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NATIONAL POST

A speech we'd like to hear
 
Alastair Gordon
National Post

Original version before being shortened for publication



Prime Minister Paul Martin will be addressing the United Nations General Assembly today. What follows is the speech the Canadian Coalition for Democracies would like to hear him deliver:

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a few points to make.

First, what is happening in Sudan is genocide. I would therefore ask you to ignore the legalistic musings of my Foreign Affairs Minister about the nuances that distinguish "genocide" from "war crimes." And I invite you all to join Canada and a new coalition of the willing in ending a campaign that has killed at least 50,000 black Africans and created more than one million refugees. However, if you don't, we'll find a way to go it alone. Some things are more important than multinational consensus.

Next, the United Nations must have an independent auditor general. His or her first job will include investigating the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, arguably the biggest fraud in human history, and to prosecute all those who benefited from this theft, regardless of rank.

Now to the Middle East. In the past, Canada has often supported resolutions that condemn Israel yet ignore the atrocities inflicted on that country by terrorists. From this day forward, Canada will take a more principled line. Until every nation in the Middle East is judged against the same standards, consider our vote to be "no" on any resolution that seeks to single out the region's only true democracy for vilification.

Many of the nations represented in this room have praised Canada for its efforts to eliminate land mines. But Canada, like many other Western countries, has done little to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of rogue nations. One nuclear weapon can kill more people than all the land mines in the world. The United Nations and the agencies that answer to it must apply all their muscle to end the nuclear projects of Iran and North Korea. Otherwise, we will seek a coalition of the willing that is prepared to act now.

And then there's the democratic nation of Taiwan. It is with regret that I must admit that Canada's current foreign policy welcomes any official in China's non-democratic government. Yet a democratically elected member of Taiwan's government cannot visit our shores. All that will change on my watch.

My last point pertains to a domestic matter -- but one I feel I must address in this forum. I mistakenly appointed Yvon Charbonneau to be Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This man has a long history of anti-American and anti-Israel histrionics, and should not be allowed to pretend that he's the voice of the Canadian people. Effective immediately, I am announcing the recall of Mr. Charbonneau.

That's all I have to say. And I feel better for saying it.

director of communications; Canadian Coalition for Democracies.; http://www.canadiancoalition.com/

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