The greatest war crime of our time

Canada’s foreign policy is a mystery. Just today our punditocracy is agog at the affrontery of China’s ban on our free and democratic canola. They accuse China of retaliating against our free and democratic canola just because we imposed 100% tariffs on their authoritarian and possibly genocidal EV industry. Who really knows how much Uyghur slave labour is in those Chinese electric cars? It’s probably quite a bit. Canada would never rubber stamp a US anti-China policy just because we’re a US dependency, much like the Marshall Islands, but with a slightly more robust military. So in order to clarify what Canada’s actual foreign policy priorities might be, I thought I’d check out the official Global Affairs website. Here are the ten most recent “news bulletins” as of 9 o’clock this evening. From 21 August, something about the USA-Canada-Mexico trade deal. Mexico is threatening unreasonable stuff. Then there’s a fluff piece about FM Joly visits Africa, where Canada’s influence is now less than zero. After that we get a couple of stories about our commitment to Ukraine. Apparently our commitment to Ukraine is closing in on $20 billions, from a country that can’t afford to train its own nurses or doctors. On 25 August we get this jam tart; Diplomats for Equality Joint Statement, wherein we declare our solidarity with transgender youth in need of gender affirming care. Because that’s a global priority for equity and freedom and human rights. Then there’s a couple of house-keeping items re new diplomatic postings to a bunch of shithole countries in Latin America. Cuba and Nicaragua just don’t get democracy, so I don’t know why we bother. I guess it’s just because we really care about freedom and human rights. That’s followed by a couple of lame-ass stories about Mary Ng’s adventures in DC. Yes, that is the very same Mary Ng embroiled in a conflict of interest scandal a few years ago, but who cares about that when there’s bigger fish to fry! Finally, the most recent Global Affairs news bulletin as of this writing reminds us that China’s persecution of the Uyghur minority is a grave violation of human rights! There you have it; Canada’s foreign policy priorities as expressed in all Global Affairs news releases over the past two weeks. Not a whisper about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the greatest war crime of our time.