Canada : Lost Its Way

"After the 2015 election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau trumpeted that without the Natural Governing Party in power our country had not been seen or counted among the nations. If Trudeau had confined his remarks to a domestic audience, it could be put down to relatively harmless, if outlandish, partisan conceit. However, Trudeau and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland took his progressive proselytizing abroad to sometimes bemused but frequently outraged foreign governments."
"Through naïveté and an unerring ability to step on political land mines, the self-congratulatory duo seriously strained relationships with our two largest trading partners, the largest democracy in the world and other countries, large and small. The harm has been serious and recovery will be slow and painful."
"Shortly after being elected Liberal leader in 2013, Trudeau gushed that China is the basic dictatorship he most admires, putting to question democracy, a fundamental value most Canadians hold dear and many literally died for. He then set the stage for the current debacle with dead-on-arrival free trade demands that the Communist government change its governance, gender equity, labour and climate policies to suit his progressive agenda. When Trudeau lectured Chinese authorities and business executive on their deficiencies, many attendees walked out and later refused to meet members of the Canadian delegation."
"Then there are other damaged relationships. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs was banned from visiting the White House for saying America abandoned its leadership role. Since the U.S. President strikes back at personal provocations, deliberately goading him was likely designed to position the Liberals as anti-Trump during the election. However, that is a hazardous game since 76% of our trade and 20% of our economy derive from the American relationship."
"Our relations with India are at a low because Trudeau courted Khalistani Sikh separatists for domestic partisan advantage. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi apparently conveyed his irritation personally to Trudeau after snubbing him during his cloying costume tour."
"The Saudis have retaliated shockingly for an Arabic language tweet demanding the release of Canadian prisoners. Unfortunately, the tweet accomplished nothing positive for the detainees, but is costing our country dearly in revenue and capital investment."
Joe Oliver, former Conservative Minister of Finance

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, India on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

"I spent decades working with these highly educated and sophisticated people [foreign diplomats] and I would be embarrassed to be defending current [Canadian foreign affairs] policies."
"We have never before had strained relations with all three of the world's strongest powers."
Retired Canadian senior diplomat

"Justin has a domestic focus to his foreign policy, compared to his father [former Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau] who was a factor on the world stage."
"I don't think so [that Justin Trudeau studied geopolitics]. When engaging with world leaders, he's not talking about Middle East peace or Iran, I'd suggest he is engaging on issues like income inequality, women in leadership roles and the environment."
Retired Canadian senior diplomat

The newly-elected Justin Trudeau trumpeted his own glowing reviews of self as saviour of Canadian foreign policy when, still green from being planted in the prime minister's office, he travelled abroad to attend G-7 and G-20 meetings to announce with his ingratiatingly beaming smile "Canada is back!" What he meant, of course, was that Canada was back to being governed by the Liberal Party of Canada. And the extra-special bonus was that Justin Trudeau was at the helm, bringing his famous "sunny ways" to the world forum.

As a Liberal, he went the party one better; during the election campaign he cherry-picked the leftist New Democratic Party's touchy-feely, grass-roots policies, everything from promises to the deserving 'middle-class', to support for families and children, to environmental issues, and unbridled support for abortion rights, LGBTQ-2 equality status, First Nations rights, employment equity, and anything that might appeal to those considered society's downtrodden forgotten.

He was to be regarded, he proudly acclaimed, a feminist. And so he dedicated himself, his government and the country at large to championing women's rights, employment equity, the LGBTQ-2 community, Aboriginal complaints; in short any progressive issue that society struggled with was his struggle. He would, on the international scene develop a "new era of Canadian international engagement", altering forever by showcasing Canadian values the real world's state of affairs.

The trouble always was that Justin Trudeau has and always will live in his own cloistered little world; the golden mean of moderation, of careful priorities, of caution and sensibility eludes him. Justin has been put on notice by India that warming relations for bilateral cooperation remain highly unlikely as long as Ottawa is seen to be warm to Canadian Sikh extremists agitating for a Khalistan homeland in the Punjab. The simple fact is, caution is thrown to the winds when Trudeau focuses on the Sikh voting bloc.

Justin Trudeau has lost all credibility with India's Narendra Modi government. Justin Trudeau's vision of himself at the helm of a moral superpower happily prepared to guide all other nations to a state of universal brotherhood and sisterhood akin to Canada's 'post-nationalism' is the driving force behind Canada being viewed by other countries as one that has drifted into international obscurity. Trudeau's branding of Canada as sympathetic and cooperative, fleshes out his "positive Canadian vision" free on offer to all other nations.

In 2017, Trudeau flew to China fully anticipating the signing of a free trade agreement. Beijing was somewhat less than enthusiastic about Trudeau's expectation that the Chinese Communist Party would alter their values and priorities to please his progressive views of what he could lead China toward; changing their labour laws to reflect equality, embracing liberalism and a feminist agenda. No trade deal morphed into a frigid disinterest on Beijing's part and a puzzled Justin Trudeau.

