Letter to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs

The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario 
K1A 0A6

16 November 2009

Dear Minister:

I am gravely concerned about your government's attempts to let Hamas and Israel escape scrutiny for the alleged war crimes they committed during Operation Cast Lead in January. Many reputable organisations, including Israeli human rights groups, have credible evidence that both sides to this conflict perpetrated violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions. If the world is to move toward justice and the rule of law, we must hold accountable those who behave reprehensibly. Canada's own reputation is at risk if we actively work to enable the accused to avoid scrutiny and due process.

So I was shocked and saddened to learn that not only did our representative at the United Nations General Assembly vote against adoption of a resolution to “[give] Israel and the Palestinians three months to undertake 'independent, credible investigations' into serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed during the conflict in Gaza”, but also he was quoted in a UN press release as saying “his delegation had voted against the resolution because it was concerned about the imbalanced nature of the Goldstone Report, as it had not called on an investigation by both sides. It had assumed that Israel was wholly culpable.”

Was our delegation correctly quoted? Did he really state that the Goldstone Report “had not called on an investigation by both sides” and that the report had found “Israel … wholly culpable”?

The Goldstone report specifically recommended on page 427, paragraph 1974 (a) “The Mission recommends that the Palestinian Authority should... ensure prompt and independent investigation of all allegations of serious human rights violations by security forces under its control...”.

It would be appreciated if you would determine if the UN press release accurately quoted your representative. If not, what steps will you be taking to correct the record? If, however, the quotation is correct, what steps are you planning to take to repair the damage to Canada's reputation done by having your representative make such ridiculous and patently false statements? Also, will you be asking your UN staff to read the report before making comments that are entirely at odds with the actual report they are voting against?

If/when we receive a response we will be sure to post it on this blog.