Tories scold Canada's top UN diplomat

When you're right you're right.

The UN is notoriously anti-Israel (and bluntly anti-Semitic) and the Feds were right to question the actions of Canada's representative at the UN.

Now, that doesn't mean that the representative was technically wrong or was anti-Semitic. But the use of points of order to restrict speech at the UN is sad. (Of course the Soviets did it from the very beginning so nothing much here is new).

Tories scold Canada's top UN diplomat

The Conservative government said on Tuesday that Canada's top diplomat in Geneva was wrong to use his position as chairman of a United Nations debate to cut short a speaker criticizing Muslim-sourced anti-Semitic material

Steven Edwards, National Post

The Conservative government said on Tuesday that Canada's top diplomat in Geneva was wrong to use his position as chairman of a United Nations debate to cut short a speaker criticizing Muslim-sourced anti-Semitic material. The statement came after it emerged an official in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office had become involved in the probe into the March 6 action by Ambassador Marius Grinius in the UN Human Rights Council.

The escalation of the inquiry, which the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon launched, indicates how seriously the government considered the matter. Mr. Grinius had prevented David Littman, an accredited UN non-governmental activist, from completing a statement calling for a "universal condemnation" of defamations of Judaism.

"It is our conclusion that Mr. Littman should not have been cut off by Ambassador Grinius," Catherine Loubier, spokeswoman for Mr. Cannon, said in response to questions from Canwest News Service. She noted Mr. Grinius acted on the advice of a UN procedural official - a point she made when first asked for comment in the days following the incident - and implied the ambassador had just been trying to do the right thing.

"Ambassador Grinius acted in good faith, on the advice of the UN Secretariat and in keeping with complex rules of procedure," Ms. Loubier said. "He did not show, or intend to show, any disrespect to the speaker."

The rare public rebuke reflects the friction that often exists between internationally based members of the bureaucracy, and governments dispensing policy that certain members of the international community don't always like. Indeed, the action taken by Mr. Grinius appeared ironic because Canada is frequently a minority voice in defence of fair and balanced debate in the 47-member Council, where Arab- and Muslim-led harangues against Israel are common, and speeches questioning Islamic-world practices routinely interrupted.

"Hopefully Canada's admission will serve as an example for NGOs to enjoy full freedom of expression and not be continually stopped on points of order mainly by the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference," Mr. Littman said in a telephone interview, referencing the 56-member grouping of Muslim countries.

No member states had registered an objection to Mr. Littman's speech, but monitoring groups such as UN Watch and Eye on the UN, both run by Canadians, say debate chairs may now be effectively conditioned to make such rulings to avert majority criticism. "I know and respect the Canadian diplomats in Geneva, and there was no malice here - just a case of getting bad advice from UN officials who are increasingly choosing to censor human rights groups rather than risk incurring the wrath of totalitarian regimes who fear the light of our scrutiny," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

"Ottawa got it right."

The UN official in question is the secretary of the UN Human Rights Council, Eric Tistounet, who can be seen advising Mr. Grinius in the debate video, which Eye on the UN began posting over the weekend.

"The council is controlled by the OIC, meaning every country that takes the chair lives in fear of points of order interruptions and shutting down of the functioning of the system," said Anne Bayefsky, group founder. "This is one more example of the way the Human Rights Council acts in contradiction to the most fundamental values of human rights."

Mr. Littman was speaking March 6 on behalf of the Association for World Education and the World Union for Progressive Judaism when Mr. Grinius, serving as acting chairman that day, at first interrupted him, then passed to the next speaker before he had finished.

He said earlier on Tuesday he had received no reply from a letter he wrote to Mr. Grinius following the incident seeking a "specific response" to his concern the Canadian "censored" him. He also said he was now referring the matter to the official council chairman, Nigerian Ambassador Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, in a bid to ensure Mr. Grinius's action does not serve as a precedent for future chairs to shut down debate.

"We don't understand why he didn't take the trouble to answer," Mr. Littman said. "We now want to repeat exactly the same statement because we were cut."
James Morton