And Canada went on to enrage Beijing by arresting an executive of China's most important telecommunications giant on an American extradition warrant, loosing a trade war the likes of which Justin Trudeau's wildest nightmares could never envision, complete with the imprisonment of two Canadians for espionage, and a death sentence for imputed drug trafficking to two other Canadians. The most important agricultural products exported to China have now lost that market, and no doubt there's more to come....

The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement has left Canada in a quandary. Time, expertise and patience have all been focused on achieving a fair and equitable agreement. In the end Canada had to accept that the NAFTA deal that served the continent so well for years has been canted in the interests of the richest, most powerful among the three nations whose cards read 'Take.It.Or.Leave.It.'

And Chrystia Freeland's casual tweet criticizing Saudi Arabia for the arrest of imprisoned writer Raif Badawi's activist sister certainly unleashed a storm of backlash, startling in its harsh punishment for daring to question Saudi justice. "Blatant interference in the kingdom's domestic affairs" resulted in the Canadian ambassador being expelled, bilateral trade frozen, Canadian assets dumped, and Saudi students called home. And Samar Badawi will remain imprisoned, for no little two-bit country can teach Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman feminist values.

"If we confine relations to like-minded countries, we'll have ever fewer relations", opined one former ambassador. Canada has been absent an ambassador to Moscow for a year. The condition of the embassy is perilous; it is literally falling down, in serious need of immediate repair; an aphorism of the relations between Canada and the Russian Federation where in fact, Moscow has let it be known that Canada's minister of foreign affairs is not welcome in Russia.

"Canada is back," Trudeau mugged for the world's cameras at the signing of the Paris Accord in 2015. "We're Canadian," Trudeau told the U.N. General Assembly the following year, "and we're here to help." (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Canadian Diplomats Suing Their Government

"Throughout the crisis, Canada downplayed the seriousness of the situation, hoarded and concealed critical health and safety information, and gave false, misleading and incomplete information to diplomatic staff."
"[Global Affairs] actively interfered with the plaintiffs' attempts to receive proper health care, including going so far as instructing hospitals to stop testing and treating them."
"Despite knowing of the risks of Havana Syndrome early on, Canada continued to put its diplomats and their families in harm's way by sending them to Havana and requiring them to stay there despite becoming aware of the high and growing risk that they would sustain the brain injuries associated with Havana Syndrome."
Statement of Claim, $28-Million Lawsuit

"We knew there was something [happening] but we just couldn't figure out what was going on. Living in Cuba [as diplomatic staff] we understood that our houses were bugged."
"It just hit me, 'Holy crap, this [symptoms such as nausea, headaches, nosebleeds, hearing and eye problems from an unknown source] is going on in my house'."
"At the low point, I thought I was going to throw up. I was nauseous like you wouldn't believe. I don't know whether I went back to sleep or passed out."
Diplomat Allan (names withheld)

"My belief 21 months later is that decisions were made that simply did not prioritize us, not our health, not our safety and not that of our families."
"I am angry, yes. I am disappointed and I am sad. I am sad because there is no justification for not having considered the personal and lifelong impact this was going to have on us."
Diplomat Baker (generic names used for anonymity)

A view of the Canadian Embassy in Havana, Cuba, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (Franklin Reyes/Associated Press)

Five Canadian diplomats assigned to posts in Cuba, and 14 of their family members have filed a law suit against the federal government resulting from the mysterious illness they suffered while posted to Cuba and living in Havana. According to the suit the Canadian government which is responsible for the well-being of all Canadians and in particular their staff abroad, failed to inform, protect, treat and support them at a time of need.

Canadian families in Havana, the lawsuit states, "have been targeted and injured, suffering severe and traumatic harm by means that are not clear but may be some type of sonic or microwave weapon". And nor have Canadians been the sole targets. In fact American diplomats have been exposed and have suffered identical symptoms and injuries in their posting to Cuba. The affliction they all suffer from is now known as Havana Syndrome.

The government of Cuba claims to be just as mystified regarding the source of the syndrome as the U.S. and Canadians. Co-operation between all three governments to find the source of the problem has been welcomed, but no answers to the questions have resulted. The United States decided to dramatically reduce the number of diplomatic staff until such time as the matter can be more fully understood. It took Canada quite a while longer to decide not to permit family members to accompany diplomatic staff assigned to Cuba to accompany them.

Two years ago healthy diplomatic staff and their family members were beginning to experience peculiar symptoms; nosebleeds, headaches that appeared to have no explanation. Excruciating headaches would afflict them upon waking in the morning followed by nausea and problems with vision. The Allen family received no warning or information from the embassy or from Global Affairs, but a neighbouring U.S. diplomat who knew of the problem and whose own experience echoed that of the Allens, disclosed the situation to him.

Their feelings of fear, extreme irritability, nausea, headaches, nosebleeds had an unknown cause, but the situation was known to those who had earlier gone through the trauma. At the point when Allen was informed he was also told that a dozen Americans had been evacuated from Havana once it was ascertained that something strange was causing them to suffer those headaches, nosebleeds, hearing and eye problems. The Americans too were sworn to secrecy about the issue.

