OTTAWA—Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly took aim Monday at divisive political leaders who “weaponize” the word freedom in a speech to the United Nations that was one-part foreign policy, one-part domestic politics, and one-part personal positioning.
Joly delivered Canada’s formal address to the 79th UN general assembly in New York just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a series of meetings there. In it she underscored the Liberal government’s oft-stated commitment to peacemaking efforts in Afghanistan, Haiti, the Middle East and Ukraine.
However, instead of the usual Liberal talking points about the value of “democracy and the rule of law,” or the abstract concept of “international rules-based order,” Joly urged global lawmakers to reclaim the word “freedom” at home and abroad.
The minister — often touted as a potential Liberal leadership candidate — framed it as a question of practical human rights: the rights of civilians everywhere to live in peace and security, of women to make their own reproductive choices through contraception, abortion or fertility treatments, and of people everywhere to choose “who they can love” or “what they can wear.”
Without naming far-right or far-left individual actors on the global stage, or naming a particular political opponent of the Liberal government in Canada, Joly pointed to political rhetoric she said fuels polarization and division, and threatens real freedom.
Canada, she said, prospers because it allows its people “freedom to” pursue a better life, and “freedom from barriers” to that goal, namely fear, violence, intimidation and discrimination.
“Far too often, though, some of the loudest voices claiming to speak for freedom are the ones trying to redefine that word for their own purposes,” she said. “They claim freedom as an excuse to do as they wish without any regard for the freedom of others.”
“They hide behind the word to tell us everything is broken, to spread disinformation, and parrot the lines fed to them by those who wish to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.”
“They weaponize the term ‘freedom’ to further marginalize those in the most vulnerable situations, to justify spreading hate, even denying people their right to make choices about their own bodies, including limits on reproductive rights,” she said, as UN Ambassador Bob Rae watched with the Canadian delegation seated in the cavernous room.
Though Joly did not reference the heated election debates in the U.S., her speech clearly echoed the effort Vice-President Kamala Harris’s Democrats and progressives have mounted to reclaim the word “freedom” from former president Donald Trump’s Republicans.
And in alluding so explicitly to slogans adopted by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — that “everything” in Canada “is” or “feels broken” — Joly made no bones about who she sees domestically as the real threat to people’s freedoms.
Poilievre has said he would not move to restrict access to abortion. And in speeches and ad campaigns, he presents himself as a standard-bearer for freedom, and has made it his rallying cry. The Conservative party website says Poilievre believes in “limiting government” in order to “make room for personal freedom and responsibility.”
Joly tried Monday to turn such rhetoric on its head, saying that “often, the people who claim to speak for freedom are the same people who want the government to decide who people can love, who they are, or even what they can wear.”
“We see it in our country. We see it around the world. At the international level we see it when groups or countries declare that international law doesn’t apply to them.”
The speech reiterated Ottawa’s standard positions on those international conflicts, but Joly’s framing of it as an effort to reclaim “freedom” for civilian populations and innocent victims struck a new chord.
She called out the Taliban in Afghanistan for ignoring basic international law on human dignity and women’s and children’s rights; gang violence and corruption in Haiti for plunging the civilian population into violence and hunger; and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine for violating basic UN rules on sovereign countries’ borders.
“No country has the freedom to invade its neighbour. There’s no freedom to impose your will on others,” Joly said. “The Ukrainian people have the right to be free from fear, free from aggression. They have the right to decide what their own future should be.”
Joly reserved some of her sharpest comments for government and militia leaders in the Middle East, saying “what the world continues to witness is a repeated cycle of violence where civilians pay the heaviest price.”
“The level of suffering is unacceptable. It must stop. Innocent Palestinians, women and children, cannot pay the price of defeating Hamas. It must end. A ceasefire is needed immediately. Hostages must be released. This requires both sides making real efforts.”
Joly emphasized Canada’s position is that, notwithstanding the opposition of the government of Israel to the creation of a Palestinian state, the Liberal government will recognize statehood for Palestine at some point, and not only when and if Israel wants it. She criticized ongoing violence by extremist settlers and the expansion of those settlements in the West Bank.
And she noted next week marks one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and hostage-takings that set off a devastating counteroffensive in Gaza by Israeli defence forces, and the latest escalation of tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that threaten an all-out regional war. Joly said, “There cannot be war in Lebanon. Full stop.”
“Canada is joining those urging Israel and Hezbollah to accept an immediate ceasefire. We need to create space for peace talks and save lives.”
Concluding her speech, Joly spoke of her personal role models — her grandmother and mother — who said this generation must consolidate gains won by early feminist activists. And Joly staked her international feminist credentials as she called for UN reform. The UN isn’t perfect, Joly acknowledged, but Canada will continue to support it, even as she dismissed detractors who claim the UN is incapable of solving problems the world is facing.
“Worse, some — one might call them conspiracy theorists — even think that the UN is the cause of several of these problems.” She said both “ignore reality” and the strength of an organization that represents a unique forum where leaders can meet and talk to one another on a level footing to try to bridge deep differences.
Joly then turned to the UN’s own leaders, saying it’s “unacceptable” that it has never had a female leader in its 80-year history. Fresh off a meeting last week of 15 female foreign ministers, Joly delivered their message, saying it’s time the top jobs of secretary-general of the United Nations, and the president of the general assembly were held by women.
