Thank you for listening to Depictures Media Radio. Welcome to Policy and Rights,
the show about the government, policy and human rights. Welcome back to Policy
and Rights here in de Pictures Media Radio. I'm your host, Michael Cloggs.
There are globally there are several threats to international and security and peace,
and we've been focused on over a year now with the Russian Federation and invasion
of Ukraine. We've also been focused on many years with things that have happened
in Syria, and there are incidences in Hemen that trying to help the people
of human build a stable government. There are of course issues that are still
happening in other parts of the Middle East where global peace is at threat,
and and well we must say that global peace doesn't actually really exist, that
there's still armed conflicts happening. There's still people fighting in in waves with with
military actions and in some cases terrorisms and missile strikes, drone strikes, all
these things happening around the world that are that are keeping us away from peace.
That there are some organizations and countries out there that they make a mint
off of selling weapons into armed conflict areas. We have heard about drone strikes
from the fresh Russian Federation against grain houses and ports in the Ukraine that grain
can't can't freely move the way it needs to uh into different parts of the
world from the Black Sea because of the Russian Federation either drone striking, missiling
or what have you. That there's they have issued other initiatives that quite simply
they've been striking civilian sites and some of those l are simply to put fear
into the Ukrainian people so that they will side with the Russian Federation over their
own government. And yeah, and they're still trying to come up with a
resolutions and and aid to help the people find a stable government. They're in
Central Africa. We've we've heard of coups and takeovers because of people wanting to
have control over their own destiny and to avoid the ideas of colonialism and just
simple corporate greed taking over their resources so that they can't have their own freedom
and to choose their own destiny and choices. I want to listen to the
United Nations as they address some of these issues and address what is happening in
our world that is disturbing the peace that we need to have as a human
race. The nine thousand, four hundred and fifteen Meeting of the Security Council
is called to order. At the outset of this meeting, I should like
on behalf of the members of the Security Council to express our profound sadness over
the devastating earthquake that hit Morocco last Friday and the deadly flooding that has affected
Libya over the past days. These events have led to the laws of thousands
of lives. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this heartbreaking disasters.
The Security Council expresses its heartfelt sympathy and indolences to the families of the victims,
to the people and the governments of Libya and Morocco. I now invite
the members of the Council to rise and observe a minute of silence in tribute
to the memory of the victims of these tragic events. Thank you. The
provisional agenda for this meeting is Threats to International Peace and Security. The agenda
is adopted in accordance with Rule thirty seven of the Council's Visional Rules of Procedure.
I invite the Representative of Ukraine to participate in this meeting. It is
so decided, in accordance with Rule thirty nine of the Council's Provisional Rules of
Procedure, I invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting, Miss Izumi
Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and mister George SAMUELI Journalist. It
is so decided the Security Council will now begin its consideration of Item two of
the agenda. I now give the floor to Miss Izumi Nakamitsu. Thank you
very much, Madam present, notam present, Distinguished Members of the Security Council,
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen. Since my last briefing to the Security Council
on this topic only weeks ago, the provision of defensive military assistance to the
armed forces of Ukraine has continued in the context of the full scale invasion of
Ukraine launched by the Russian Federation on twenty fourth of February twenty twenty two.
Environmation of the United Nations Charter and international law, much of the information on
transfers of weapons systems and ammunition flows from governments is available through open sources.