Eventually the Allen family was sent to the University of Miami for testing. A doctor there had examined about twenty Americans with similar symptoms, who had also been based in Havana. He diagnosed all four members of the Allen family with traumatic brain injuries similar to symptoms from concussions, recommending the children not return to Cuba: "They need to be away from Cuba for awhile".

Yet according to the lawsuit the Canadian embassy refused to send the Allen children back to Canada. The very fact that the Canadian diplomatic staff who knew about the situation were ordered to be silent about the issue, not to discuss anything with other staff newly arrived, knowing nothing of what was transpiring, did not impress these newly-diagnosed Canadians very positively.

Another diplomatic family, Diplomat Davies, wife and two young children were experiencing strange things in their house in Havana in the spring and summer of 2017 where the young daughter was increasingly unable to concentrate at school, suffering from nausea, tinnitus, sensitivity to light, visual impairment and sudden nosebleeds. Mrs. Davies lost her sense of balance, reported hearing high-pitched sounds. "I no longer knew where was up and where was down", she informed her husband after a strange fall.

She was diagnosed with damage to her vestibular system; parts of the inner ear and brain that process sensory information, was hypersensitive to light and noise, suffered from headaches, dizziness and muscle twitching. By all these accounts it is manifest that the government of Canada has failed in its obligation to its employees, to keep them safe from harm and to respond to their needs. The diplomats and their families are now undergoing tests at Dalhousie University's Brain Repair Centre.

The research and tests there have pointed out leakages in their blood brain barriers consistent with symptoms of concussions. When Global Affairs appeared to hesitate about the need to ensure that these people were given swift medical attention, several of the families travelled to University of Pennsylvania after officials there had offered to assess and treat Canadians, but the offer was turned down by the federal government.

All sound reasons to demand attention and remedial action, even if it was recognized that such would only be forthcoming through the compelling action of a lawsuit.

Canada, Punching Above Its Influence : Canada Misplacing Its Moral Code

"It was a stupid law. And it's still a stupid law. But we're stuck with it."
"Lost in all of the information about the reasons why, was the real reason ... It was the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, frankly. That's the reason: that still exists."
"It's no coincidence that we closed the [Iranian] embassy basically the day after the legislation became effective."
"The British weren't even seizing Iranian government property [following the attack on the British embassy in Tehran]. This law called for the seizure of Iranian government properties; [the Iranians] have a very flexible view on diplomatic immunity."
"How could we possibly stay open under those conditions? How can we reopen under those conditions?"
Dennis Horak, former Canadian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

This is a man, now retired, who in 2012 was director of Middle East relations for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs at a time when the-then government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper through Cabinet Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird announced the closure of the Tehran embassy in Canada. The accurate analysis cited for the drastic move of shuttering a foreign embassy in a country that had testy relations with an Islamist nation known for its leading role as a sponsor of   unsavoury human-rights-abuses generally was that Canada would not support relations with a state sponsor of terrorism.

Mr. Horak's views follow in lock-step with Foreign Affairs' traditional tolerance for Middle East infractions of human rights, a supporter himself of overlooking the vicious and violent tyrannies whose version of capital punishment would make any supporter of same in the West cringe with horror. It is his considered opinion borne of long years of toiling at the behest of Canada's governments in diplomatic missions in the Middle East, that those countries must be judged by different standards of ethics and morality. They are, after all, Islamic.

In the fine old tradition of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, before that External Affairs, now Global Affairs -- the name may change but the sentiments within do not -- Israel, the only democratic, liberal country in the Middle East, surrounded by avowed enemies, is viewed with disfavour. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's expressed loyalty to the concept of a Jewish State and his respect for the security of that anomalous state in its heritage geography within a larger, Muslim-majority establishment found no support within the Foreign Affairs old guard which has always transmitted its values to incoming members.

Inciting Saudi Arabia to a furious response to a tweet by current Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland represented an unprofessional, undiplomatic demand that this most rigidly Islamist of Muslim Kingdoms immediately shed its normal response to interior dissent, causing not only a diplomatic rift of icy dimensions, but a disruption in trade, investment and student exchange of even more serious implications leading to the question, why is Canada which celebrates itself as liberal progressive to a fault, so dependent on relations with the Kingdom to begin with?

The answer, of course, is Saudi Arabia's clout in the Middle East and the United Nations, and this government has its eye set on a seat on the two-year revolving UN Security Council, while also prepared to bank-and-spend the billions it is set to receive selling military weapons to the Saudis; so much for the morals of a government that sanctimoniously preaches morality to the world at large, proving that for the most part, with Liberal rule Canada is indeed 'back'.

As far as former Ambassador Horak, who deplored riling Saudi Arabia to the point where he was ejected persona non grata, is concerned, diplomats are skilled in many things, but overlooking human rights abuses represent one issue that cannot be overstated in looking after Canada's interests on the world stage. The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, enacted by the Conservative-led government of Stephen Harper whose conscience is alive and well, made it lawful for victims of violent terrorism attacks to hold responsible those governments who sponsor terror; in this case the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ambassador Horak, now nothing-Horak, is incensed that Canada has inadvertently in one instance and deliberately in the other, sacrificed a working relationship with the two most influential, oil-wealthy countries in the Middle East; Sunni Arab Saudi Arabia, and Shiite Persian Iran; no ambassador present in Riyadh and a shuttered mission in Tehran. Although this Liberal government is determined to restore relations with Iran. And this is not to be thought necessarily a black mark on Canada's capacity to have amicable relations with important and influential nations who can further Canada's interests.

