Centre Ice

As we start to kick into high gear in the Model Parliament, I thought it best to share with you all one of the Bills that I've been working on and which I'm hoping to table soon in my position as Minister for Strengthening Canada's Global Role. If you've happened across the Draft Legislation section of the forums, you've probably already seen it (as well as some of the lengthy discussion between Coady and I on the topic). But if you haven't yet had the opportunity to read it over, here it is:

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MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR
Calgary North

Summary:
1. To bring the quality of Canada's contributions toward International Election Observer Missions in line with standards exercised by this country's international partners.

2. To demonstrate Canada's commitment to promote democratization efforts abroad.

3. To improve current opportunities for Canadian youth to become engaged in the political process through meaningful work in the field of international development and diplomacy.

TITLE:

An Act to Amend the Personnel Secondment Process for International Election Observer Missions

INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION

Whereas the importance of election observation to the fostering of democratic development throughout the international community is becoming increasingly evident,

Whereas the opportunity to serve with International Election Observer Missions (IEOM’s) can help to start youth along meaningful careers in international relations and/or public affairs,

Whereas the CIDA’s current arrangement with CANADEM not only hinders Canada’s ability to contribute to the facilitation and maintenance of healthy democracy abroad but also restricts the number of opportunities available to interested youth,

Be it resolved that the responsibility for secondment of Canadian personnel for IEOM’s shall be shifted from CANADEM to DFAIT, in line with widely held international standards.

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Naturally, this is only an untitled draft and I'm looking forward to receiving input from my fellow Members so that we can better strengthen the spirit of the Bill. But, in case you're a little lost by all this obscure talk of NGO's, STO's and all those acronyms, I have written up a bit of background, which follows.

I first came across this issue while working with the OSCE earlier this year. I was asked, quite unexpectedly, by the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly to deploy to Montenegro for about ten days, where I would work as the Assistant to the Head of the International Election Observer Mission there. Our responsibility was to monitor the country's parliamentary elections to ensure that they were carried out in line with democratic principles. It was a pretty important test for the country as, depending on how far the country had come since the severing of the State Union with Serbia, there could be significant rammifications for Montenegrin ambitions to join the European Union.

To describe my experience while there with the utmost brevity, I would have to say it was awesome. Absolutely awesome, in fact, and I was left hooked. My previous work in Vienna was wonderful, but actually being in the field was something that I really enjoyed. So, once I became aware that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights was looking for participating States to second observers for the elections in Albania, I was ecstatic. I'd briefly had the opportunity to visit Ulcinj, in Montenegro close to the Albanian border, and saw how Montenegro went about engaging the substantial Albanian minority in the political process. Naturally, I was curious to find out how the Albanians went about doing the same thing for the Montenegrin minority in Shkodra, not far from Ulcinj but on the Albanian side of the border.

This is where I need to take a break from my story to explain what "secondment" means. For a fair number of positions in international organizations like the OSCE or the UN, positions are not contracted but seconded. That is to say, candidates for announced vacancies don't apply directly to the institution for which they wish to work for but instead apply to their government's relevant ministry (in Canada, one would think this to be DFAIT). The ministry then selects its best qualified candidate from the pool of applications it receives and then passes it on to the international institution. This allows a country to demonstrate its commitment to a given institution by exercising quality control. Other countries, like the US or the UK, have also been known to use the secondment process as a means to withhold applications from its own nationals in order to allow under-represented countries a better shot at getting some folks into positions where they have a say about the way things are done.

Back to the story, I eagerly approached the Canadian delegation in Vienna to see if I could secure secondment to work as a Short-Term Observer with the IEOM in Albania. Surprisingly, I was told that the delegation didn't handle secondments, nor did DFAIT. Instead, CANADEM- a small NGO that receives funding from CIDA- handles all secondments for IEOM's and tends to choose not to put forward any applications.

Not to be discouraged, especially as the delegation felt that I'd be a perfectly viable candidate, I submitted my application to CANADEM.

Again, I feel need to break from this story to explain the composition of IEOM's (based on the model developed by the OSCE and now used by the UN, EU, AU and CIS). At the top, one tends to have a parliamentary delegation (ie Senators and MP's from various countries, one of whom is appointed as Head because she/he is respected enough by all involved to be an honest arbitrator). Accompanying this parliamentary delegation also tends to be some staff, like the position I filled in Montenegro.

Just beneath, or perhaps alongside, the parliamentary delegation is the Core Team. The Core Team tends to be made up of ten bureaucrats, each an expert in his or her field. There's such positions as the Gender Analyst (ie Are parties making honest efforts to engage women in the political process?), the National Minorities Analyst (ie Are some parties campaigning on platforms based on ethnic hatred?), the Legal Analyst (Are the courts acting as fair and neutral arbitrators?), etc.

Under the Core Team are the Long-Term Observers. These folks tend to have a lot of experience in election administration and/or diplomacy, but they're also an intentionally diverse group. They can have as little as two years experience or as much as ten. They're split up into teams of two and sent to every corner of the country a full month before E-Day to monitor the campaigning but to also pave the way for the arrival of the Short-Term Observers.

The Short-Term Observers are the grunts of IEOM's. Basically, they're scrutineers but they carry the legitimacy that comes with the backing of, in the case of OSCE observers, 56 countries. They're non-partisan and serving in a quasi-diplomatic character. So, unlike domestic scrutineers, they're held in a great degree of trust by those living in countries where the democratic process can sometimes be a little less than fair. Usually, those who serve in this capacity only have 1-2 years experience. They're also only in the country for a week. Since they're quite inexpensive and there's often a lot of ground to cover on E-Day, IEOM's request huge numbers of STO's. For the Albanian elections that I was intending to observe, the OSCE/ODIHR requested 400 STO's.

Basically, these are the key things to keep in mind at this point: STO's are rookies, many STO's were needed in Albanian, and I was a presumably qualified candidate to serve as one of those 400. After submitting my application to CANADEM, I was promptly informed by CANADEM that I would only be considered for secondment as an STO if I had 3-5 years of experience observing internationally, thus discounting any experience I might have on Canadian soil. I was informed, however, that CANADEM offers an internship for those wishing to reach an 'acceptable' level of experience. Upon research, I discovered that Canadian youth are actually expected to pay CANADEM for the internship, rather than be paid for any hard work the organization might get out of a person during this vaunted six-month excursion of what seems to amount to voluntourism.

On June 28th, the Albanian elections took place and the IEOM did observe several areas of concern. Not a single Canadian was operating under the auspices of the IEOM on that important day in Albania. When Albanians needed Canada most, Canada wasn't there because an NGO felt that the opportunity to turn a profit was more important than offering a gesture of solidarity between countries.

I was perplexed by all of this and have since been checking with friends and contacts to see just exactly how their respective countries handle the secondment of international election observers. From Iceland to Germany to Kyrgyzstan, these secondments are handled by the OSCE desk officer at their respective Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Of all 56 OSCE participating States, it seems Canada is the only country which has outsourced this responsibility to an outside, and relatively unaccountable and intransparent, NGO.

I hope this helps to explain the background of this proposed Bill and makes evident its intent. Interested and capable Canadian youth should be able to present themselves for secondment. They should be able to enjoy the same enriching experience I had in Montenegro if they're thinking of a diplomatic career. And their contributions at home, in a country where political apathy is already a problem, should never be discounted.