These transfers have reportedly included heavy conventional weapons such as battle tanks, armored conbat
vehicles, combat aircraft, helicopters, large caliber arteriory systems, missile systems,
and uncrewed combat area vehicles, as well as remotely operated munitions, small arms
and light weapons and their ammunition. Over the last months, reported transfers of
arms and ammunition to the Ukrainian Defense Forces have expanded. There have also been
reports of state transferring or planning to transfer weapons such as uncrewed aerial vehicles and
ammunition to the Russian Armed Forces, including for possible use in Ukraine. Neatness
to say any transfer of weapons must take place within the applicable international legal and
policy frameworks, including relevant Security Council resolutions. Any potential or suspected by nations
of relevant Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions or restrictive measures if verified, are very
concerning. Reports related to the transfer and use of Class dimunitions throughout the war
are also very con learning. The Sector General has repeatedly called for an immediate
end to the use of Class dimunitions, in line with his long standing position
these weapons must be consigned to history, most recently in his Policy Brief or
New Agenda for Peace the Sector General has encouraged member states to commit to reducing
the human cost of weapons, including by achieving universal participation in treaties banning in
humane and indiscriminate weapons, such as the Convention on Class Dimunitions. We also
take note of reports related to the transfer of depleted uranium tank ammunition to the
Ukrainian forces. The supply of weapons and ammunition into any armed conflict situations raises
significant concerns about the potential escalation of violence and presents significant risks of diversion and
proiferation even after the conflict has ended. Measures to address the risk of diversion
of weapons and ammunition to unauthorized end users and for unauthorized uses are essential for
preventing further instability and insecurity in Ukraine, the region and beyond. Such measures
include enforcement of marking practices, comprehensive pre transfer diversion risk assessments, end user
certificates including non transfer clauses, effective legal and enforcement measures, and post shipment
verifications. To prevent the diversion of weapons supply chains, transparency and corporation and
information exchange between importing, transit and exporting states is required, as well as
concrete measures such as marking and tracing, effective accounting and comprehensive record record keeping
practices, physical safeguarding of arms and ammunition, customs and border control measures,
and divergent monitoring and analysis. As I mentioned many times before, transparency in
arms transfers is a crucial confidence building measure which can serve to reduce tensions and
ambiguities between member states. The U and Register of Conventional Arms and ROCCA remains
a key instrument in this regard. In its thirty years of operation, one
hundred seventy eight member states of Submitttal Reporter and ROCKER, at at least once
I callable member states to participate in this mechanism. And ROCKER captures around ninety
percent of global arms flows and can help in tracking the influx of weapons in
conflict zones. Moreover, the Arms Straight Treaty, the Firearms Protocol, the
Program of Action on Small Arms in Light Weapons and its International Tracing Instrument are
some of the arms control instruments established by states to prevent the diversion of conventional
arms and regulate international Arms Straight. I welcome the conclusion of work of the
Open Ended Working Group or WG on Conventional Ammunition and applaud the successful adoption of
its final report containing the new Global Framework for Through Life Conventional Ammunition Management.
The framework is much needed instrument to more effectively counter the diversion of conventional ammunition
of all types, which continued to fuel instability, insecurity and conflict across the
world. I retreate my call to all states to join relevant treaties and agreements
and to fully implement their legal obligations under conventional arms control instruments to reach their
party as well as their political commitments to minimize the risk of diversion of arms
and ammunitions. Madame President, Beyond addressing arms transfers, all parties to the
armed conflict of a duty to protect civilians in armed conflict and change shaw compliance
with applicable international law, including international humanitarian law. From twenty fourth of February
twenty twenty two to twenty seventh of August this year, the Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded twenty six thousand, seven hundred seventeen civilian
casualties in Ukraine, with nine thousand, five hundred eleven killed and seventeen thousand,
two hundred six injured. The actual figures are likely to be considered considerably
higher. The vast majority of civilian casualties are the results of the use of
explosive weapons with wide area effects, including by shelling from artillery tanks and multiple
launch rocket systems, cruise and ballistic missiles, and by air strikes. The
continued use of large numbers of armed uncrued aerial vehicles against civilians and civilian infrastructure
is concerning Armed uncrued aerial vehicles must not be used in the manner inconsistent with
international humanitarian law. The Sector General has unequivocally urged all size to avoid the
use of explosive weapons in populated areas, as such use is highly likely to
result in indiscriminate harm, including in Ukraine. I take this opportunity to invite
all Member States to implement the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from
the Humanitarian Consequences arising from the use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas, adopted
in November twenty twenty two in abroad and meaning meaningful manner. The continued and
intensified attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure and services in Ukraine, including energy,
infrastructure, health and educational facilities, ports, roles, bridges and grain facilities
remain very much alarming. Under international humanitarian law, parties to an armed con
it are prohibited from targeting civilians and civilian objects, including civilian infrastructure, and
have the responsibility to take all feasible precautions in the conduct of military operations to
avoid or at least minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians,
and damage to civilian objects. The United Nations strongly condemned attacks against civilians and
civilian infrastructure and urges for their immediate cessation. Minds and explosive remnants of war
have resulted in widespread land contamination, rendering land unusable for agriculture while impeding the
movements of people. I retreate my core to all the relevant parties to avoid
abide by their obligations under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and not to transfer
or use any minds inhibited by its amended protocol too. Madame President, Distinguished
Members of the Security Council, the past eighteen months have seen death loss,
unbearable suffering and devastation in Ukraine. The world cannot afford for this senseless war
to continue. I appealed to all member states to make every effort for peace.