While on the other hand, this administration, boosted by Foreign/Global Affairs accommodation, is doing its utmost now to separate itself in international public opinion -- at the same time catering to a home audience whose knee-jerk reaction has always been anti-U.S., even while Canadians are flocking as vacationers to various American states -- to demonstrate itself morally superior to an America now led by a conservative counterpart personality to Canada's inept liberal-progressive selfie-clown extraordinaire.

The reality is we share a border cutting straight across a huge continent. The reality is Canada's prosperity is inextricably linked with that of its powerful partner. The reality is that Canada cannot adequately protect itself in the event of conflict or invasion, without relying on the strength of the American military. The reality is that many American values are those shared by Canada. The fact is that without our vital trade with that economic and trade powerhouse the Canadian standard of living would be hugely reduced.

All of which show Trudeau up as a pitiful sham in every conceivable way.

One of a Kind, All Right....Antagonizing the Tyrant

"The Toronto staff tried numerous times to engage her as it became more apparent she had no plans to include us. We were desperate for face time, for some acknowledgment that our jobs mattered and that the hard work we did was appreciated."
"It was infuriating to see her launch her political bid. Not once did she visit staff at the Toronto office, yet here she was now claiming that this was her home."
"Her lines on championing the middle class were beyond hypocritical. These were good-paying union jobs that were outsourced."
Unnamed former Toronto editor

"When you talk to her about rules of origin, or the dairy, or intellectual property or whatever -- some of these subjects that are extraordinarily complex -- she understood them, and could discuss them."
"Typically, politicians don't -- they are interested in the big picture."
"I never saw Chrystia react to any of that kind of criticism [from the Trump administration]. She's got a pretty thick skin."
David MacNaughton, Canadian ambassador to Washington

"Instead of backing away from the story -- because it was such a dangerous story to report on -- Chrystia blew it wide open. It took a tremendous amount of guts, because gangsters and oligarchs were involved in a lot of murders back then -- of journalists and others."
"Chrystia is like raw steel. It is kind of misleading, you know, you see this relatively short woman with a high-pitched voice, and you might think you can run roughshod over her. Well, guess what? You will have met your match and ten times over."
Bill Browder, founder, CEO, Hermitage Capital Management Ltd.

Chrystia Freeland with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian trade negotiator Steve Verheul. PATRICK DOYLE/AFP/Getty Images

Chrystia Freeland's Ukrainian heritage speaks loud and clear through her scorn for Russia. It's not just the history between Russia and Ukraine and the horrors of the Holdomor, the USSR's rape of Ukraine, the breadbasket of the east, that left millions of Ukrainians to starve to death, and the current Russian Federation's violent intervention supporting secessionist ethnic Russian Ukrainians along with the piracy involved in requisitioning Crimea. She loathes Russia for many reasons. And along with that fact is the one that her grandfather was a fascist ally of Nazi Germany; righteous rage alongside unsavoury connections of anti-Semitism and Holocaust complicity.

But she is, of course, the darling of Canada's large Ukrainian community. The one that resisted the very notion that the Holocaust be commemorated in Canada by a dedicated memorial to the worst atrocity of state-authored genocidal annihilation the world has seen in still-living memory. A journalist by trade, with an outstanding academic record, a reportedly impeccable memory and a facility with a number of languages, she left journalism at the high echelons she had attained internationally, to run for public office. Sound familiar?

While it didn't work for Michael Ignatieff with his admirable journalistic background, his academic human rights teaching and leadership posts at Harvard and his dedication to human rights, it is working splendidly for Chrystia Freeland, that aspirational change of professions. Of course, Mr. Ignatieff aimed a little higher, attempting to win the vote for the Prime Ministership while Ms. Freeland responded to the Liberal Party's blandishments and sweetener of a cabinet position. Hers is the second-most-important position next to the PM's, however.

Mr. Ignatieff may have been scorned as the "just visiting" aspirant in view of his decades abroad, but on the other hand, he shares that with the globe-trotting Ms. Freeland. Both had influential contacts globally and within Canada, and the Liberal Party had high hopes in each instance when it succeeded in recruiting each in a desperate effort to regain the balance of power in Parliament, lost when Liberal arrogance and corruption at the time had finally succeeded in disgusting voters sufficiently to toss them out of power and bring in the Conservative alternative.

Mr. Browder was wowed by a journalist with a keen nose for an explosive expose that she would be credited for, giving his campaign to punish Russia by persuading liberal democracies, including Canada, to enact the Magnitsky Act in memory of his Russian lawyer who had uncovered state corruption and paid for his impudence with his life, while Mr. Browder, whose business was a victim of Russian state corruption -- in her high-profile reportage for the Financial Times as Moscow chief correspondent, furthering his plans for revenge. Chrystia Freeland made many influential connections throughout her career.

