Who's vetting honorary consuls?

REVIEW FINDS NO STANDARD PROCESS AFTER CONTROVERSIAL APPOINTMENTS

Areview of Canada's process for approving honorary consuls that came after a Syrian official who had praised dictator Bashar al-assad was okayed, found inconsistent vetting for the positions as well as 15 consuls who warranted “closer scrutiny.”

Last year, during the federal election, news broke first in Maclean's magazine that Syria's honorary consul in Montreal, Waseem Ramli, had a host of controversial statements on his social media pages, praising al-assad. He also drove around the city in a bright red Hummer, with a picture of the Syrian dictator on the side of the vehicle.

Ramli also accused the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue brigade, of being terrorists. Canada worked with several countries to rescue many of those White Helmets in 2018, as al-assad's army began to dominate more of the country.

When news broke about the appointment, which must be approved by the Canadian government, then- foreign minister Chrystia Freeland quickly moved to strip him of the position.

“No one who shares Mr. Ramli's views should have ever been approved by Global Affairs Canada to serve in this capacity,” she said in a statement at the time.

Freeland also called for a review of that process, which has been passed onto her successor Foreign Affairs Minister François-philippe Champagne. The National Post obtained that review through access to information. It came to the conclusion there was no standard process for vetting these honorary consuls.

“There are inconsistent approaches to carrying out personal and professional suitability of honorary consul candidates,” reads the report sent to Champagne.

The review looked at 330 honorary consuls currently representing other countries in Canada and found 15 that warranted closer scrutiny. The report does not detail which consuls concerned the department.

In a statement, department spokesperson Patricia Skinner said the review was completed in 2020. She also declined to say which honorary consuls the department was concerned about.

“This review was completed in 2020 and it did not result in any changes to the honorary consuls,” she said. “We do not comment on particular cases.”

The review found some consuls were vetted in multiple languages with deep dives into their social media history and professional qualifications to ensure they were suitable. But others appear to get only a cursory vetting and there was no standard for what Canadian officials were expected to do.

Consuls are nominated by their home state and can carry out requests for visas and other consulars matters, potentially allowing them access to private information.

The consuls generally work part-time and some are simply advocates for their home countries, encouraging trade and tourism, while others carry out more consular work, especially if there are no local representatives.

Canada expelled Syria’s diplomats from Ottawa in 2012 earlier in the civil war in that country. Ramli’s appointment, which happened in the summer of 2019, raised significant concerns in the Syrian community including among the tens of thousands of people who had fled al-assad’s regime.

The review found that Ramli’s screening included only a review of his resume and a search, in English only, of his statements online. The documents the National Post obtained have many redactions, but do reveal local concerns were raised before his appointment, but they weren’t followed up on.

“Summer leave and staff turnover contributed to the lack of awareness of the potential concern,” it reads.

Skinner said the department has now developed a code of conduct and shared it with the diplomatic corps in Canada setting clear guidelines about who they expect to be in the position. She also wrote that there is a new standard process for foreign affairs to vet these candidates.