As the Sector General has repeatedly emphasized, the United Nations is committed to
support all meaningful efforts to bring a just and sustainable peace to Ukraine, guided
by the United Nations Charter, international Law and relevant General Assembly resolutions. I
thank you very much for your attention. On eleventh September, the Members of
the Security Council met to discuss the situation in Yemen. They were breached by
the UN Special Envoy Groundberg, alongside ocha Is Jim Suya and Major General Berry.
The members of the Security Council expressed their support to the UN peace process
based on the Greek references and reiterated the urgency for a Yemeni Yemeni dialogue and
a national wide ceasefire. The members of the Security Council also reiterated the importance
of making rapid and tangible progress in the current discussions. The members of the
Security Council stressed the need to maintain the prevailing calm and ensure unhindered humanitarian access.
The members of the Security Council welcomed the efforts by Saudi Arabia and Oman
delegations and their ongoing support to the mediation efforts of the United Nations many of
the process, because it seems to have really just stalled out the last few
Well, he's working very hard and he asked for the support of the Council
to his efforts in this regard, and this is exactly what the Council,
as I explained, now, thank you. You know, the need for
housing and just the idea of having a safe an affordable place to live.
In some reasons of the world, safe means means safe from gunfire, missile
strikes, drone strikes, a baby, a tank running over your home because
you're in the path of what they consider to be a military objective. In
other parts of the parts of the world, it means that you're in fear
of some corporate developer wanting to take over your home, tear it down,
displace you so that you wind up on the street, and then you not
being able to afford to find a new home another place to live. Either
way, this the result is the same that the in a lot of in
a lot of countries and a lot of areas, that the average person,
working class person is having trouble finding it a home, having trouble affording a
home without the worry of slipping back and losing their home the landlord evicting them
or some developer buying up the whole area and having having an eviction handed to
the list way where they need to simply move. Even though oh okay,
so say they did receive what a reasonable market value for their home. If
the funding that they received for that sale of the house that they're currently and
doesn't help them get a new place to live, then we good, what
did it do? There are economic reasons that are in existence due to inflation,
due to corporate greed and everything that hinder some people from having the safety
of a home, and having a safe home should be a human right.
So we're actually gonna hear going bringing everything back to Canada. We're going to
hear from jag Meats saying as he is talking about affordable housing, affordable rents
for students, but the affordable rents reaches way further than just simply to students.
It also applies to families and how they can afford to have enough of
a home to safely house them mom and dad and their children. How is
that working out with the current rates of inflation and how rents are becoming unreachable
for a lot of families. With that, of course, there was in
British Columbia there was a cap put on renting increases that was actually below the
rate of inflation at three point five percent. That may help a little bit,
But when we look at the overall rent in British Columbia, we have
Vancouver, which was named recently by several surveys to be one of the top
five most unaffordable places to live based on the cost of rent, food,
and what the average income is. So a cap of three point five percent
for a rent increase, how helpful is it when the rent for a one
bedroom home or a one bedroom apartment is still almost two thousand dollars a month.
So why don't we listen to what Jack Meetingh has to say about housing
for students in this next segment? The aster zoom should be demanded, Liz
Lami, So I'll turn it over to you, Junete, Thanks so much,
Alena. I just spoke with some graduate students here in the housy talking
about how hard it is to find housing. We are hearing this across the
country, but students are particularly hard hit. There's simply nothing available. The
cost of renting in place is through the roof. People are living multiple people
to a single room just to be able to afford rents. Soon as should
be worried about their school, they should be worried about their courses, worried
about their careers, not worried about trying to find a place to live.
And after eight years of a liberal government, they've not taken this seriously.
