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National Affairs by Claire Hoy — Security Council membership no prize


On Oct. 12, 2010, our self-described “national” newspaper, The Globe and Mail, blared the apparently horrible news that “(United Nations) Security Council rejection a deep embarrassment for Harper.”
In fact, many Conservatives, who had justifiably viewed the UN as a bloated, overwrought, practically useless organization, were not at all disturbed by what the Globe went on to describe as a “dark day in the annals of Canada's foreign policy.”
So dark, it seems, that six months later, Harper's Tories went on to trounce the pro-UN Liberals in the general election, going from a weak minority to a strong majority in the process.
And now, as the late Yogi Berra once quipped, “It's déjà vu all over again.”
The usual liberal tub thumpers in the media — which includes almost all mainstream media in this country — are once again beside their collective self with joy because His Eminence Justin Trudeau has announced his intention to bid for a seat on the Security Council for the 2021-22 term.
“My friends,” he crowed, “it's time. It's time for Canada to step up once again. This is the Canada of today. This is how we build the world of tomorrow.”
Really? If so, we're in big trouble.
Let's get real here. Far and away the major reason why many UN countries voted against Canada is because of Harper's unflinching support for Israel against the unrelenting anti-Semitism of many of its neighbours and their cheerleaders. To me, that's something to be proud of rather than portrayed as a “dark day” for Canada. Trudeau, it seems, disagrees. Not only has he cooled on Israel, he's currying favor with some of the most tyrannical regimes in the world, including Iran, which, at the time that the UN was rejecting Canada, it welcomed Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad up to the front of the room so he could launch yet another vicious assault on Israel, repeating his call for the demolition of the only democracy in the Middle East.
But there you have it. To the liberal elites (both small and big “l”) the UN is something we should aspire to support. Apparently the general public doesn't share their enthusiasm.
Or, as National Post columnist Robyn Urback so accurately put it, “If Canada wins a spot on the UN Security Council, it will be as an impotent member of a broken arm of an incompetent organization.”
The main problem, of course, is that the five permanent members — France, U.K., U.S., Russia and China — each have a veto to strike down any resolution and do not hesitate to use it when it is in their particular interest. Hence, any meaningful resolutions to deal with real world problems never make it past the council, which is a major reason why the Tories have little use for the whole exercise.
The list of UN failures is far too long to reproduce in this limited space, but you may wish to recall how the UN essentially did nothing while horrendous genocides were carried out in Rwanda and Darfur, and thousands upon thousands more were slaughtered during the protracted Sri Lankan civil war.hoy
The Security Council system is such that it has allowed both China and Russia to veto dozens of resolutions aimed at ending the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Syria (all the while sitting by hopelessly as Russia sent its fighters in to support the deadly Assad regime there.)
Then, of course, there's the UN Human Rights Council, or HRC, which has elected such paragons of human rights practice as China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia and others, a blatant demonstration of the fact that, as they love to say in Texas, the organization is “all hat and no cattle.”
There remains in this country a significant block of elite Liberals who cling to the roundly discredited notion that the UN is still the organization it was briefly back in the early years when a Canadian bureaucrat — and later prime minister — Lester Pearson came up with the idea of a blue-helmeted UN peacekeeping force to intervene between warring parties.
While that system did have laudable results for a while, the time has long past since it's a feasible idea — imagine standing between ISIS and its enemies and expecting ISIS to respect the UN infidels.
Yet even though the idea is no longer workable — with the exception of a few minor skirmishes here and there — Liberals and their media acolytes continue to champion this discredited model.
So Trudeau — by sending money and sucking up to every tyrant with a handout — no doubt will garner a seat for Canada on the security council.
It will be hailed as a great breakthrough, a return to the international stage, and we can all get together for a coast-to-coast group hug and take comfort in pretending that it matters.
There now, don't you just feel warm and fuzzy all over?
Post date: 2016-03-25 12:10:26
Post date GMT: 2016-03-25 16:10:26
Post modified date: 2016-03-25 12:45:57
Post modified date GMT: 2016-03-25 16:45:57
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