On January 23, 2023 in Ottawa, Canada , Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, attempted to wax eloquent about Canada’s foreign policy, claiming it to be “principled”. I and two other peace activists happened to be in attendance and disrupted Mr. Rae’s speech to draw attention to some rather inconvenient facts.
The first activist, Tamara Lorincz, reminded Mr. Rae of Canada’s reckless refusal to engage in diplomacy with respect to the existentially dangerous Ukraine war. The second activist, Yves Engler, then denounced Canada’s disgraceful voting record in the U.N. General Assembly during Mr. Rae’s tenure. Finally, I drew attention to Canada’s lavish support for Israel, which is now almost universally acknowledged by leading human rights organizations to be an apartheid state.
You can watch videos of our disruptions here.
By no means do these facts constitute an exhaustive list of Canada’s radical departures from “principled” foreign policy. It takes a special kind of mendacity to pursue the policies of the Canadian government and then claim with a straight face to be “principled” in international affairs.