It is why the Toronto editor prefers to have his name withheld from his criticism of her casual betrayal of Canadian journalists whom she had hired for a large news venture as head of Thomson Reuters's digital news platform, Reuters Next. She had signed up well known journalists with rich contracts in Toronto with a view to adding them to the staff for this new project. She had become an employer powerhouse, in the process of promoting Reuters, burnishing her own personal brand in the process. She remains so well connected that the Toronto editor fears employment repercussions.

And then, suddenly, even while the Toronto employees wanted more information on their contracts and to learn more about their proposed function, Freeland simply closed down the Toronto operation affecting the employment of 25 people, favouring the jobs moving to Bangalore, India. This woman's conscience doesn't appear to have suffered, at the very time when, having joined the Liberal Club of Entitlement, she was already secure in her entitlements. So much so that nothing seems to faze her, not even negotiating though tumultuous and taut meetings to achieve a new NAFTA.

So secure in herself, in fact, that she never thought twice of cautionary diplomacy when she set out to deliberately and publicly join forces with those Americans who went out of their way to deplore and criticize the President of the United States of America. And while it's perfectly in line for American citizens to do that, when the Foreign Minister of a trading partner, a continental neighbour and political/social ally goes out of her way to attract the thin-skinned attention of a Donald Trump, heads swerve and those in power react, as did Mr. President when he stated baldly his dislike of her, setting another precedent after her own.

Named Diplomat of the Year (really!) by Foreign Policy magazine, her Washington speech was replete with warning about the rich getting richer, the middle class abandoned and people becoming "vulnerable to the demagogue who scapegoats the outsider, the other -- whether an immigrant at home or a foreign actor", pretty rich stuff from a woman whose Toronto home is pricey real estate over a million, who hauls in a hefty salary and can anticipate a golden handshake in retirement. As for the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum for national security: "absurd", a "naked example of the U.S. putting its thumb on the scale in violation of the very rules it helped to write".

Undiplomatically true, but not for a Minister of Foreign Affairs to triumph over Trump with, but a journalist of which she is no longer part of that profession. Followed by her panel appearance on Taking on the Tyrant, with its video comparing Trump to Vladimir Putin, and Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian mass slaughterer. Eliciting from the volatile Trump the inevitable: "We are very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada. We don't like their representative very much". He has lots of company there.

Arrogance? Between Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland it's a tossup.

At the United Nations in September, Donald Trump told reporters that the U.S. side didn’t care much for Canada’s chief negotiator Chrystia Freeland. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Canadian Values? Because We Are Canajun, Eh!?!

"There is nothing to mediate. A mistake has been made and a mistake should be corrected."
"Canada knows what it needs to do. We [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] don't accept interference in our affairs."
Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir

"As the minister has said and as we will repeat, Canada will always speak strongly and clearly in private and in public on questions of human rights."
"We don't want to have poor relations with Saudi Arabia. It's a country that has a certain importance in the world and is making progress on human rights. But we will continue to underline challenges when they exist there and everywhere in the world."
"I think people understand that in today's world there are a broad range of communications tools available to individuals, to countries, to share messages, to make statements." 
"We will continue to use the full range of methods of communication as appropriate."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"We are becoming too carefree with tweets."
"It is diplomacy by tweet that is responsible [for the current breakdown in diplomatic relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia]."
"When you're the government of Canada and the ministry of foreign affairs, you've got to be careful [in what you commit to that cannot be retracted in public]."
Former diplomat Colin Robertson, vice-president, Canadian Global Affairs Institute

Undeniably Twitter pronouncements are clumsy and inappropriate for use by executive government in transmitting national positions on any matter under discussion. And one as sensitive as human rights and the government of Canada's wish to urge another nation to relent on its stern and punitive laws victimizing those of its citizens who find fault with the Sharia interpretation of Salafist Islam imposed upon Saudi nationals should remain a matter of discreet diplomacy behind closed doors. To embarrass an ally by self-righteous accusations publicly is the antithesis of diplomacy.

Justin Trudeau should by now be aware that the blunt and brief and very public medium of Twitter messaging can come back to bite and haunt the tweeter, unwary and self-involved as he is, regardless. So, no, Prime Minister, its use is never, ever 'appropriate' for use as a medium by which one state can approach another over sensitive matters. To secure the release of a prisoner sentenced to harsh and anti-humane punishment because his actions have displeased Saudi rulers, a discreet approach is required to achieve any measure of success.

Arousing the furious ire of those you set out to guide toward a more tolerant outlook on punishment is the most certain way to ensure that that prisoner and others like them will never be released; indeed the level of their punishment is certain to be increased. This is a theocratic kingdom after all, that feels justified in beheading those they consider to be criminal malefactors, and who only yesterday crucified a man convicted of murder; that crucifixion taking place in the Islamic holy city of Mecca for good measure.