They've not built affordable housing, and we are in MSS where housing is more
expensive than it's ever been before. And in response to this, Pierre Paulio
is not who he says he is. They just had a conference convention in
Quebec City and thousands of resolutions probably were vetted, made it to the floor,
and not a single new idea on housing coming out of their convention,
because in reality, this is not something that neither the Conservator or the liberals
care about. They don't care to build homes that people can afford. I
can tell you this something I care deeply about. When I was in university
a little bit younger than some of the folks behind me, I was twenty
years old, my kid brother had to come live with me because things at
home were really rough. My dad was struggling with an addiction. I had
to bring my kid brother to come live with me, so a twenty year
old taking care of a fifteen year old. I had to work multiple jobs
to keep food on the table. I had to take care of my kid
brother to make sure he never went hungry. And I know how tough that
is for a student to have to balance work, taking care of someone you
love, and also pursuing your education. It was tough. Those are tough
times, and I'm fighting to make sure people have affordable housing so no one
has to worry about that. And that's why we're committed to making sure the
federal government uses the land that we have at the federal level, the power,
the resources, the money to build homes that people can act shoually afford.
We need to build student housing. We want to partner with provinces and
educational institutions to build specifically student housing. There's a lot of commercial property,
but there's now vacant. We need to partner with business using the federal powers
that we have to build housing to convert those units into dormitories. Students should
be able to have affordable housing. There should not be something you have to
worry about or stress about. We want to build homes that people can truly
afford, and that's what I'm committed to doing. With that, I'm ready
for any questions you might have. Thanks so much. Also say jig right,
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The exactsare next. See With that, I'm ready for any questions you might
have. We're gonna start with that one question. One follow up. We'll
start on site. We'll start with that Frank for the Chronicle Herald. So
has the Liberal government metics commitment of an unaffordable house and did you agreed upon
in March twenty twenty two and your confidence and supply deal And if not,
why do you continue to prop them out? So far, the Liberal government
is not done enough to build affordable homes. We have forced the government to
do things that they would not have otherwise done. We are bringing in dental
care for kids already, we brought in dental care for kids under twelve.
By the end of this year, we'll have free dental care for seniors,
kids eighteen and undred people living in disabilities. So we're forcing this government to
do things that they would not have done for people. We're forcing this government
to act and we're going to continue to do that. Our goal is not
to play games like the Conservatives, not to ignore the plight of people like
the Liberals. We're using our power to deliver concrete results for people, and
we've done that with dental care, and there's a lot more to be done.
We're going to focus on housing now when we resume in September. Later
on this month, in September more back in Parliament, our focus is going
to be on making this government build more homes that people can afford. Give
a fall up. Yeah, So the NDP problems is five hundred thousand units
of quality affordable housing in ten years if elected through a mixture of measures with
pregnory problems as municipalities and community housing pregnership. So how would that point out?
How how would you choose that? So so a big difference between our
approach and that of the liberals and the Conservatives. The liberals and Conservatives want
to just let private developers do their thing. We know that that's not going
to solve the problem. We have to be actively involved in this solution.
I spoke with builders. They're saying that because of the high interest rates,
it's not actually profitable at this point in time to build the type of homes
that we need for people. So that's why we're saying we've got to use
federal land, federal power, and federal resources to build homes that people can
afford. After the World Wars, Canada upon a mission of building homes that
people could afford. Hundreds and thousands of homes were built after the World Wars
for veterans that we're returning from the war. That's a type of effort that
we need to do now. Mobilize the power that we have and build hundreds
of thousands of homes that people can truly afford, so that young people don't
have to worry about the cost of housing when they graduate, they can find
a place to call home. We can do that, but it's going to
take actively using the power that we have at the federal level to build those
affordable homes, and that's what we're proposing. We're also saying we need to
look at a wide variety of options, getting the GST off of affordable builds
to incentivize building homes that are affordable, looking at not for profit and cooperative
housing, using all the tools we have to address student housing as well.
We've got to look at this as a is a broad problem because everyone is
struggling with housing. We've got to look all the solutions. We're gonna go
to Vanessa from Global Next. Okay, can you give us some insight into
your meeting today. What were some of the things that the students talked about.
We heard a lot of already stories students that were living in tense while
they couldn't find housing because the vacancy rate is so low in Halifax right now.
We've heard about students really worried about finding a place and then not knowing
if they could keep it because they've heard from people that their landlords end up
renevicting them, they end up losing their place. Multiple people living in one
room that's designed for one person, four people to a room. We've heard
stories of twelve to fourteen people living in one apartment that's not designed for that
many many people to live in. Many people are just saying that that.
