Chrystia Freeland wins award for her "enduring defense of human rights" from US-backed regime-change advocacy group
Written by: Aidan Jonah
On June 19, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland won the Freedom House’s 2019-2020 Mark Palmer prize. According to the organization’s site the award is described as being:
“given in honor of the late US ambassador and foreign policy innovator Mark Palmer, recognizes diplomats and civil servants who have gone beyond their normal course of duties to promote democracy and human rights.”
Freeland was quoted as saying, without a hint of irony:
“I am deeply honored and humbled to accept this award, which I think reaffirms our collective obligation to uphold human rights everywhere and always; and to work hard every day to build a world that is more democratic, more just, and more free.”
Freedom House: An organization “heavily invested in regime-change operations against foreign adversaries”
Freedom House, is a right-wing think tank which is heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy which in turn is dependent on the “continued support of the White House and Congress,"and other arms of the US government. Allen Weinstein, a former acting president of NED and one of the authors of the study that led to its creation, said in a 1991 interview that "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Freedom House has a long record of pushing a pro-US imperialism stance into mainstream discourse. The Grayzone reported that “[Freedom House] is heavily invested in regime-change operations against foreign adversaries.”
Noam Chomsky described Freedom House as “a virtual propaganda arm of the government and international right wing.”
According to Manufacturing Consent, a book authored by Chompsky and Edward S. Herman, Freedom House demonized South Africa’s independent post-colonial government, and sung the praises of right-wing US-backed forces in El Salvador calling them noble democrats.
On its website, Freedom House discloses that its “Primary funding for Freedom House’s programs comes in the form of grants from USAID and U.S. State Department, as well as from other democratic governments—Canada, the EU, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—and from private foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation.”
Freedom House’s US government funding in 2017.
Freedom House’s own annual financial statements state that it is “substantially funded by grants from the U.S. Government.” US government funding accounted for 86 per cent of Freedom House’s revenue in 2016, 90 per cent in 2017, and 88 per cent in 2018.
Mark Palmer: An imperialist to his very core
Palmer was an American diplomat and the former US Ambassador to Hungary from 1986 to 1990.
According to The Challenge of Integration, written by Peter Rutland, Palmer consistently antagonized the communist government of the time, and left a few months before his term to join the Central Europe Development Corporation, where he pocketed an annual salary of $350,000 USD. In 1990, the CEDC incorporated CME as its media arm. Three years later, the CME formed CET 21, the first private nationwide commercial television. By 1994, the station had become NOVA TV, of which Palmer was a co-founder.
Throughout the early years, it was plagued with controversy and used shady methods, including allegedly violating media law, to fully break off any connections with the Czech government. In 1996, David Stogel, a CME director refused to confirm that Nova TV would “provide objective and balanced information, which is necessary for [the viewer to form his/her own] free opinions.” These stations were expanded across Eastern Europe, particularly focusing on the former Communist Bloc countries including the Czech Republic, Slovakia (both formerly part of Yugoslavia), and Croatia. They provide a pro-American, pro-capitalist and unsurprisingly anti-communist perspective on the news of the day.
In 2005, he released an aggressively imperialist book, “Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025”, in which he advocated for launching a coup against the Iranian government along with dozens of other governments which the US opposes.
Palmer pushed the US Congress to enact “pro-democracy”, which was in reality, imperialist legislation, over multiple decades.
He was also one of the key pushers of the 2007 “The ADVANCE Democracy Act”, which put forth the supremacist theory that “some countries are not amenable to democracy” into law, using the United States as a model of democracy. This is explained in greater detail by a 2011 paper written by Patrick Glen of the Georgetown University Law Center, titled “The ADVANCE Democracy Act and the Future of United States Democracy Promotion Efforts:
“This invidious argument proposes that democracy, and the ideals that undergird democracy, is a specifically Western construct rather than a system of universal appeal and significance. That being the case, democracy promotion is doomed to fail, as it simply will not ‘play’ well in most non-Western settings, whether that setting be Asia, the Middle East, Africa, or elsewhere.”
The ADVANCE Democracy Act was indicative of Palmer’s imperialist Manifest-Destiny style worldview, which he held over his decades of service to the US empire.
As Freedom House wrote themselves, “He pushed multiple US administrations to advance and implement new democracy policies.” Given the history of the US empire, this translates to “removing opponents of US imperialism and neo-colonialism from power at any cost.”
