Canada’s fiery envoy now in line of fire
Bob Rae has spent a lifetime in public life railing against injustices and invasions.
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations has been fearless since arriving in New York in 2020 — lashing out at Russian aggression in Ukraine and condemning China’s human rights abuses.
Now, our most fiery envoy finds himself on the firing line.
As the public face of Canada at the world body, Rae has been forced to defend Ottawa’s diplomatic balancing act on the Middle East. Critics on both sides accuse Canada of fence-sitting since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the carnage from Israel’s counterattack in Gaza.
Beyond the bitter debates in the UN’s diplomatic maelstrom, he has been watching from afar as Canadians turn on one another with a ferocity unseen in his long career. It is neighbour against neighbour, ally against ally, all against all.
“When I think about the divisions, not just in Canada, but around the world … there are no local conflicts,” the former Ontario premier tells me. “Every conflict has its reflections in other countries — places where there are big diasporas … with a deep sense of emotion and attachment to certain conflicts. Some conflicts more than others.” Some conflicts more than others? That would be the latest Middle East war, “massively destructive of civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza, and we’re now at a point where the humanitarian crisis is even more serious.”
But Rae pushes back against criticism that Canadian foreign policy has lost its way and lost its voice on Gaza.
People hear what they want to hear, seeing black versus white while closing their eyes to any grey zones. In reality, the Middle East is about two peoples and two states — not one to the exclusion of another.
“It should be possible for us to denounce and deplore a truly horrendous attack on innocent (Israeli) civilians on Oct. 7. It should also be possible for us to … object to the destruction — not of Hamas, but an entire (Palestinian) people (and) infrastructure.”
Canadians cannot fall into the trap of being for one but not the other, no matter how poetic or provocative the protest slogans might be.
“Are you pro-Palestine? Or proIsrael?” he asks rhetorically, parroting the phrasing at some demonstrations. “I can say, well, actually, Canada’s position is we’re both — we’re in favour of the creation of a Palestinian state. And that’s what a two-state solution means.”
The mere existence of Israel cannot be denigrated and its supporters demonized under the cloak of decolonization paradigms — whether on the streets or online.
“Don’t ask me to join the brigade of people who say, ‘Zionism is racism,’ ‘Zionism is colonialism,’ and ‘Israel must disappear.’ That language is as dangerous and destructive as people who say, ‘Palestinians are not a people,’ ” Rae says.
“We have to get beyond saying you’ve got to be one or the other. And the answer is you have to be both,” Rae continues.
“I think that’s really important for Canadians.”
Canada tried to thread the needle early on at the UN when Rae attempted to amend a one-sided ceasefire resolution. His proposed wording won a majority vote in the General Assembly, but fell short of the two-thirds supermajority required — prompting a Canadian abstention (with like-minded countries including Australia and New Zealand).
Over time, the ground shifted and the wording changed, at which point Canada changed its vote (as did 21 countries) for a more balanced ceasefire resolution. But that compromise proved illusory in its irrelevance, for words and resolutions have merely symbolic value when the two antagonists keep ignoring them.
Rae’s critics lambasted his handling of the diplomatic back and forth, but he makes no apologies.
“You say to me, ‘How does that affect me personally?’ It’s very difficult. It’s impossible to say that this is not a difficult, emotional moment. But I do believe that the ultimate responsibility for the conduct of war lies with the parties who are fighting.”
Hamas intransigence and Israeli belligerence cannot be so easily overcome until both sides are ready: “It takes two (parties) to agree to stop fighting.”
The same bleak outcome can be seen in Sudan’s civil war — arguably the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, even if the least covered, with more than 10 million civilians displaced and more than 14,000 slain so far — and in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Diplomacy hasn’t stopped the fighting.
“For a long time, the conflict in Sudan didn’t get any sunlight,” Rae notes. “Gaza gets an enormous amount of attention — it should get attention because it’s a tragedy unfolding before our eyes, a terrible tragedy …
“However, I have to say that I do think the amount of hatred and the amount of just roiling anger — much of it irrational and in the case of some people who are demonstrating, not necessarily knowing what the conflict is even about — is very troubling.”
A candid cri de coeur from Canada’s best-known diplomat.