Jason Nickerson: The world is in crisis. Does Canada have a plan?

The world's humanitarian crises are getting much worse, very quickly. Canada cannot afford to make decisions at its usual placid pace.

May 16, 2025

By: Jason Nickerson

With multiple humanitarian crises unfolding, what are Canada’s leaders prepared to do about it?

As members of Parliament prepare to return to the House of Commons, we as Canadians find ourselves in a moment of unprecedented global upheaval. Multiple large-scale crises are unfolding in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Gaza, displacing millions of people. From war zones and refugee camps where people are deprived of basics like food and water to countries with fragile health systems and communities ravaged by disease outbreaks, the safety net for millions is unravelling as humanitarian aid budgets are cut, and the human cost is catastrophic. This moment demands urgent and courageous political leadership, yet after a month of campaigning and two weeks after the election, we still lack a clear picture of how Canada’s new government will respond to today’s crises or what direction its foreign policy will take.

Much attention over the past months has appropriately revolved around the United States government’s cuts to USAID, its primary mechanism for funding and delivering international assistance around the world. USAID funded a disproportionately large amount of lifesaving programs including more than 40 per cent of the entire world’s humanitarian assistance budgets (as tracked by the United Nations’ Financial Tracking Service for humanitarian aid contributions in 2024). But the United States is far from alone in reducing its international assistance funding — so too have several European countries. When millions of people depend on international aid just to survive, what happens to them when that lifeline is suddenly slashed?

This is not merely a question of providing financial support to humanitarian and global health programs — though that is urgently needed to close the gaps in delivering lifesaving humanitarian assistance today. It is about being clear about Canada’s role in the world, and living up to its responsibilities.

My organization, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is not directly affected by cuts to international assistance. This is because we are not reliant on money from governments — the vast majority of our funding comes from the generous donations of millions of private supporters globally. We remain committed to providing medical care and humanitarian aid in more than 70 countries around the world. However, no organization can do this work alone. We are seeing gaps emerge as other organizations who are dependent on donor-government funding are forced to stop work and withdraw, leaving millions of people without access to the medical care that they need, including for diseases that the world has made very real progress in starting to tackle, such as HIV and tuberculosis. That progress is now very much at risk.

So too is the scientific progress that’s been made in bringing new treatments to patients around the world — including in Canada — as funding cuts to disease control programs start to limit patients’ access to treatments that they’re already on, creating conditions that may very well generate resistance to the medicines that are used to treat and manage these diseases. The impact is broad, multifaceted, and may well hit home (public health officials in Montreal just this week warned of a sharp rise in tuberculosis cases, for example, that need to be treated with drugs that are used carefully so as to not generate resistance).

Across the world, MSF teams have witnessed U.S.-funded organizations reducing or stopping other critical programs — including vaccination campaigns, protection and care for people caught in conflicts, sexual and reproductive health services, the provision of clean water and basic sanitation services. The impacts of these cuts on people and on communities are far-reaching.

This brings us to the Canadian federal election, where, remarkably, Canada’s role in an increasingly turbulent world seems to have barely registered as a headline. As The Line’s editors continue to remind us, we’re living in a particularly volatile moment in time, where crises appear to emerge and escalate with much greater speed than we’re used to seeing. While Canada’s responsibility to work to address them is clear, its willingness to do so is not. Worryingly, we’re also seeing gaps emerge in countries’ openness or ability to find political solutions to political crises. As MSF’s Secretary General told the United Nations Security Council in a recent briefing on the horrendous conflict in Sudan, we too often see diplomacy reduced to agreements or statements that are supposed to deliver a reprieve in fighting and increase humanitarian access to people in need, but lack monitoring, accountability or leadership to deliver on these promises and consequently become little more than a rhetorical shield — nothing gets better on the ground, but when asked about the crisis, the politicians point to the (ineffective) agreement.

For Canada, the question is not what do we care about or what are we concerned about? The question is what are our leaders prepared to do about it? Canada’s leaders have a responsibility to use the tools and influence they have available to them. States have a responsibility to step up and find political solutions to the political crises that underpin the humanitarian crises that are eroding the safety and dignity of people around the world at an alarming scale.

As humanitarians guided by principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, MSF will continue to deliver medical care to people affected by conflicts, disasters and disease outbreaks on the basis of needs alone and irrespective of politics or beliefs.

But we cannot alone stop disease outbreaks from spreading and growing to become pandemics. Doctors and nurses cannot stop wars, and humanitarian aid workers cannot stop bombs from falling. These are political problems that require political and moral courage to act.

Canada cannot solve every global crisis, but our leaders can choose to take principled, courageous action on at least some of these global issues in a meaningful way. Canada has shown this leadership before. As Canadian MPs return to the House of Commons, they have an opportunity and a responsibility to define what role Canada will play on the global stage in this extraordinarily difficult moment in time. The stakes are real and have never been higher: people’s lives, safety and dignity depend on it.

Jason Nickerson is the Humanitarian Representative to Canada for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), based in Ottawa.

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