{"id":26587,"date":"2013-11-14T14:13:46","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T18:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26587"},"modified":"2013-11-14T14:21:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T18:21:16","slug":"why-is-canadian-pm-stephen-harper-boycotting-the-commonwealth-summit-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26587","title":{"rendered":"Why is Canadian PM Stephen Harper Boycotting the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20131114-131610.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Answering questions from the media following the closing press conference in Bali – Oct 8, 2013-Gov of Canada pic<\/i><\/p>\n

By Haroon Siddiqui<\/b><\/p>\n

Stephen Harper loves the royal family. Under his reign, the \u201croyal\u201d prefix has been returned to the air force and the navy. <\/p>\n

The latest royal baby adorns a Canadian postage stamp. Yet Harper is dissing Her Majesty\u2019s favourite group, the Commonwealth, that quaint congregation of 53 former British territories.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Queen could not have been amused that he is boycotting the Commonwealth\u2019s biennial summit, Friday to Sunday in Colombo, to protest Sri Lanka\u2019s egregious violations of the human rights of its Tamil minority, and its refusal to probe possible war crimes during its 2009 military crushing of the decades-long Tamil secessionist movement .<\/p>\n

As head of the Commonwealth, the Queen tolerates some of its odious leaders because she sees value in a group where they can be counselled or pressured about democratic reforms, as was done with apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n

This thinking is shared by two former Conservative prime ministers, Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t resolve issues by walking away,\u201d Clark told me. As foreign minister (1984-91), he headed Mulroney\u2019s drive to break down Margaret Thatcher\u2019s famous resistance to economic sanctions on the minority white regime in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking within the Commonwealth, we were able to score more heavily than by sitting outside,\u201d Mulroney told CTV News. The Commonwealth has many \u201cdeveloping countries with problems, and the best thing we can do is be there at the table and illustrate, by our presence, the value of what we\u2019ve learned as a country over 146 years and how we conduct ourselves with our democracy and with our generosity to friends internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet another Conservative prime minister, John Diefenbaker, had used the 1961 Commonwealth summit to start isolating South Africa.<\/p>\n

Harper is also threatening to withdraw our $18 million a year contribution to the Commonwealth. That would be a crippling, since Canada is the second-largest financier of the organization\u2019s secretariat in London.<\/p>\n

His stance fits his style of badmouthing multilateral institutions and hectoring governments, says Clark. Harper has not shown the patience for the hard work Canada has traditionally done \u2014 reducing\/resolving conflicts, working on arms control, alleviating poverty and climate warming, etc. \u201cHe\u2019s more interested in the podium than in the playing field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Harper closed the Canadian embassy in Tehran to show his displeasure with Iran.<\/p>\n

Clark: \u201cHad we applied that attitude to South Africa, we\u2019d have closed our embassy there while Nelson Mandela was still in prison and we could not have played the role we eventually did. Had Canada done that with China following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, we would not have had the ability to deal with Beijing subsequently. It\u2019s the same with Iran. No one is under any illusion about the Iranian regime. But we should be there talking to people, forming our own opinion,\u201d as Britain is doing, having recently reopened its embassy in Tehran.<\/p>\n

It is said that Harper may be wooing the Canadian Tamil community, estimated at 200,000 and concentrated in Toronto, enough to make a difference in perhaps three federal ridings. That calculation cannot be discounted \u2014 he has used foreign policy to garner votes for the Conservative party in the Canadian Jewish, Coptic, Sikh, Ahmadiyya and Pakistani Christian communities, among others.<\/p>\n

The Tamils, however, may not be that easily won over. In opposition, the Conservatives used to skewer the Liberals for cavorting with the Tamils, conflated as the terrorist Tamil Tigers. In government, they have demonized Tamil refugees, detaining 490 in 2010, and have been trying to deport Tamils back to Sri Lanka, even while condemning the government there.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to take Harper seriously on human rights when his silence has been deafening on the plight of Palestinians, the Uighurs of China, the Rohingas of Myanmar and countless others.<\/p>\n

Yet NDP MP Craig Scott credits Harper for being true to his word to the House of Commons that he would not go the Commonwealth summit unless Sri Lanka improved its human rights record.<\/p>\n

Scott, a former professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and co-founder of Campaign for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka , told me: \u201cGive Harper credit, he went partway. He\u2019s not going himself but sending a delegation. It\u2019s a half-measure, between a boycott and a protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott understands that Harper is \u201cnot exactly being consistent\u201d on human rights issues, especially having gone silent on China. Still, \u201cI can\u2019t say he is doing what he is doing on Sri Lanka for political reasons. He has kept his word.\u201d COURTESY: TORONTO STAR<\/i><\/p>\n

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Answering questions from the media following the closing press conference in Bali – Oct 8, 2013-Gov of Canada pic By Haroon Siddiqui Stephen Harper loves the royal family. Under his reign, the \u201croyal\u201d prefix has been returned to the air force and the navy. The latest royal baby adorns a Canadian postage stamp. Yet Harper …<\/p>\n

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