The Trudeau Liberal government is so enmeshed in its cocoon of hubristic sanctimony over human rights that it regularly neon-flashes its dedication to advancing the rights of the LGBTQ-2 community to the extent of insisting their welfare be considered in international trade agreements; a bulb of garlic planted deep within a mocha chocolate cake and served with pride. Calling Saudi Arabia publicly to account for its human rights transgressions would have greater heft if Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland had tweeted her disgust for Saudi warplanes bombing civilians in Yemen.

Or calling the Kingdom to account for investing its oil billions in madrassas and mosques preaching Wahhabi Islamic tenets and traditions, leading Sunni Muslims to embrace the exaltation of jihad and martyrdom, along with installing imams and mullahs throughout Europe and North America, including Canada, whose Friday night sermons conclude with exhortations to hate Jews and Christians and pray to Allah for their destruction.



A careless throwaway comment on Twitter by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs who must momentarily have forgotten who and what she represents and succumbed to the allure of popularizing herself as a champion of free speech and human rights has done nothing whatsoever to chasten Saudi Arabia and elevate Canada's reputation as a straight-speaking, strategic and intelligent nation among equals, none of whom have rushed to support Canada, preferring to adhere to their own careful counsel for fear of ruining investment and business opportunities in the oil-wealthy state that a lapse by someone too invested in her own cleverness has created for Canada.

Justin Trudeau can trumpet and harrumph that "Canadians have always expected our government to speak strongly, firmly and politely about the need to respect human rights around the world", but that voice has been strangely silent about many of the instances of carnage taking place by other governments such as that of Syria's regime in imposing seven long years of bloodshed on its majority Sunni Syrian population opposing the reign of a bloody tyrant, or vociferously as is required damning the Islamic Republic of Iran for its incitement to terrorism and threats of annihilation of another state.

Government of Canada support of human rights and equality outcomes and the failings of human-rights-abusing states are entirely too selective for major impact at home in sanctimonious righteousness and distinctly unimpressive abroad for its limp oversights. The Trudeau government now portrays this colossal blunder as a deliberate, noble act on their part, while in emergency cabinet meetings frantically attempting to limit fallout from a hysterically raging Islamist nation taking umbrage so severe that all normal interactions have been halted.

Canada's ambassador expelled from Saudi Arabia, all Saudi investments in Canada to be sold, all direct flights from Riyadh to Toronto stopped, all Saudi scholarship university students recalled, all two-way trade as well as trade agreements brought to a screeching halt. A steep price for an unwary slip. And one that will force Canada to become more self-sufficient in oil, finally. So there are some areas that present as a saving grace; should contact with a human-rights-abusing nation be completely severed; trade, exchange students, investment ... and reclaiming prize real estate upon which the Saudi embassy squats in Ottawa.

Screen grab of a tweet posted by the account @Infographic_KSA, which has since been shut down.
@Infographic_KSA / Twitter

Virtuously Despicable Canada

"We shared [Bob Rae's] report [assigned  as special envoy to Burma by the Trudeau government] with many people here [at the annual Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 5, 6], and we plan to translate it both into Bengali and Rohingya so that people in Bangladesh and the Rohingya can read it in their own languages."
"A number of [recommendations] we are already implementing, and my trip here ... is one example of acting on Bob's recommendation that Canada should be taking a leadership role."
"The most valuable part of this trip is being able to talk to people who are being persecuted who are at the heart of this crisis."
Chrystia Freeland, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Canada

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland meets with Médecins Sans Frontières volunteers at a Rohingya refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on May 4, 2018. (Chrystia Freeland/Twitter)

The foreign ministers of 57 Muslim majority countries met for their annual conference taking place this year in Dakha, Bangladesh, primarily to discuss the plight of the Rohingya Muslims who in their tens of thousands were violently persecuted in Buddhist-majority Burma, the Burmese military and citizens alike threatening, killing, raping, burning their villages, causing them to flee the carnage and make the dangerous river crossing from Burma (Myanmar) into Bangladesh. Three-quarters of a million Rohingya now live in refugee camps, crowded and miserable.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has a distinct purpose; to come to the aid of persecuted Muslims globally. This is their sole interest and mandate. Among the OIC countries there are those represented in the possession of immense wealth at their disposal. Indonesia and Malaysia, two large Muslim-majority southeast Asian countries could absorb Rohingya refugees; the Gulf States have sufficient riches to fund the transfer, rescue and support required to absorb the Rohingya in Muslim countries.

Yet Canada, out of the goodness of its non-Muslim soul, has intervened, its Minister of Foreign Affairs a special guest at the conference, to address those gathered, for the purpose of affirming Canada's dedication to human rights and to aid in the rescue of these miserable cast-outs whose condition is truly pathetic. Canada's portrayal as a champion of human rights and specifically of the Rohingya is a wretched sham; yet another instance of Justin Trudeau extending Canada's resources in a virtuous bid to demonstrate how selfless Canada is prepared to sacrifice on behalf of the downtrodden.

But the Rohingya have many champions, they were all present at the conference, expressing their anger at the Buddhist Myanmar enemies of Islam. How many among them stood to affirm their nation's intention to come to the rescue of the Rohingya in their time of need? Canada alone? If Canada's Liberal government was sincerely given to aiding those in need, they had ample opportunity to recognize the friendless Yazidis, an ancient ethnic Middle East group with an exotic religion scorned by Islam, their people a target for mass murder and enslavement of women and children.

