High commissioner underscores the success of Caribbean-Canada partnerships

TORONTO:

Jamaica’s High Com-missioner to Canada, Marsha Coore Lobban, has hailed the strength and success of Canada/Caribbean partnerships at various leadership levels over the years.

Coore Lobban was a participant at the opening plenary of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Caribbean Canada Leaders Dialogue (CCLD) held at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in Toronto from May 22 to 24. The mission of the CCLD is to develop contemporary leaders.

Speaking on the theme of collaborative partnerships and collective impact as a member of the Canada Caribbean Institute High Commissioner panel, she said, “Policy is not confined to boardrooms. It is about the change we co-create in people’s lives.”

She noted that collaborative success is anchored in leadership that has shared commitment to sustainable, people-centred development; continuous, inclusive, open communication; and true mutual respect and valuing of diverse perspectives.

The President of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conferences Canada Inc., HRH The Princess Royal Princess Anne along with Jamaican-Canadian Wes Hall, Chair of the 2025 Caribbean Canada Leaders Dialogue have collaborated in support of a unique experiential programme empowering delegates from across Canada and the Caribbean to drive positive community impact.

In 1956, following a visit to northern Canada where the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillip saw extreme disparities in approaches to problems, he rallied 300 industry, government, and labour personnel together in Oxford, UK to use dialogue and experience to forge solutions for the broader good of the Commonwealth.

Hall, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, is from humble beginnings in rural Jamaica. He founded the BlackNorth Initiative to help end systemic anti-Black racism in Canada, while also changing the lives of thousands of children in the Caribbean and Canada, donating both his money and time.

Coore-Lobban described the Caribbean Canada experience through collaboration at the government level as a deep-rooted and evolving partnership.

In the 1960s, the first diplomatic relations were established post-independence, then there were trade agreement negotiations in the 1980s, followed by decades of consistent partnership building on shared values, and in 2023, the Strategic Partnership Roadmap was launched at the Ottawa Summit.

There is now structured and regular collaboration focused on economic growth, security, climate and environment, and people-to-people ties to address complex, transnational issues.

ENSURE INCLUSIVE, EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS

Explaining how the partnership works, the high commissioner said there is leadership dialogue involving heads of state and governments as well as ministers setting strategic priorities, official engagement in which government representatives develop implementation plans, and civil society participation where diverse voices ensure inclusive and effective solutions.

Coore Lobban noted that there are multilateral engagements including joint leadership and advocacy on common global challenges in various fora such as the United Nations, Commonwealth, Organization of American States, and others.

“Canada has been one of our strongest advocates in the multilateral fora on issues such as climate resilience, access to financing and financing for development, SIDS, oceans and the blue economy, hemispheric security and Haiti.

There are also trade and economic ties such as the CARIBCAN agreement, which was created in 1986 and has been extended to 2033, providing duty-free access for most CARICOM goods into Canadian markets.

The high commissioner also highlighted some of the climate and environmental initiatives such as the Disaster READY Project, ECP-Caribbean (Coral Reefs & Coasts), Caribbean Climate Smart Fund, Climate Smart Agriculture, and the Community Resilience Fund.

The social development and security initiatives include programmes like the Expert Deployment Mechanism to support economic diversification and a reduction of gender inequalities.

For women’s empowerment, there is $24.1M for rights and leadership initiatives; a $3M Caribbean Future Skills Fund for youth development; PROJUST strengthens law enforcement and judicial services in the area of security cooperation; and where disaster relief is concerned, there is $10.2M in recent emergency assistance.

The people-to-people connectivity involves Canadian visitors to CARICOM, Canadians living in CARICOM, remittances and income from tourism. There are 500, 000 Caribbean people in Canada enriching the multicultural landscape and identity, and contributing to the skilled, motivated immigrant workforce.

All of these result in a flow of ideas, goods, innovations, values, and mutual interest and understanding of each other’s cultures.

Coore Lobban’s recommendations for future leaders are; be prepared and informed with purposeful data, inclusivity, core moral values, transparency, be open-minded, patience and humility, and be impactful – “see ourselves as having a shared responsibility”.

Also speaking at the event was Jamaica-born Mitzie Hunter, a former Ontario government minister and member of provincial parliament who is the president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Women’s Foundation.

Speaking on social impact and community engagement, Hunter told the delegates that ‘there should be nothing stopping them from doing what they were put on earth to do and the purpose that they have on their lives’. She shared lessons from her personal journey.