Saturday, December 10, 2011.

Today is International Human Rights Day. Canada has always been justly proud that the declaration was written by a Canadian: John Humphrey (with the assistance, it is said, of Eleanor Roosevelt).

That Declaration was clear then, about the inalienable rights of each human being… it is as clear today. It was one of the many Canadian initiatives that earned us the respect of the world – the belief that we were fair, respectful and would always take the path of justice, risky or not.

Look at Canada today. We abandon Canadian citizens to the death penalty in foreign lands. We say fie to the Kyoto Accord because we don't want to do anything unless the smaller developing nations do the same. When did we forget that, as one of the G8 industrialized nations, we have been the cause of much of that environmental damage over the last century? We stopped owning up to our responsibility, we stopped playing fair. We are now a nation that questions our Charter of Rights. We have become meaner, not stronger.

We seem to have forgotten that true strength lies in truth and in protection of the most vulnerable, like the aboriginal peoples here in our home land. We export proven toxic substances like asbestos to the poorest, neediest nation and we block efforts to come clean (pardon the pun) about its dangers to their health.

Are we now a meaner, self-serving nation giving foreign aid while setting moral limits on it most effective use? Are we now an elitist "let them eat cake" righteously indignant bully?

I dunno… you tell me. On a day like today, we can look at John Humphrey's dream and say we are still worthy of being in the same tribe as the dreamer?