Many of the Yazidi children suffer from malnutrition and diseases. They live in hovels built from stones and rubble. Photo: Christian Werner

The Yazidis have few champions other than the Kurds to whom they are distantly related ethnically and perhaps culturally. Their plight is truly desperate. Yet it has been ignored. They are persecuted by Islam and were very much so by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant which still holds many women and girls captive, and still remain a threat to the Yazidis who they have driven from their ancestral homes. The Canadian Liberal government's virtue-signalling on behalf of Muslims is a capricious and truly stellar hypocrisy.

To champion the Yazidis and come to their rescue requires a resolve and dedication to a kind of altruistic move that will bear no advantage to the Liberals; Muslims in Canada represent a huge voting bloc; the Muslim community represented by the OIC in the United Nations are another choice voting bloc bringing the non-aligned nations with them to lift Canada into its coveted United Nations Security Council seat.

The sanctimony of Justin Trudeau's Liberal government is infuriatingly unrepresentative of decency and honesty. And certainly unreflective of most Canadians' values and wishes.

Some Yazidis have managed to reach the province of Dahuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region

Crisis Management in Canada

"Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland knew for more than two decades that her maternal Ukrainian grandfather was the chief editor of a Nazi newspaper in occupied Poland that vilified Jews during the Second World War."

"Ms. Freeland’s family history has become a target for Russian forces seeking to discredit one of Canada’s highly placed defenders of Ukraine."

"Ms. Freeland, who has paid tribute to her maternal grandparents in articles and books, helped edit a scholarly article in the Journal of Ukrainian Studies in 1996 that revealed her grandfather, Michael Chomiak, was a Nazi propagandist for Krakivski Visti (Krakow News)."

Globe and Mail, Toronto

Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs

"Yeah he was the editor of a legal newspaper in Nazi-occupied Poland. He never signed anything in the paper. He never made policy or that kind of thing. It wouldn’t be his call."
"[The newspaper] also performed a function for Ukrainian culture and kept Ukrainian intelligentsia alive during the war by paying them for articles, not just anti-Semitic articles but articles about Ukrainian culture. It was a bit of a mixed bag."
Dr. J.P. Himka, professor emeritus, University of Alberta historian/son-in-law of Michael Chomiak

How damaging can certain unearthed information be to the trust placed in individuals tasked to perform some of society's most public political enterprises? And should public opinion be tainted by revelations that members of one's family collaborated and supported the most heinous political entity that the century before had ever struggled with, one that left in its unsuccessful and violet wake millions of people dead?

Guilt by association may not be very convincing to many. Besmirching an otherwise admirable personality capable of performing difficult work on behalf of the public weal is an old tactic employed by those who have scores to settle. On the other hand, that same individual would have known very intimately and emotionally the person in their background who was complicit in helping to carry out propaganda that benefited a zealously violent and vicious regime.

In this case, to the extent that had this individual revealed when making application to emigrate from Ukraine, post Second World War to Canada, that he had aided the Third Reich's plans to dominate the world as a master race and in the sidelines take the trouble of convincing its audience in Europe that humankind would be benefited by the mass extermination of Jews, that person would never have been permitted entry to Canada.

Knowing all of this at the dispassionate level of anyone familiar with history, particularly because of their antecedents, and being immersed in it at the very intimate level of family indulgence for a grandparent would certainly colour one's outlook on life, politics, ideologies, the social good and most certainly the definition of the moral certainties of human relations. Knowing that anti-Jewish diatribes including "certain passages in some of the articles that expressed approval of what the Nazis were doing to the Jews" was a reality of the family background.

The government of Canada has responded to recently revealed news that a man by the name of Michael Chomiak, living in occupied Poland during the war years as a conspicuous Nazi collaborator Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs has warned of "efforts on the Russian side to destabilize Western democracies". Canada's Public Safety Minister, Ralph Goodale, spoke as well, of "Russian disinformation tactics".

And hasn't the world heard its fill of sinister Russian plots to destabilize Europe and the United States as pay-back for the cold shoulder Moscow has been treated to, and the economic sanctions imposed upon Russia by nations respecting the international rule of law, objecting to the annexation of Crimea and that Vladimir Putin has authorized the surreptitious presence of Russian troops to aid the secession aspirations of ethnic Russian Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine.

Russia is well known to engage in cyber-espionage, intent on shutting down computer and Internet communications and public infrastructure in countries formerly in the Soviet sphere and desperately attempting to avoid being sucked back into its orbit. The previous Conservative-led government made no secret of its disgust with Russian belligerence on the international scene. The new Liberal government stated its intention to resume normal relations with Russia and with Iran, another nation the previous government identified as a pariah state.

Former journalist stationed in Moscow, Chrystia Freeland returned to Canada from her employment as a political pundit in the United States, lured by the prospect of entering politics. She has been appointed to the Liberal cabinet and as minister of foreign affairs for Canada. Her familiarity with the language and the political climate in Russia was seen to equip her well for that position. Plans to restore former relaxed relations with Moscow appear now to have been put on hold.

