And yet another one of Harper's failures to Canada. At the Summit of the Americas he intended to sell Canada as a promising place to do business, but instead clashed with Latin and South American leaders on two of the most important issues to them: the legalization of drugs and the inclusion of Cuba in the summit. Instead he took the position that the United States has stubbornly stuck to for the past fifty years.
In the past decade Canada has showed a very liberal and progressive attitude towards drugs. Marijuana is widely used by the population, studies show roughly 50% of Canadians have tried the drug. Decriminalization has been proposed by many politicians, notably in the Liberal Party. I support full legalization. It's clear the War On Drugs, which has been raging for decades, is a complete failure, and has done nothing but cost the lives of thousands of people in Latin America by violent means. And Harper is aligning himself with these policies, alienating the Latin American community on progressive policies that could possibly solve the horrible problems of narco violence in their countries.
And why are we adopting the stance of hostility towards Cuba? Unlike the US, Canada does not have an imperialist foreign policy that Cuba is defiant of, so what reason would Harper have to not support Cuba being allowed to attend a summit who's geographical criteria clearly allows it to be in?
This is just another point of how Harper is systematically destroying Canada's reputation. Some of the most progressive and reformist leaders expressed their frustrations with the summit: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Evo Morales walked out of the summit, and Rafael Correa boycotted it. It pains me to see how our relations with these countries, who are beginning to free themselves from the chains of right wing, neo-liberal policies, are being strained by the irresponsible leadership that Canada is being subjected to.
In the past decade Canada has showed a very liberal and progressive attitude towards drugs. Marijuana is widely used by the population, studies show roughly 50% of Canadians have tried the drug. Decriminalization has been proposed by many politicians, notably in the Liberal Party. I support full legalization. It's clear the War On Drugs, which has been raging for decades, is a complete failure, and has done nothing but cost the lives of thousands of people in Latin America by violent means. And Harper is aligning himself with these policies, alienating the Latin American community on progressive policies that could possibly solve the horrible problems of narco violence in their countries.
And why are we adopting the stance of hostility towards Cuba? Unlike the US, Canada does not have an imperialist foreign policy that Cuba is defiant of, so what reason would Harper have to not support Cuba being allowed to attend a summit who's geographical criteria clearly allows it to be in?
This is just another point of how Harper is systematically destroying Canada's reputation. Some of the most progressive and reformist leaders expressed their frustrations with the summit: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Evo Morales walked out of the summit, and Rafael Correa boycotted it. It pains me to see how our relations with these countries, who are beginning to free themselves from the chains of right wing, neo-liberal policies, are being strained by the irresponsible leadership that Canada is being subjected to.
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