National sovereignty is not
like a coat you wear in the winter and put it away in the spring.
Sovereignty is something you either believe in or you don’t. If you do
believe in it, you defend it. It seems to me that Canadian politicians
believe the only country with the rights to defend its own sovereignty
is ours, but respect is a two-way street.
We react angrily every time there’s even a perception
that someone is infringing our own national rights. Most of the time our
anger is directed at the United States.
Whenever one of their representatives even mentions the
word “Canada,” we see a barrage of attack from politicians and, of
course, the media, against the “bullying tactics” of the giant south of
the border.
Of course, none of this stops us from criticizing
and interfering with what American authorities do. We want to tell them
how to check their borders, when and how to screen passports, and who to
put on and off their watch-lists.
Certainly, we must protect Canadian citizens from abuse in foreign
countries, but if we are diligent in exercising our rights when we deal
with the United States and we ignore other countries, like Syria, a
country which I believe had something to do with Maher Arar’s torture, I
believe we have the right to be suspicious about the sincerity of the
actions of some of our politicians.
Ten days ago, six ambassadors to Italy signed an
op-ed and sent it to an Italian newspaper, La Repubblica. In the
op-ed, solicited by the U.S. State Department, the six ambassadors from
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the
Netherlands and Romania, glorified the participation of Italian troops
in Afghanistan and asked the Italian government not to withdraw those
troops from the mission.
The Italian foreign minister called it an
“inappropriate external interference on a matter that is of exclusive
competence of the Italian Parliament and government." No kidding.
The letter that angered the center-left Italian
government, was published on the eve of an important meeting to debate
Italy's involvement in Afghanistan.
I don’t know if the “unusual” decision to support
the American diplomatic initiative in Rome was approved by the Foreign
Affairs Department in Ottawa or if it was just our ambassador to Italy
who decided to join his U.S. colleague.
Considering the experience of our ambassador in Rome,
Alex Himelfarb, I can assume that the former is more credible than the
latter.
But this is not the point, and I can’t even understand
the reticence of the government to talk about an initiative that doesn’t
fit in our diplomatic tradition.
I can also understand the silence of Bloc Québécois
Leader Gilles Duceppe whose concept of “sovereignty” differs from the
one we believe in, but for God sake’s, where were the Liberals and the
NDP?
Can you imagine a letter signed from ambassadors to the
U.S., Italy and the rest of the gang, published in The Globe
and Mail on the eve of a vote in the House of Commons in Ottawa
urging Canada to stay in Afghanistan?
I can imagine NDP Leader Jack Layton jumping on his
desk in the House asking the Prime Minister to declare war on United
States, or the new Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion asking the Prime
Minister to recall our ambassador in Washington, D.C.
Instead, the whole issue has been ignored, which
increases suspicion that our foreign politics doesn’t go beyond the
United States, a country that our politicians love to hate, and our
businesspersons hate to love.
It is this selective sensitivity that makes me wonder
if all this fracas about our sovereignty has anything to do with Canada
or if it’s just political posturing.
