Under the Liberals Canada's foreign policy has been AWOL

Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau (R), shakes hands with then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a meeting in Trudeau's office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 9, 2016. PHOTO BY CHRIS WATTIE /REUTERS

SAM COOPER’s Book Wilful Blindness cited in this article

Derek S Burney, Former Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney and former Ambassador to the United States

Complements of the National Post

August 16, 2021

Has Canadian foreign policy succumbed to a self-induced COVID coma? Is there a global issue on which Canada’s voice or position is relevant? Instead of being “back” in world affairs, we seem to have gone AWOL. A recent CIC study of public opinion revealed that, while Canadians expect their government to be engaged in the world, they don’t believe that it is. They are “markedly more concerned about the value of diplomacy,” namely investments in our Embassies abroad. The policy vacuum has consequences.

It is hard to convey a confident image to the world when we self-flagellate about sins, real or perceived, about our history. It is equally difficult to promote core human rights values while indulging in woke sentiments or virtue signalling on fads of the moment.

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A cluster of Canadian scholars (cited on CIC’s website) recommended “a strategic framework based on a clear articulation of interests and values and a rigorous assessment of global trends.” We should begin by re-evaluating relations with the two major powers in the world — the U.S. and China — and adopt a more assertive, yet realistic, approach to each.

Relations with the U.S will not return to the hey days of bilateral achievement in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The U.S. is pre-occupied with domestic challenges and its increasing power rivalry with China. Canada needs to chart more of its own destiny on trade, security and global affairs relying less on the “goodwill” of Washington. Despite initial euphoria in Canada about Joe Biden’s election, relations are moving backwards, notably on border management, trade and energy.

Immediately following the 9/11 attacks on America our then foreign minister, John Manley initiated an urgent meeting with Tom Ridge from Homeland Security to conclude a “Smart Border Declaration” to “ensure an open and secure border between Canada and the U.S.” Little of that urgency or ingenuity was done to coordinate a coherent border opening on COVID.

On auto trade, the Americans are determined to impose higher North American content rules than they were able to negotiate in the USMCA.

If the Governor of Michigan succeeds in terminating the Line 5 pipeline the economies of Ontario and Quebec will be devastated. Yet the Biden Administration has adopted a “hands off” attitude on action that would violate a bilateral treaty signed by Senator Joe Biden in 1977.

For Canada, Biden’s call on OPEC to increase oil production is sheer hypocrisy.

The harsh, arbitrary sentences given to Robert Schellenberg and Michael Spavor demonstrate that relations with China are going from bad to worse. Meanwhile, Madam Meng languishes under “house arrest” in her multimillion-dollar, Vancouver mansion. We are being played like patsies by a pariah state.

Equally alarming are actions by Chinese millionaires and Triads, some with direct links to Beijing, to penetrate B.C. and Ontario casinos and launder money primarily from sales of fentanyl in Canada and beyond. Immigration visa fraud is part of the story as are severe distortions to Real Estate markets in Toronto and Vancouver. All of this is chronicled graphically by Sam Cooper in his new book Willful Blindness.

Cooper contends that these activities are aided and abetted by gullible or greedy Canadian officials at all levels of government. The federal government needs to aggressively counter this scandalous situation with a full-court crackdown.

Canada was not invited to participate in the Quad, a partnership involving the U.S., Japan, India and Australia intended as a security response to the growing threat from China in the Indo Pacific region. Is it because our military is woefully ill-equipped to play a role? The government’s inability to develop a strategy on this pivotal region after six years in power is appalling.