Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy is sworn in as Minister of State Foreign Affairs during a cabinet shuffle at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Tuesday Jan. 4, 2011.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The appointment of a new minister of state for the Americas is a chance for Canada to breathe new life into its strategy for the region: to build a more prosperous, democratic and secure Latin America and Caribbean, and to safeguard Canada's own security.
It will now be up to Diane Ablonczy, the MP for Calgary-Nose Hill, to energetically and convincingly carry out this mission.
The Harper government has established a renewable $15-million annual fund to strengthen law enforcement and the judiciary in fragile states in the Americas. This is a timid start. The demands are much, much greater. And the scale of Canada's response should be, too. (In comparison, Ottawa has earmarked $250-million in aid for Haiti, and spent billions of dollars on the Afghan mission.)
Mexico's murderous drug-trafficking organizations threaten the security not just of Mexico, but of the hemisphere. The cartels are now active throughout South and Central America, in the continental U.S., and some major cities in Canada, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Guatemala, a major transit point for drugs, has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Despite official requests for assistance, Canada has only sent one RCMP officer to Guatemala, to help reform police and tackle the impunity that has crippled that country.
Nine RCMP officers are on hand to help train and professionalize the police force in Mexico, a country of 120 million. Ottawa has directed $4-million to help with judicial reform there, for a total of $6.7-million in bilateral co-operation. The RCMP is also assessing the policing needs of the eastern Caribbean, but so far has no plans to dispatch any officers there to do the training.
"I would like to be able to send more people down, but we just don't have the capacity. The need is definitely there," says Assistant Commissioner Jerry Lynch, the RCMP's senior envoy to Mexico and the Americas.
Demand for international police training is "evolving quickly," he adds. Mr. Lynch expects Canada will soon become a full member, and not just an observer, of the American Police Community, a hemispheric police organization whose prime mission is to fight the drug cartels.
If the government's Americas strategy is to succeed, Ottawa must direct more expertise and funds to strengthen regional security. Such assistance is not only needed to support key allies and trade partners, but to protect Canada's own security against the threat of transnational criminal organizations.