Whatever happened to diplomacy?
(Canscene) — The “Obamagate” statement from Prime Minister Harper’s chief-of-staff Ian Brodie and another from Ambassador Michael Wilson are just two more examples of the tiresome round of Conservative diplomatic gaffes we have witnessed since 2006.
According to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary “diplomacy” means skill or tact in handling negotiations and it certainly seems the Harper regime has been acting in blind ignorance of
these qualities.
Now a federal court has permitted Canadian Army personnel in Afghanistan to continue to hand over detainees to Afghan police in spite of their reputation for torture of prisoners.
Both foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier and the former incumbent, gaffemeister Peter MacKay have been unable to change Maher Arar’s security status on the U.S watch list and have proved miserable failures in communicating
Canadians’ concern abou the handling of the Omar Khadr case.
At a time when the political future of the United States hinges on three people, Clinton, Obama and McCain, our diplomats should be making courtesy visits to all three, speaking up for Canada and diplomatically Letting them know that with the inauguration of a new president in 2009, we hope to see the beginning of a new era in relationships between our two nations.
For instance we should let them know the frequent criticisms of both Ambassador Wilkins and his predecessor Celucci have not been models of tact and diplomatic skill, but then neither has the behaviour of their boss whose performance in these areas in a “nukelar” age rates a big zero both for intelligence and tact.
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