 Mr. President, fellow delegates, my friends, thank you for the opportunity to address this assembly. Like many of you, I've spoken in this forum before, but never like this at a time like this. The world is in crisis, and not just because of the last few months, not just because of COVID-19, but because of the last few decades, and because of us. This is our wake-up call, and we cannot ignore it. Time and time again, history has shown us that the price for turning away for failing to act is much too high. Our parents and grandparents remember all too well what things were like in the 30s and the 40s. Economies collapsed. Governments and systems of government crumbled. Millions died. That was the world they faced. That was the challenge they had to meet. And this is what they did about it. Our parents and grandparents chose to get up and rebuild themselves. They set foot on multilateral institutions like the United Nations. They created international financial institutions like the World Bank, the FMI, and other institutions like Bretton Woods. And they threw the foundations of an international order based on rules through which we knew a period of common prosperity unprecedented during the second half of the 20th century. We had a system. We had a generation that learned from crisis and set us on a better path. In their era, those systems worked. But that was 50, 60, 70 years ago. Today, all those institutions no longer serve us well enough on what they were designed for, defending multilateralism and international law, protecting human rights and open markets. That is what the crisis of COVID-19 has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that things have to change. And not just on the world stage, but at home too. We don't do enough for the most vulnerable people, whether they are elderly people who are dying in health care establishments or unopened people who fight each night. We don't go far enough to eliminate systemic injustice, whether it be racism towards black people, or autochtones, homophobia or sexism. In the difficulties of our citizens, we can see the failures of our institutions, of our world. After the pandemic has decimated their economy and their basic services, many countries are now at the brink of suffocation. That is what I heard from so many of you during the meeting on the development financing that Canada has organized last spring with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness. We must do more for the children of the world to be fed and that they can go to school. If we don't do it, the consequences will be disastrous. We are facing a global humanitarian crisis. And the most worrying thing about all of this is that this pandemic and the crises it has put into light are not even our biggest threat. Right now, our world is facing a climate reckoning. We are at this point because of our collective inability over the past decades to make the tough decisions and sacrifices needed to fight climate change and save future generations. The pandemic has not changed that. Our shared failures have continued and our citizens are paying the price. We need a new way of thinking, on climate, on inequality, on health, because the way we're doing things just isn't working well enough. Too often concerted action is blocked. The needs of our citizens are denied as a result of gridlock at decision-making bodies. And why? Because there are few consequences for countries that ignore international rules. For regimes that think might makes right. Few consequences for places where opposition figures are being poisoned, while cyber tools and disinformation are being used to destabilize democracies. Few consequences when innocent citizens are arbitrarily detained and fundamental freedoms are repressed, when a plane of civilians is shot from the sky, when women's rights are not treated as human rights, when no one has any rights at all. We are in deadlock. The international approach we've relied on since the second half of the 20th century was built on an understanding that countries would work together. But now those same countries are looking inward and are divided. We need to recognize where we are. The system is broken. The world is in crisis. And things are about to get much worse unless we change. Right now we have a chance, not a big chance, but a chance to shift course, to realize that the only way through this is together. Putting some people ahead of others does not work. A healthier, cleaner, more equal future cannot be the privilege of a lucky few. It must be the right of us all. The only way to arrange things, the only way to build a better future for our children and our children is to work together. By defending each other, whatever the lines drawn on the cards, Rohingyas are dead, the demonstrators in Belarus, the Lebanese people, the citizens held arbitrarily in China, the Autochtones people in Canada and all over the world. A global, real and constructive collaboration is the only way to proceed. But who are we to ask this? Canada is not a country that can make things move in its great international relations. Like so many others, we are subject to the caprices of superpowers. But as Canadians, we know that we are in this together. As Canadians, a trading nation where we trace our origins to every corner of the planet, we know that we are in this together. And I know other countries, your countries see this too. Instead of hunkering down and hoping that we come out the other side okay, let's remember that we're all in this together. Instead of crossing our fingers and hoping that the big powers will figure this out, let's look at what we can do to make a difference together. Let's use our shared power, not just to get a vaccine, but to get it out to everyone. Let us be inspired by our citizens' call to restore the global economy while we tackle climate change. In other words, let's not wait for someone else to act. Let's do it ourselves. Each one of us here in these United Nations, each one of us uniting around a shared future. Canada has a long history in peacekeeping and we will continue to step up and continue to move the dial on lasting peace by empowering women. Canada has always supported the work of agencies like UNICEF, the World Food Program and the UNHCR. Not only will we keep supporting these efforts, we will keep increasing our international assistance budget every year. There's still so much more to be done. In the four corners of the world, children wear masks to go to school or won't go to school at all. Old people die. Manifestants are killed. The sea level rises and forests burn. People who only think of themselves continue to aggravate inequalities and conflicts. It's time for us, as a United Nations, to unite our forces and to do what we have been created for. Ensure peace and security and avoid global crises. These days, we are leading a fight not like the others, but against an invisible virus. At the same time, we are fighting against the consequences of our own actions because of which the level of carbon in the atmosphere is now unsustainable. Everywhere around the world, people are becoming mindful of this reality. They're refusing to accept inequality. They're refusing to close their eyes to the peril we're facing. Our citizens will no longer shrug off as someone else's problem a failing status quo. That's a good thing because there is the path forward. After a wildfire rips through a forest, life adjusts and begins anew. After an earthquake hits a city, people work together and rebuild. As we face these layers of crises, this is what we must do. We must understand our opportunities and our responsibilities to take real action together, to protect each other, to support each other. If we meet this moment, if we rise to this challenge, I know that, like our grandparents did 70 years ago, we will lay the foundations of a better world.