Where Is Canada's Voice?

I am old enough to have seen much, and I am certainly a realist when it comes to politics. As Bismarck said,  it is "the art of the possible." That being said, I cannot shake the feeling that Canada should be doing much more in its responses to Donald Trump's genocidal insanity.

I begin with the premise that there will always be something that will set off the unhinged president, be it a television ad critical of tariff weapons, an exercise of foreign policy independence (Mr. Carney's trip to China), or the mere fact of trying to open a new bridge to Detroit. (The latter is in the news today, as Trump demands 50% ownership of the new Gordie Howe Bridge.

There is no appeasing a madman. And yet Canada continues with very, very muted responses to the mad king's outrages, perhaps still under the delusion that diplomacy has a chance. Two egregious examples demand immediate rectification. 

The first involves Kimberly Prost, a Canadian who sits as a judge on the International Criminal Court. She, along with others, was sanctioned by the U.S.in August of last year. 

The State Department says Judge Kimberly Prost, of Canada, was sanctioned for ruling to authorize the ICC's investigation into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court "a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel" and said the U.S. has remained steadfast in its opposition to the ICC's "illegitimate judicial overreach."

An article today discusses what those sanctions mean for Prost. 

Her credit cards stopped working. A bank transfer to newlyweds in the U.K. has been stuck in limbo for months. She can’t travel to the U.S. — she was even disinvited from virtually attending a recent international law conference in New York.

And in a dystopian turn that could be pulled from a Ray Bradbury novel, her smart speaker no longer responds after Amazon cut off access: “Suddenly, Alexa wouldn’t talk to me.”

Prost is unbowed by these sanctions.

“These measures are completely futile because they certainly do not impact the way we do our jobs,” she said. “We continue with our work, we carry on, and we solely focus on objective and independent analysis of the evidence before us to reach our decisions.”

Compounding this grave injustice is the silence the Canadian government has chosen as its 'strategy' (although Anita Anand claims she raised the issue privately with American secretary of state Marco Rubio). 

Bob Rae, our former ambassador to the UN, was more forceful last summer, that is, until his wrists were slapped:

“The U.S. attack on the International Criminal Court and its judges is disgraceful,” Rae tweeted the day Prost was sanctioned. “Judge Kim Prost are [sic] carrying out their public duties. Attacks on them by Russia, Israel and the U.S. are intended to weaken and intimidate the international legal system.”

Rae, who left his ambassadorial post in November, quickly deleted the tweet. Government communications obtained by the Star, and first reported by online publication The Maple, suggest he was instructed to. “Getting my wings clipped,” Rae messaged a colleague that day. 

Who, or what, is served by such cowardice?

The second, even deadlier example is Trump's genocidal sanctions on Cuba, a country we have visited every year (except during the pandemic) since 2010. Trump, as you are likely aware, has threatened reprisal tariffs against any country that sends oil to that country. People will die as a result of this illegal edict, and it has devastated Cuba's tourism industry, one that relies heavily upon Canadian tourism for foreign currency.  Consequently, Air Canada has ceased flights to the island, as Havana warns it will no longer be able to refuel flights owing to the fuel shortage wrought by the embargo.

Personally, having much experience of a warm and gracious people both on and off the resorts, I feel terrible that the island is being condemned to such an unjust fate. Canada has always considered itself a friend to Cuba, having joint ventures there involving such fields as mining, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, etc. And yet again, absolute silence.

I understand that Canada is not about to start shipping oil to Cuba, but the very least it could do, in consultation and collaboration with Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is to speak out in the name of decency and sanity. Her country had been sending oil to the island, but has since stopped in the face of Trump's derangement. She, however, has at least spoken out to a degree about the situation.

Sheinbaum said at a public event in the northern state of Sonora that she did not discuss Cuban affairs in a phone conversation with Trump on Thursday. She added that her government seeks to “ diplomatically solve everything related to the oil shipments (to Cuba) for humanitarian reasons.”

Canada's silence on these issues is inexcusable. It is well and good to talk about national pride, but in order to cultivate and support it, our country must do much more than cower in the face of Trump's threats.