Shhh ... Stéphane Dion at work

Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion spent last week quietly — very quietly — meeting leaders in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to a statement from his grandly renamed Global Affairs Canada, the trip offered “significant opportunities to address pressing concerns, including regional and international security, stability in an increasingly volatile region, and how pluralism and respect for human rights are an integral part of the solution to these challenges.”

In Tunisia, he sought to “reiterate Canada’s support for Tunisia’s pluralistic democracy.” In Egypt, where pluralistic democracy ended when Gen. Abdel Fattah elSisi ousted the previous government, the agenda focused on “economic security and political developments.”

Between those meetings, Dion was invited to a gathering of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Jidda, just west of Mecca.

The council comprises Saudi Arabia and five other med bin Salman. Canada’s $150 billion arms sale to the Saudis has caused the young Liberal government much discomfort. Ottawa has every intention of going through with the deal, despite the Saudis’ rotten human rights record, but Dion wanted to use the opportunity to respectfully criticize that record and seek assurances the Saudis won’t turn the Canadian weapons against fellow Saudis. That would be a big embarrassment for the Liberals and might cause Dion to issue a strong statement of displeasure.

Dion’s faith in big gatherings and diplomatic niceties is a sharp change from the Conservatives’ approach. Canada’s relations with Russia soured under Stephen Harper’s frequent criticisms and the imposition of sanctions. Dion has been trying to “repair” those relations. His most candid effort was to backtrack on Liberal support for the Magnitsky law, named after a Russian lawyer who was tortured and murdered after uncovering a mammoth corruption scheme. The Magnitsky law imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials involved in human rights violations. The Liberals endorsed it in opposition but, once in office, Dion abandoned the pledge, arguing it would impede efforts to mend ties with Moscow.

Bill Browder, a colleague of Sergei Magnitsky, dismissed Dion’s position with open contempt. “He doesn’t care about the morality of the issue, he doesn’t care whether it’s good for Canada … he just doesn’t want to rock the boat,” he told the CBC.

Browder is a lone voice, operating outside the comfortable environs of international diplomatic gatherings. Lone voices don’t count for much in the United Nations, or the GCC, or the other alphabet soup of agencies that fill up so much time for foreign ministers and diplomats. Hillary Clinton and her successor John Kerry can command seats in any gathering they please, and have sought to use them to plead for solutions in Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen and other hot spots. Unfortunately, none has yielded to their stern statements or expressions of concern.

That doesn’t mean diplomats won’t be willing to gather for yet another meeting and strongly-worded declaration. If so, they can count on Stéphane Dion to be in his seat, soberly assessing the situation and awaiting his turn at the microphone.