Ms. Freeland's belligerent attitude toward Russia speaks of her Ukrainian heritage which is understandable. Understandable too is the Kremlin's move to reveal that her grandfather who died in 1984, was a Nazi puppet. An editor of the Ukrainian-language newspaper, Krakivs'ki Visti, based in Poland and in circulation with the approval of Germany. Research reveals that the newspaper served the Nazi regime, operating out of the former offices of a Jewish newspaper in Krakow.

This Ukrainian-language newspaper presented itself as in cultural and political support of Nazi Germany. And it was invested in publishing anti-Semitic diatribes written by Ukrainians in service of Germany's Final Solution. Knowing all of this, did Chrystia Freeland's family, living in Alberta as Canadian citizens, abhor what her grandfather represented, or indulge him because of who he was to them, while deploring his racist, criminal past?

It certainly does give some garish colour to the background of Canada's minister of foreign affairs.

Palestinian Hospitality and Respect

"This person backs up the Zionist movement. This person diminishes the rights of our people, takes part and backs up building of settlements. We tell him that he's not welcome."
Abdullah Abu-Rahmeh, Palestinian protester 

A group of protesters gathered in Ramallah as Foreign Minister John Baird met with his Palestinian counterpart in the West Bank city. (Reuters)

Palestinian civility was on full display this week in Ramallah, in greeting an honoured guest, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird. The manner in which he was greeted, unfortunately, was anything but honourable, either in intent or execution. Pelted with eggs and shoes, Mr. Baird came away unscathed, but with any opinion he might have harboured of the reasonableness of the Palestinian hordes either altered or validated.

It is the Palestinian way or no way, that much is clear from the raucous reaction to Canada's presence as an interlocutor and promoter of peace between the two nations locked in perpetual distrust and violent reaction to the situation that an unwillingness to finally settle their disagreements has created, leaving an open wound to fester. Demands are that Israel make sacrifices to achieve peace; the Palestinians feel no need to make any compromises to their expectations.

The greeting on the occasion of a five-day visit to the area, beginning in Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority dignitaries, was spectacularly rude and insulting. But this was no spontaneous reaction to what many Palestinians view as a skewed support for the Israeli position vis-a-vis the Palestinian claims. It was obviously a well-planned and -organized semi-official greeting to ensure there was no impression in the eyes of the beholder that Mr. Baird, representing Canada, was welcome there.

"We take a strong position supporting the only liberal and democratic state in the region. We take the view that a peace process, progress is best made at the negotiating table and not through unilateral actions on the other side. We're proud of that position, we believe it's the best one and don't apologize for it", stated Mr. Baird unequivocally.

"A desire for a future of peace, prosperity, stability and security for both Palestinians and Israelis must drive both parties toward direct negotiations. Today, we reaffirmed our will to work together on these matters at this crucial time."

The call by Fatah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's party, to boycott the visit of Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister in reflection of Canada's Middle East policies speaks volumes about how Palestinians view their demands. While Canada has officially reiterated its support of Israel in the most definitive of terms, Canada also supports a two-state solution, with an independent Palestinian State. Canada also supplies the Palestinian Authority with funding on a five-year $300-million pledge.

In response to Mr. Baird's statement, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat issued his own statement claiming Canada had chosen to stand on "the wrong side of history by blindly supporting the Israeli occupation and its apartheid policies" (effectively turning reality on its head), going on to denounce Canada's Foreign Affairs minister for having met with Israeli officials in Jerusalem several years back.

For that intolerable assault on Palestinian sensibilities, Mr. Erekat insisted that Canada must apologize to Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims "for standing in the way of recognizing an independent state of Palestine." Of course, as chief negotiator for the Palestinians, negotiations toward a peace agreement to achieve a mutual consensus toward a lasting solution in mind, Mr. Erekat could present reasonable demands, but he never has.

And, to emphasize how deeply moved he was by them Palestinian show of affectionate gratitude and trust evidenced for Canada's efforts on their behalf, Mr. Baird went proceeded thereafter, to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman -- in Jerusalem.

They spoke, among other things, of the December 31 signing of the authorizing documents by Mahmoud Abbas to accede to the Rome Statute to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court after the United Nations Security Council rejected the Palestinian resolution to set a three-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel. A situation that can only be ironed out through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The great struggle of our generation is terrorism", stated Mr. Baird in acknowledgement of what Israel faces in attempting to come to terms with the implacable hatred of the Palestinians favouring as a solution to their problems, the total disappearance of Israel, enabling the Palestinians to turn back the clock and resume their belief that they alone must have possession of the land in dispute.

"And as I've said before, Canada doesn't stand behind Israel; we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it." As one of only a few western countries to remain loyal to Israel, and still attempting to be fair and just with the cause of the Palestinians, the dead-locked negotiations are recognized as a severe and seemingly hopeless impediment to the final course of events leading to the two-state reality; one that the Palestinians have been evading, hoping to steamroller their way into existence.

The expectation of even-handedness is neither a given nor a right; it must be earned.