Retired Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler did not hold back, yesterday, when he slammed both Conservatives and Liberals for failing to uphold the principles upon which more than 60 years of Canadian diplomacy – and our international reputation – have been built.
"Before a hushed audience at the Liberal Party’s policy conference, Mr. Fowler relentlessly catalogued the “wanton squandering of Canada’s reputation,” as a respected voice within the dialogue of nations. Domestic political posturing “by politicians of every stripe in Canada as they compete to corner the ‘ethnic vote’” coupled with he described as a relentless pandering to the superpower to the south has led to “a small-minded, mean-spirited, me-first, little-Canada, whatever-the-Americans-want foreign policy,” he berated.
Specifically, “the scramble to lock up the Jewish vote in Canada’ has caused this country to “sell out our widely admired and long-established reputation for fairness and justice in the Middle East, in particular, for the cause of just settlement for the Palestinian people.” As a result the world’s failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Fowler believes, Al Qaeda is successfully spreading its message of hate across the Sahel Belt, that part of Africa from Mauritanis on the Atlantic to Somalia on the Indian oceans."
link: Fowler blasts Ottawa’s inaction in Africa - The Globe and Mail
It's unlikely the pandering to the Zionist Jewish vote has been more blatant anywhere than here in Thornhill. In the last federal election, Conservative Peter Kent managed, by aggressively promoting the Harper government's pro-Israel policies, managed to defeat the Liberal incumbent, Susan Kadis. While herself Jewish, Ms Kadis attempted to represent all of her constituents and thereby lost the support of the fanatic Zionists who frequently appeared at Liberal meetings acting like we were choosing a candidate for the Knesset rather than the Canadian House of Commons.
The local Liberal strategy to fight-back has been to choose a new candidate for the next election; one with, dare I use the term, more kosher credentials. In writings published on-line, the new nominee, Karen Mock, has stated her belief that anyone who is not born Jewish is, by definition, an anti-Semite. Her employment history with B'nai B'rith serves as reassurance to certain residents of the constituency, that fact, reason and balance will never trump a fanatical pursuit of Zionist goals. The Thornhill riding association has done nothing, that I have seen or heard, to disavow Mock's claim that 89% of Canadians are anti-Semites. Divide and conquer, expecting that enough Jewish voters will return to the Liberal fold, is the obvious strategy, with no regard for how it may alienate the rest of the voters.
That the national Liberal organization allowed Mock's nomination to stand is part of the shame to which Mr. Fowler refers. While Michael Ignatieff may have thanked Fowler for his candor and described Liberals as mature enough to take the criticism and debate the issues, the question is will the party take the advice? Will any party, in the next election, forego the endless pursuit of the ethnic vote in favour of returning Canada to a place of respect in the world?