Canada’s chief imperialist recognized by the ruling class
In 2017, the Grayzone exposed a US State Department memo which stated that under Freeland, Canada had adopted an “America First Foreign Policy”. This was simply a confirmation of what most observers were already aware of.
In recent years, Canada has consistently voted against UN resolutions which validate Palestinian rights, backing the pro-Israeli apartheid stance of the US government.
Canada was a crucial figure in the founding of the Lima group in August 2017, whose stated purpose is to “address the critical situation in Venezuela and to explore ways to contribute to the restoration of democracy in that country.” The Maduro government was democratically elected, and then re-elected in 2018, through a fully democratic vote that reflected the will of the Venezuelan people. However, as Maduro is an avowed socialist, the US wishes to replace him with a puppet of the US financial elites.
Canada also supported the US-backed coup attempt in Nicaragua during 2018, against the socialist Daniel Ortega government. The opposition forces committed atrocities against Ortega supporters and launched violent attacks against uninvolved citizens. However, Canada falsely condemned the Nicaraguan police forces and Ortega supporters for “unprovoked violence against pro-democracy supporters”. While the coup failed in the end, Canada was a big supporter of the attempt.
Under Freeland’s watch, Canada has been a key supporter of the Organization of American States, which has been described as an “American puppet.” Here’s a Telesur video which provides important context on the group.
The OAS is led by former Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro, who has been described “as acting as a politician rather than a diplomat” and “intentionally stoking protests and anger in Venezuela.” Canada supported his re-election bid, which Almagro won in late May. Canada has supported its aggressive campaign to illegally remove Nicholas Maduro from office.
Canada was a key partner in the US and OAS led campaign to declare Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaido the “legitimate president of Venezuela.” The campaign failed in the end, as popular support for Maduro overwhelmed the limited numbers of mostly rich and privileged pro-opposition protesters. Even Donald Trump recently called Guaido the “Beto O’Rourke of Venezuela”, clearly showing that he had accepted the failure of this imperialist campaign.
Freeland becomes Deputy PM, and Canadian imperialism ramps up at lightning speed
Coup attempts which Canada supports do not always end up in failure. In October 2019, Bolivian president Evo Morales won his fourth term in a close election, by 47 per cent to 36 per cent, against his US backed opponent. Soon afterwards, the OAS released a report claiming election fraud had occurred. This report was denied by Morales, and he was eventually backed up by a New York Times report which showed that the OAS report was absolutely fraudulent.
This claim was repeated endlessly by the corporate media, and whipped up anger among the citizenry. This opportunity was exploited by the Bolivian far-right and the military apparatus, who seized control of the government, and expelled pro-Morales politicians fro the legislature. Soon after, christo-fascist Jeanine Anez was illegally sworn in as the new president, with all Morales supporters unable to vote against her.
Canada repeatedly released statements condemning “violence” from pro-Morales supporters and backed the OAS report.Canada was utterly silent, however, when Morales was forced to hide from paramilitary groups attempting to capture him. Morales and had to flee to Mexico to avoid political persecution.
Once Anez was sworn in, Canada immediately indicated their support for her government, being one of only 65 countries in the world to do this. The support was on the condition that new elections be held as soon as possible, yet as of today there are no signs that this will happen any time soon.
Meanwhile, Canadian mining companies have recently signed contracts for lithium mining, which were previously blocked by the Morales government in 2012. Unsurprisingly, Canadian enterprise is profiting from Canadian imperialism.
Canada has also supported the Unites States’ vicious sanctions agenda against any country which opposes its imperialist agenda. This includes attempts to suffocate the Venezuelan, Iranian and many other countries’ economies, in the hopes of sparking civil unrest to exploit, and place a US friendly leader in charge.
Only a month ago, Guaido attempted to launch an armed invasion of Venezuela, signing a $213 million contract with US mercenary firm Silvercorp. The coup attempt only consisted of a few dozen Venezuelan opposition supporters and Silvercorp militia members. It failed miserably, and Guaido was undoubtedly implicated in this attempt. Yet Canada has refused to cut out its support for Guaido and instead support the democratically elected Maduro government.
It is truly fitting that Freeland would receive an award which was meant to honour an imperialist such as Palmer. Ironically, the award was given to Freeland for protecting human rights, when she has been directing Canada’s imperialist foreign policy for the past five years. Yet it shows one inherent truth, that the ruling class will always recognize their own, and glorify them for crushing resistance to their power structures.
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