Canada has lost its way on human rights, says world-renowned activist

JANICE DICKSON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS REPORTER

APRIL 22, 2025

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, is the son of a Jew who fled Nazi Germany before the war. He’s written a book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments, that was released in February of 2025.

FRED LUM/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

World-renowned human rights activist Kenneth Roth says that Canada has lost its international profile on defending human rights and hopes a new prime minister will rebuild the country’s reputation.

Mr. Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, was in Toronto recently promoting his book Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments. In a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail, he said he wanted his book to show how it’s possible to defend human rights – even in countries where there’s no functioning court.

“There’s always an angle to pressure governments to better respect human rights,” he said, adding that it’s all about finding points of leverage.

One strategy, he said, is spotlighting the discrepancy between governments’ pretense of respect for human rights and the often uglier reality. “Almost every government finds that embarrassing and delegitimizing, so that’s an important source of leverage,” he said.

Another manoeuvre, he added, is approaching governments such as Canada’s, and asking that it exert its influence by withholding something the country in question wants – such as military aid or trade benefits – in exchange for a human rights improvement.

“If we can change the cost benefit analysis of repression, we can force governments to change. We can make repression less beneficial. So that’s the theory,” he said. 

But Mr. Roth said that Canada could be doing much more to pull its weight. He said he became disappointed with former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

“I thought he started off very well, and then he seemed to become preoccupied with domestic issues and Canada kind of lost its international profile to a significant extent,” he said. “There’s a new election coming up. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but I think a more significant international role for Canada would be very welcome.”

Mr. Roth said that while this is the first time Canada has been threatened with becoming a 51st state, it’s not the first time there has been a “hostile administration” in Washington. He said Canada has tackled past animosity by being a key partner in coalitions.

One example, he said, was during the first Trump administration when the Lima Group, which was made up of Latin American democracies and Canada, succeeded in condemning Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela through the UN Human Rights Council.

Another instance Mr. Roth cited was the Canadian government’s leadership on the 1997 global treaty to ban landmines.

“Canada says, ‘oh you know, we’re a mid-sized country,’ but it has significant moral clout and it’s been very good at building coalitions that, taken together, can overcome a hostile administration in Washington. And I cite that history because there’s a need for that again today.”

When it comes to the erosion of human rights in the United States, Mr. Roth said that

Mr. Trump is following “the classic autocrat’s handbook, which is to attack the checks and balances and executive authority and to demonize unpopular minorities as a scapegoat for the nation’s problems, and as an excuse for why Trump actually isn’t addressing those problems himself.”

He said Mr. Trump is also deliberately going after lawyers and universities, attacking journalists, quelling Congress and has threatened to impeach judges.

“I think the key here is not to be paralyzed by this, but indeed not to be complacent and say ‘oh this is just the lawyers,’ Or ‘this is just the journalists,’ but to explicitly articulate that each step is part of a deliberate strategy all designed to produce an unchecked executive,” he said. “This is why he admires Putin so much, because Putin has succeeded in this. It’s why he likes Viktor Orban, because Orban is pretty far along the path.”

Mr. Roth said where he sees leverage in dealing with Mr. Trump is that he has a fragile ego and is sensitive to public opinion. “He’s trying to dazzle us with so many moves that nobody can keep track, but already his popularity is dropping when people look at the concrete things he’s doing,” he said, such as cutting Medicaid, or imposing tariffs.

“The working class is not helped by these antics.”

Threatening to turn Canada into the 51st state, or threatening to annex Greenland, he said, is Mr. Trump’s way of “changing the subject away from anything real.”

“It’s not fun for Canadians to be threatened this way and I don’t blame Canada for taking it seriously, but you know, Canada is not going to be invaded,” he said, adding that the President is whipping up “nationalist fervour” in the U.S. to distract people.