Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly will deliver a speech Monday on Canada’s place in a “fractured world” currently riddled with uncertainty.
Joly is scheduled to speak at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto at 12:40 p.m. eastern. Global News will carry her speech live at the top of this page.
“The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs will join the Economic Club of Canada to discuss the state of play on the world stage and how Canada is focusing its efforts to increase our resilience, build new coalitions, and lead in a fractured world,” a media advisory for her speech reads.
Joly’s remarks come at a time when Canada is witnessing major conflicts play out on the global stage, as well as souring relations with two major nations.
Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza has sparked worries of a wider conflict in the Middle East, with Iranian-backed Hezbollah regularly exchanging fire with Tel Aviv troops near the Israel-Lebanon border.
Fierce air and artillery strikes rang out in Gaza early on Monday as Israeli troops backed by tanks pressed into the Palestinian enclave with a ground assault that prompted more international calls for civilians to be protected.
Roughly 1,400 have died in Israel since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli authorities, with the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry saying roughly 7,000 are dead there amid retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
Meanwhile in Europe, Russia’s war against Ukraine has continued.
The White House warned on Oct. 26 that Russia still has some offensive capability, and may be able to achieve some tactical gains in the coming months. Ukraine aims, though, to hold a global “peace summit” of world leaders this year, Deputy Minister Mykola Tochytskyi said on Sunday.
The talks would not include Russia.
Ottawa has repeatedly vowed continued support for Ukraine while emphasizing Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law.
Meanwhile, Canada’s relations with India and China – two major players on the world stage – have reached a low point.
A diplomatic row with India has deepened after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September publicly said the country had “credible evidence” that agents of the Indian government may have been involved in the summertime killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh leader.
India strongly denied those allegations. The two countries expelled diplomats, and Canada had to reduce the size of its presence in the country after India threatened to revoke diplomatic immunity from 41 diplomats and their families. New Delhi temporarily paused visa services in Canada, only to reinstate them last week.
Meanwhile, relations with China have been low since the imprisonment of the “two Michaels” in 2018 shortly after the RCMP’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on an extradition order to the U.S. They were released in 2021 after the U.S. dropped its request against Wanzhou.
Tensions only worsened late last year when Global News, along with The Globe and Mail, began reporting on allegations of Chinese foreign interference in Canadian elections and society. Beijing has strongly denied those allegations, and Ottawa has set up a public inquiry to probe them.
— with files from Reuters
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