Fire Sale

A myriad of emotions coursed through me as I watched the ambassador from Burkina Faso take her seat at the Foreign Affairs Committee table, accompanied by her Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Yoda. This was the same fearless woman who served as the able spokesperson for the 17 African ambassadors who arrayed themselves in front of the same committee last year and pleaded with Canada, CIDA in particular, to reverse its decision to pull long-term development aid out of their respective countries (see The Day Africa Invaded Canada).Both the ambassador and the minister put on a clear show of restraint, even though Canada’s abandonment of their struggling country still stings.  They didn’t have to remind the committee that Burkina Faso is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 177 out of 182 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index. Some 81% of the population continues to live on less than $2 a day.  Despite such challenges, the country’s government has brought about serious democratic change and has shown itself capable of bringing responsible representation to their population.But if it was déjà vu for me, it must have been a recurring nightmare for the ambassador. Once again she was stonewalled as she stressed the need for Canada to stay true to her country, as it historically had since its independence in the sixties. When I asked the Foreign Affairs Minister how his country was coping as a result of the CIDA cuts, I could hear a snort across the way. This was a direction the government members clearly didn’t want to take.  The Bloc and NDP members had similar queries. When the government’s turn came, it moved into lecture mode and reminded the witnesses just how much Canada had done for their country. One even had the gall to observe that in one particular fund Canada had increased aid from $10 million to $15 million. Naturally, he didn’t mention how CIDA had removed many times that from its overall aid budget to the African nation.Composing themselves, the two witnesses pleaded with Canada again to view their country as a partner for business and economy, not just aid development. Special concern was raised that rumours had been circling that the Canadian embassy was about to be closed down. Despite a veiled assurance for the Canadian government, they remain dubious.As well they should. Profoundly aware of how Canada has abandoned Africa to its own devices, they knew one particular statistic that put it all in perspective: Africa has some 53 embassies in Ottawa, whereas Canada has only 13 on the entire continent. There once used to be many, but that was in the day when this country had purposed itself to lift African nations out of poverty and to establish constructive trading relationships with the resource-rich populations.It was all just sad to witness these two brave folks offering compelling arguments to a government that has already said au revoir. In a last attempt at reason, they reminded the government that it was Burkina Faso who had assisted in the release of the two Canadian diplomats last year and that they had willingly assisted with this after they had been cut by CIDA.Fire sales are going on all over Africa as this present government liquidates much of its holdings in favour of greener pastures in Latin America.  I saw the ambassador in the Chateau Laurier lobby this evening. She has resigned herself to the fact that she’ll get no advantage or fairness from Canada at present. But she committed herself to continually coming to Parliament to remind us all that, though we might have betrayed an historic friendship, they have not forsaken us.  This is what makes Africans such a remarkable people and why most of us the committee felt so ashamed.