Taking Offence

Alas, Canada has succeeded yet again in offending.  In its appearance at the United Nations Canada has turned from being an acquiescent, accommodating, co-operative member-state, complacently agreeable to the fact that among its coeval states there exist those whose human rights abuses are so domineeringly egregious as to be difficult to overlook, but with a concentrated determination, can be, and have been.

The new Canada on the international stage, under the Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has chosen a different path, and that fork in the road finally taken has caused great consternation, not only within the United Nations and among its member democracy-states, but even at home where the opposition political parties fondly recall a more timid, entirely less aggressive approach to human rights defence.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is so incensed at Canada's intolerable effrontery at once again leading the demeaning charge of accusing the Republic of dreadful human rights abuses, it has turned its diplomatic face of contempt and accusation against Canada, in its stead.  Canada, Iran charges, is "racist" and "self-centred"; obviously, incurably so.

Canada, said Iran's ambassador scathingly, has "a long list of human rights violations" committed against "immigrants, Muslims, aboriginals and Afro-Canadian women".  The country is guilty of "abusing human rights mechanisms to advance its self-centred political interests", the most obvious manifestation of which, therefore is the continued annual and unforgivable assault on Iran's reputation within the United Nations.

"In fact, if any country had to get a resolution, [Canada] would have deserved it more than others because of their unsparing support of a regime [Israel] that has frequently committed genocide in the Palestinian Occupied Territories", fumed Mohammad Khazaee in a statement to the UN General Assembly Plenary.  How does one 'frequently commit genocide'?

Israel, among the 42 co-sponsors of the resolution passed by the UN humanitarian affairs committee condemning Iranian abuses, represents an outrageous irony, since within the UN, in incendiary slanderous motions led by countries like Iran, Syria and Cuba, Israel is held to be the world's most notorious human-rights abuser.

At issue, needless to say, is Iran's use of torture and the death penalty, its execution of minors, its restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly, its violence against women, and the arrest of leading opposition figures.  Its persecution of Baha'i, its use of violent force in putting down popular protest gatherings of Iranians prepared to endanger themselves through public protest.
  "We won't stand still in the face of these egregious actions.  We will continue to express serious concern about the ongoing and pervasive human rights violations in Iran, including the persecution of religious minorities. Canada is a vigorous defender of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law around the world, and we will continue to urge Iran to uphold its international obligations, to allow for freedom of religion and to respect the fundamental rights of its people." 
Rick Roth, Foreign Affairs spokesman.