We're even graduate students who have some income coming in that with the cost of
living what it's at, cost of food, costs of groceries, and the
rent going up, they just don't know how they're going to be able to
make it all work. A lot of worry, a lot of fear,
and a lot of anxiety, and that's something that students shouldn't have to be
faced with. There's already enough anxiety worried about courses and exams to have to
add on finding at home. On top of that, we also heard from
people that have to commute. The only affordable places to live are maybe an
hour two hour commutes away, so people are all this time community to get
to school. None of this is good for our students. None of this
is good for the future of our country. If young people are more worried
about biding at home and commuting rather than focusing on pursuing their dreams, that's
a problem, and that's a problem I want to fix. To a follow
up, I do some people have suggested putting a cap on international students.
Is that something that you would consider. I want to be really clear on
this point the topic of international students. International students are not to be blamed
for the housing crisis we're in. What we know for sure is over the
past number of years, past decades, both the liberal and conservative governments have
just not built affordable homes, and we are in this crisis today because of
subsequent governments not making the sobriety. Under the Conservatives, when they were in
power for ten years, they allowed eight hundred thousand affordable homes to be sold
to rich developers to be turned into highly profitable rental units that no one can
afford. And under the Liberals we lost another two hundred thousand and affordable homes
and the housing prices have gone up. This is not by chance, this
is by design. They've chosen to make our housing market really great for investors,
a great place to make a lot of money, but not a great
place to find a home. That is a choice, and I want to
change that. We can absolutely change the way our markets structured so it actually
benefits people finding a home. That's never going to be fixed. If we
think that the same market that got us in this problem, it's going to
get us out of this problem. We've got to change our approach and make
housing about people finding a home, not about rich developers getting even richer.
They don't need more help what people do, and that's what I'm focused on.
We're gonna go to Martin from Coast Media next. That's just saying you
mentioned commercial units being a possibility to free up vacant room. Are you looking
at other jurisdictions, other municipalities as a president for something like this. Yeah,
So we've seen a lot of a lot of urban centers across the country.
A lot of commercial buildings are going vacant now because businesses are changing their
models. They're not using off the space the same way, and so we've
got a lot of opportunity with those commercial properties that could be converted into student
dormitory. Specifically, we've seen a project like that in Toronto right beside the
University of the University of Toronto on Spidna, a project where building was converted
and it's now being turned into student housing. We need to do more of
that. We need to see the federal government be more actively involved in using
the opportunities that we have with vacant commercial properties, vacant federal land, and
using that to build homes that people can actually afford, where students can actually
afford. That's something that we have to do. It's not an option.
Right now, we're seeing how bad things are getting and without any action,
it's just going to get worse. That's why we're pushing for this bold action
that's really going to put people first. Give a fall up. Additionally,
what do you say to those who voice concerns about your own stake and property
investment given your spouse spouse is holding up an investment property. But we have
a home in Burnaby where we live and we only need one part of the
home, so we rent out the basement. I think that's a reasonable thing
to do. We don't need the whole space, and that gives someone else
a home. Our tenet there is able to live a great life. He's
got. It's two kids that come live with them, and we think that's
an important thing. But I absolutely agree that for too long, the housing
market has been set up and been designed to make rich investors richer. That's
something I want to take on. You're not gonna hear, Paul, You
I've ever mentioned that, You're not gonna hear true to ever mentioned that.
I'm saying it directly. There's a problem. If our housing market continues to
make rich investors richer and people keep on falling behind. That is unsustainable.
That is not something that's going to work for our future. That's not working
right now, and I'm very hopefully saying we've got to take that on.
We've got to change our approach and make sure housing is designed for people to
find at home, not for someone to get rich quick off of. And
that's how it's been for a long time. If you look at Canada compared
to other countries around the world, the increase in costs in Canada far exceed
other chie seven countries. Because our housing market is great for an investor to
put money in and then see their profits go up. But it's not great
for someone to find at home. I want to change that and we have
to change that. Next questions from Radio Canada. Marjora still very mixplicate approach.
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Okay, we'll move to questions on zoom. We're gonna take one question
and one follow Please use the brace hand function of apprand and cast cv itzela
function. Our first question comes from Julie and Lapointo Canada. We thing christ
for me politics plus or staff. So so for some final thoughts, how
do we make our world a little more safer? How do we have an
effect on our individual governments? And how do we build help those reasons that
are without governments, without these sort sort of supervisions and systems. How do
we help them build them so that they don't become so large that they forget
about what they're about for the people, and that they stay within the control
and reach of the people so that they can have a safe home. See
if medical systems and food systems so that they can just simply live. Thank
you for listening to and please find a subscribe button wherever it may be.
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