CP of Canada condemns Foreign Minister Anand as she backs the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara

On April 28, during a meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand publicly backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara, defining it “as the basis for a mutually acceptable solution and as a serious and credible initiative toward a just and lasting settlement of the conflict.”

The Communist Party of Canada (CPC) has issued a forceful condemnation of the federal government’s recent shift in policy on Western Sahara, expressed by Foreign Minister Anand. In a statement published May 5 on the party’s official website, the CPC argued that Canada’s new position abandons the principle of self-determination and effectively endorses a “plan for perpetual occupation” of Africa’s last colony. Rejecting any outcome that does not lead to an independent Western Sahara, the party reaffirmed its solidarity with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO), the sole representative of the Sahrawi people.

Claiming that Canada’s policy reversal is driven by economic interests such as access to Western Sahara’s phosphate reserves, the CPC’s Central Executive Committee urged all progressive and pro-sovereignty forces to condemn Minister Anand’s position and demand that Canada instead pressure the UN to reaffirm the option of a referendum on self-determination and thus support the decolonization of Western Sahara.