Canada
Cites
Principled End
of Relations
with Iran,
Merges Other
Embassies
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 1 --
When Canada's
foreign
minister John
Baird
delivered his
country's
annual UN
General Debate
speech Monday
morning, the
General
Assembly Hall
had many empty
seats.
In the UN
Media Center
there were
less than a
dozen
journalists,
most of them
paying no
attention to
Baird speaking
on one of six
screens
projected
in the front
of the room.
How
far Canada has
fallen, in the
UN world,
since its loud
and
unsuccessful
run for a
Security
Council seat
two years ago.
It came
in behind
Germany and
then Portugal,
despite many
arguing that
the
Council had
and has too
many European
members.
A
number of
diplomats from
countries in
the Arab and
wider Muslim
worlds said
Canada's
position on
Palestine made
their votes
against
Canada a
"no-brainer,"
as one put it
to Inner City
Press.
Baird
on Monday
focused on
Syria, citing
the"crimson
tide of this
bloody
assault," then
Iran,
explaining
that Canada
broke off
diplomatic
relations "on
principle."
But since
Canada is
closing
embassies
and/or merging
them into UK
embassies,
some see
principal -
money - as
well as
ideology.
Canada
still says it
is the seventh
largest donor
to the
UN.Baird is
not on
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
scheduled on
October 1, and
there was
no read out of
a meeting last
week. Watch
this site.
, 
