration and Refugees, Aboriginal Affairs

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Human Rights

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wdt_ID	Details	Author	Date of Publication	Media Outlet	Title	Category Name	Story summary
1	More details	Jeff Sallot	20/11/1984	Globe and Mail	No policy opinions, diplomats told; Gag order tougher than first thought	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	Canada's diplomats have been forbidden to express personal opinions about government policies and actions to reporters, even in social conversations. The order appears to be broader than was acknowledged last week by External Affairs Minister Joe Clark, who tried to keep the text secret, saying all he wanted to do was to prevent leaks of erroneous information that might injure diplomatic relations. Clark said reporters could not expect him to release the directive because it is an ''internal document." The Globe had already filed for release of the document under the ATIA, and it was formally released yesterday.
2	More details	Alex Binkley		Canadian Press	Whelan dumped despite backing	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	External Affairs minister Joe Clark ignored the recommendation of his own officials when he decided to cancel Eugene Whelan’s appointment as Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, documents marked confidential and obtained by CP through the ATI Act show (yet heavily censored). It was assumed that Liberal then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s office devised the appointment as a reward for Whelen, a staunch Trudeau supporter. Yet there was never any question of Whelan’s credentials.
3	More details	Jeff Sallot	29/07/1985	Globe and Mail	Soviet subs suspected, patrols still cut Unknown in Arctic worries Ottawa	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	The voyage early next month of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea through the Northwest Passage is not as big a concern for Canadian strategic planners as is the possibility of Soviet submarine activity in the Arctic. More worrisome for Canada's military is what is not known for sure, but is suspected about Soviet submarine voyages near and beneath the polar icecap and around the scores of straits in the Canadian Arctic archipelago. In fact, the ''priority task" of the long-range northern air patrols conducted by the Canadian Forces is ''the detection of military violations," declassified defence documents say. A heavily censored Department of National Defence report on the Northern Patrol Program, released under provisions of the ATIA, says there was a major shift in thinking about the threat to Canadian sovereignty in the North in 1978.
4	More details	Bob Hepburn	12/11/1985	Toronto Star	Canadians see hunger, peace as top issues facing world	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	Most Canadians believe Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is wrong to push economic issues - notably freer trade - as our top foreign policy priority, a secret government poll indicates. World poverty, hunger and the arms race are the top foreign policy concerns for an overwhelming majority of Canadians. The survey was conducted July 9-16 by Decima Research Ltd., the private polling firm used by Mulroney. It was obtained by The Star from external affairs department files, and shows very few Canadians believe the Progressive Conservative government was listening to their concerns.
5	More details	David Vienneau	24/04/1986	Toronto Star	Laws fail to stop embassy attacks 1981 report says	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	Canada's laws are inadequate to protect foreign embassies and consulates from "demonstrations, attacks or occupations," according to a 1981 document obtained by The Toronto Star under the ATIA. It says existing Criminal Code provisions covering unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, riots and disturbances of the peace are inadequate. The paper says failure to take action could expose the government to protests, "seriously damage our relations" with foreign countries and possibly lead to non-democratic governments "orchestrating retaliations" against Canadian embassies abroad. It suggested amending the Criminal Code to adopt an American law that prohibits all demonstrations from taking place within 152 metres of diplomatic premises
6	More details	Jeff Sallot	03/12/1986	Globe and Mail	Approval of envoy took four months, documents reveal	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	Officials in the Department of External Affairs deliberated for almost four months before approval was given to the Sri Lankan Government to send Brig.- Gen. Tissa Weeratunga to Canada as high commissioner. It apparently took an unusual length of time because of concerns about his background in the military, censored documents obtained via the ATIA by The Globe suggest. He is alleged by Tamil groups to have supervised the torture of Tamil insurgents in 1979, when he was a senior military officer in charge of operations in northern Sri Lanka. Gen. Weeratunga, who took up his diplomatic post in Ottawa last spring, has denied the allegations. Records show the Sri Lankan Government asked Canadian approval on Oct. 3, 1985, to send Gen. Weeratunga as high commissioner. Normally, such requests are approved quickly as a matter of routine protocol.
7	More details	Robert Matas	13/12/1986	Globe and Mail	External Affairs tried to discourage Sikh studies plan	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	Documents obtained under the ATIA reveal that an External Affairs official believed a federal grant for a chair in Punjabi literature and Sikh Studies at the University of British Columbia would be misunderstood by the Government of India. Spokesmen for Canada's Sikh community, who have not yet received an official response to their request in June, 1985, said in interviews this week that Ottawa was allowing a foreign Government to determine domestic multiculturalism policies.
8	More details	Staff	03/02/1987	The Province (Vancouver)	Ottawa not asked	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	The Pentagon has not asked for Canadian permission to test a new generation of cruise missiles, Defense Minister Perrin Beatty said yesterday. He denied the suggestion by NDP MP Pauline Jewett who referred to headings for a series of briefing notes obtained through the ATIA by the anti-war group Project Ploughshares that indicate notes on a U.S. proposal for new cruise tests had been submitted to Beatty’s office. On listing, dated April 21, 1986, refers to tests of “the AGM 129 advanced cruise missile.”
9	More details	Richard Cleroux	23/04/1987	Globe and Mail	Report says diplomats weak in languages	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	Canada's diplomats are not nearly well enough trained in the languages of their host countries, says an internal report based on a study conducted for the Department of External Affairs. As a result Canada's ability to compete in foreign markets and gain the attention and confidence of foreign governments has been weakened, it warns. It adds that the foreign language training at External Affairs compares unfavorably with programs for diplomats from Britain, Germany, and the U.S. Even the Department of National Defence, which teaches 15 foreign languages, is given higher marks and is held up as an example for External Affairs to follow. The study was conducted by the evaluation division of the department's corporate management bureau, and obtained by The Globe under the ATIA
10	More details	Staff	24/04/1987	Canwest News	Beach Bummer	FOREIGN AFFAIRS	It’s bad news for Canadian beach bums looking for a year-round place in the sun. A previously classified study by the external affairs department kicks sand in the face of a proposal to annex the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. It says such a political or economic association with the cluster of some 30 islands would be too expensive, could lead to racial tension, and could hurt Canada’s reputation in the region and the UN. The report written for the external affair minister was obtained by CP under the ATIA.
		Author	Date of Publication	Media Outlet