July 10, 2012
Not long after Stephen Harper snubbed the UN and instead went to New York to collect a “Statesman of the Year” award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation—handed over tellingly by Henry Kissinger—John Baird mounted the podium at the UN General Assembly. Finally getting a slot late in the queue amidst other second stringers like Oman, Djibouti, The Holy See and Palau, he told the nations of the world that in their collectivity, they are simply no good.
His subject was Syria, and he spoke as he does in the House of Commons, like an attack dog going after the opposition.
The difference is that when he speaks in Parliament, it is usually to a pretty full house. At the UN, the General Assembly chamber was almost empty. The only ones taking notes, it seems, were Canadian reporters.
Baird was not far off the money when he said that “The crisis in Syria is a test of [the UN’s] ability to achieve results,” but he then went on to assign blame. “While the brutal and repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad continues the slaughter of its own people, the United Nations continues to fail to impose binding sanctions that would stem the crimson tide of this bloody assault.”
When did binding sanctions stem a crimson tide? In Iraq? In Libya, where Baird actually put his signature on bombs scheduled to be dropped from Canadian aircraft?
Binding sanctions might, in fact, be a good idea, but if you truly want sanctions to be binding and to be applied effectively, you must have the agreement of the major powers, notably the five permanent members of the Security Council, each of which has a veto. You don’t persuade any of them, not the Chinese, the Americans or the Russians, by scolding them.
But self-righteous scolding, apparently, is now Canada’s idea of diplomacy. Borrowing from a Shakespearian soliloquy that he may have remembered from high school, Baird said, “Until the last syllable of recorded time, the world will remember, and history will judge member states that are allowing these atrocities to continue.”
The Security Council and the wider UN depend on the consensus of key member states. And where Syria is concerned, they remain deeply divided. Russia and China fear Western intervention. The US and European countries don’t want to be drawn into another Iraq. Middle Eastern states are engaged in a proxy war that bears all the hallmarks of the 15-year civil war in Lebanon.
With all of his skills and gravitas, Kofi Anan could not convince the great powers, the regional powers or the Syrian regime and its antagonists to work towards a negotiated settlement.
So what does Canada propose? “Our commitment to the United Nations has been tested and is proven,” Baird said. “Not in spite of our commitment, but because of our commitment to this body, we cannot and will not participate in endless, fruitless inward-looking exercises.”
Canada, it seems, is throwing its toys out of the pram. Although it thinks binding sanctions are a good idea, it doesn’t seem willing to work towards them. At least Mr. Baird didn’t offer to send jets. So apart from squalling: nada. Just insults.
John Baird might have thought twice about pulling that line about “the end of recorded time” from Macbeth. Those who remember how the soliloquy ends will see the irony in it, perhaps likening him to “a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”