Archive d'auteurs: David Petrasek

The overseas trips of Foreign Minister Baird generate some attention and controversy. But Baird’s foreign travel is closely rivaled by—though less reported on than—that of his Cabinet colleague Jason Kenney, the Minister for Citizenship and Immigration. In only the first three months of this year, Kenney visited Iraq, Sri Lanka, India, Germany, Turke… Read More

Foreign Minister Baird’s seven-country, ten-day tour of the Middle East provides final confirmation that his much vaunted “principled” foreign policy committed to promoting “freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law” is little more than empty rhetoric. So far, the Foreign Minister has visited four Arab regimes (Jordan, Qatar, the United Ar… Read More

The Canadian government has yet to fully explain its reason for refusing to support an initiative to persuade the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). As discussed previously, last month Foreign Minister Baird refused to join a call by almost 60 other countries—including almost all of Canada’s allies—for the Secu… Read More

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma ended his visit to Sri Lanka this week by confirming that the next biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will go ahead as planned in the country later this year. Given that the Sri Lankan government has taken no serious steps towards promised human rights and political reforms—and has i… Read More

As argued in this space recently, there are sound legal and political justifications for the intervention of French and West African troops in northern Mali. Further, the apparent achievements of the operation so far lend support to those who argue it is feasible to defeat the Islamist insurgency. But lasting success will depend on the extent to which the r… Read More

In the past week, amidst the crisis in Mali and the hostage crisis at the gas plant in southern Algeria, the world’s attention shifted away from the ongoing bloodshed in Syria. This perhaps explains how the Canadian media missed what appears to be a major, and disturbing, shift in our policy towards Syria. Last week, Canada declined to join with dozens of othe… Read More

To those of us deeply skeptical of the deployment of Western military force in the developing world, the French intervention in Mali in recent days poses something of a dilemma. It appears to be legally and militarily justified, and enjoys strong local and regional support. Yet at the same time, it appears to be based on the same  assumptions about Western ai… Read More

Prime Minister Harper tweeted on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had called to thank him for Canada’s “friendship and principled position this week at the UN”.  The friendship may be obvious, but one searches in vain for the principle at stake that compelled Canada to vote against non-member observer state status for Palestine. It c… Read More

‘Hewers of wood and drawers of water’ – a familiar and shorthand description for Canadians’ historical economic bias towards natural resources, and a phrase used pejoratively to describe a ‘brand’ that we  need to shed to compete in a global economy. While the Harper government has trumpeted Canada as an energy “superpower”, and sought new export markets… Read More

Should Canada send its armed forces to war in Turkey? The increasingly violent civil war in Syria means this could become a real question, for two reasons. First, the fighting is leading to confrontations between Turkish and Syrian troops along their shared border. Turkey is a NATO ally, and Canada is pledged to assist Turkey if things escalate. Second, Can… Read More