Trudeau showing leadership dealing with Iran
Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy track record is a mixed bag. Beginning with his cartoonish trip to India and diplomatic conflict with that country, right up to the recent summit where he was caught on video sharing a joke at Donald Trump’s expense, Trudeau has had his share of stumbles.
But on the crucial job of managing the fallout from last week’s shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner by Iranian military personnel, Trudeau and his government are doing more than holding their own. They’re doing as well as can be expected and, in some ways, better.
In the first days after the tragedy that claimed the lives of 176 innocent civilians, including 63 Canadians, Trudeau was criticized for not taking centre stage quickly enough. And when he did, he was criticized again for being too understated, for showing sadness, but not enough anger. He may have been a little late, but he wasn’t wrong to be reserved. His clear and deep sadness was appropriate at that time.
In his second televised appearance on the subject, Trudeau’s language and demeanour were more focused, assertive, with a degree of anger apparent. Whether that was due to coaching from his handlers or his own natural evolution, it was a good arc that was generally well-received, including by families of victims, whose welfare should remain of paramount importance.
This is anything but an easy situation for Canada’s leadership. Trudeau needs to tread a very fine line — some have referred to it as razor thin. He has to be, and appear to be, supportive of the victims and their families. He has to make it very clear Canada is mad as hell at Iran and wants transparency and appropriate compensation for families when the time comes. But if he overplays that hand and gets overtly aggressive with Iran, he risks losing their limited co-operation on a variety of things, including access to the crash investigation and co-operation on returning victim remains to families.
As usual, there are critics who say Trudeau isn’t being tough enough on Iran. They include Conservative leaders like Andrew Scheer, who want Trudeau to threaten sanctions and brimstone if Canada doesn’t get everything it wants. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper goes even further and says Canada should be pushing for regime change in Tehran. That’s easy for them to say since they have no official standing and aren’t representing the country. But Scheer, Harper and their supporters should ask themselves a simple question: If Canada adopts a more Trumpian approach and Iran slams the door on further co-operation, who suffers most? Not the critics, but the friends and families of the victims.
The same critics are unhappy with Trudeau because he said this: “If there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with families.” Apparently this is a no-no because it suggests Donald Trump bears some responsibility for what happened. He does.
Trump’s unilateral assassination of a very nasty Iranian military leader started the escalation that created the conditions under which Iran made this terrible mistake. No one is saying Trump pulled the trigger, but to suggest he has no role in this tragedy is ridiculous. And on the same subject, why wasn’t Canada at least tipped off that the assassination was pending? We have hundreds of troops in the region. In fact, Canada is leading one of two missions in Iraq. Is it too much to expect an ally with people in the line of fire should get a heads up when the risk is about to increase exponentially? Apparently, in Trump’s world, it is, which speaks volumes about working with and alongside team Trump.