United Nations – mackaycartoons

Tuesday September 23, 2014

September 23, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 23, 2014

Stephen Harper to skip UN Climate Summit, attend dinner instead

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is hosting a major climate summit in New York on September 23, “to mobilize political will” towards reducing global emissions.

U.S. President Barack Obama will be attending, as will U.K. Prime Minster David Cameron.

In fact, 125 heads of state will be there.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, however, will not.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s office on Wednesday afternoon, spokesperson Jason MacDonald said that Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq will attend the summit in his stead.

“The Prime Minister will take part in the related dinner with the Secretary-General to discuss climate issues,” noted the statement.

Incidentally, Harper will be in New York that week to attend the Every Woman, Every Child event hosted by the Secretary-General on September 25th and to address the UN General Assembly.

The climate summit is not an official negotiating summit but comes one year ahead of a 2015 meeting in Paris where world leaders are aiming to a achieve a new legally binding and universal agreement on climate change — the first one since Kyoto.

Ban Ki-Moon hopes the summit on September 23 will be a catalyst towards that deal.

“Time is running out. The more we delay, the more we will pay,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Huffington Post last week.

“Climate change is accelerating and human activities are the principal cause, as documented in a series of authoritative scientific reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The effects are already widespread, costly and consequential — to agriculture, water resources, human health, and ecosystems on land and in the oceans. Climate change poses sweeping risks for economic stability and the security of nations.” (Source: Yahoo News Canada)

Thursday September 4, 2014

September 4, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

A variation on the caption from a cartoon that ran just over a year ago:

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday, August 23, 20

Friday, September 13, 2013

September 12, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, September 13, 2013

Syria will give up control of chemical weapons

Syria will cede control of its chemical weapons to the international community, the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has said in a yet-to-be-aired interview on Russian television.

In what is believed to be his first public acknowledgement of the country’s chemical weapon stockpile, Interfax news agency quoted the president as saying the move had not been prompted by US military threats but Russian diplomatic efforts.

“Syria is placing its chemical weapons under international control because of Russia. The US threats did not influence the decision,” Interfax said, quoting the state-run Rossiya-24 channel’s yet-to-be-aired interview.

[slideshow_deploy id=’219’]

Assad also told Rossiya-24 that Syria would submit documents to the United Nations for an agreement governing the handover of its chemical arsenal.

The reports came hours before the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and US secretary of state, John Kerry, were due to meet in Geneva to discuss the proposal, which Lavrov announced on Monday along with Moscow’s plan for implementing it.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said the initiative will not succeed unless Washington abandons plans for potential air strikes to punish Assad for a poison gas attack on 21 August that the US president, Barack Obama, blames on Syrian government forces. (Source: The Guardian)

[caption id=”attachment_2513″ align=”aligncenter” width=”765″] Double Take ‘Toons: Putin Peacemonger?[/caption]

FEEDBACK

This cartoon was posted to NPR’s Double Take, with lots of commentary from supporters and detractors.

Monday, April 15, 2013

April 15, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, April 15, 2013

China must do more to resolve N. Korean Missile Crisis

Secretary of State John Kerry has called on China to do more to help resolve the North Korean missile crisis, saying the country provided the Pyongyang regime with a “lifeline.”

In an interview with NBC’s TODAY that aired on Monday, Kerry also said any deal with the rogue state would need to be structured so that Pyongyang could not later renege on its terms.

In recent days the North Koreans have readied missiles for launch and some speculated this would happen on Monday, when the nation celebrates the birth of founder Kim Il Sung, current leader Kim Jong Un’s grandfather.

In an interview in Tokyo before flying back to the U.S. on Monday, Kerry said that if the missiles were not fired “that would mean perhaps we’re turning a corner and there’s a possibility of moving in a better direction.”

“Everybody understands the negative side of what happens if there is a shoot. And my hope is that we can move in a different direction here. China, I think, is serious about this,” he said. “They understand the instability this is creating.”

Kerry said it was “very important” for the United States to make clear to North Korea that there would be “consequences for their action” and to reaffirm its security agreements with its allies in the region.

“That done, I think it is very important to the Chinese to focus on the fact that … if they’re not prepared to put the pressure on the North — and they have the greatest ability to have an impact on the North — then this can become more destabilizing,” he said. “And that instability is not in China’s interest, certainly. It’s not in anybody’s interest in the region.”(Source: NBC News)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

October 13, 2010 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tories blame Ignatieff for losing bid for UN seat

After losing its bid for a coveted seat on the UN Security Council to Portugal on Tuesday, the Conservative government responded by defending its campaign and blaming Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

“I do not think that this is a repudiation of Canada’s foreign policy,” Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Canada ran a campaign based on principle; we ran a strong campaign. Unfortunately, back home in Canada, the leader of the opposition determined that Canada does not speak with one voice.

“In my view, (Ignatieff’s statements) were used as an issue to prevent Canada from succeeding to the Security Council.”

Ignatieff had accused the Harper government of ignoring the UN during its four years in office.

“This is a government that for four years has basically ignored the United Nations and now is suddenly showing up saying, ‘Hey, put us on the council,'” Ignatieff said in September.

Ignatieff responded Tuesday afternoon by saying it was a “sad day” for Canada and the international community has sent the Conservatives a message.

“This is the first time in sixty years we’ve failed to secure a seat on an institution that this country helped found,” he told reporters, noting the roles in the UN played by former prime ministers Lester Pearson and Brian Mulroney. “This is a pretty depressing story about the government’s performance on foreign policy.”

Ignatieff called the blame the Tories laid at his feet “ridiculous. (Source: CTV News)