The Conservative government's positions at the United Nations on Israel and Palestine could yield some serious consequences for Canada.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved Ottawa from being a broker in the Middle East to lining up with the Israel's staunchest allies on issues affecting the region.
It may have helped cost Canada a seat on the UN Security Council in 2010 and now potentially threatens the transfer of an important UN agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), out of Montreal where it's been headquartered since 1947.
According to the Globe and Mail, the Persian Gulf state of Qatar wants ICAO's offices moved there. It's trying to line up enough votes among the 191 member states to affect the transfer when the organization holds its 38th assembly beginning in late September. It needs support from 115 states to achieve the 60 per cent margin required to force the move.
The Globe said some Arab states may back the bid as a way of punishing Canada for its stance on issues regarding Palestine. Middle East countries and their supporters were especially miffed by Canada's vote against giving Palestine observer-state status at the UN. Ottawa campaigned against it in vain.
[ Related: Canada to fight 'tooth and nail' for UN aviation agency to remain in Montreal ]
Then last month during his tour of Middle East countries, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird met with an Israeli cabinet minister in east Jerusalem. The visit angered the Palestinian Authority and its backers in the region since they see east Jerusalem as Palestine's future capital. It was seen as a signal Canada now accepts Israel's control over the section of the city it conquered during the 1967 Six-Day War. Baird shrugged off the reaction, which only made them angrier.
The Globe said Canada became the focus of an April 23rd UN session on Palestinian issues, with Arab ambassadors to the world body pushing to confront Ottawa in various international organizations. The Arabs now are trying to win backing from other states to punish Canada, the Globe reported.
Aside from a loss of prestige to Canada, moving ICAO's headquarters out of Montreal would mean the loss of 534 staff employees and 37 foreign delegations that maintain a full-time presence in the city, the Globe said.
A consultant's report in 2012 put the economic impact of having ICAO in Montreal at $119 million annually, the Globe said.
Qatar reportedly is offering to create a state-of-the-art facility and subsidies for ICAO employees, the Globe said.
It might be difficult to line up needed 115 votes for the move but Ottawa is not brushing off this threat. It's calling on its friends for support and warning Qatar it won't change its stance on east Jerusalem to take the heat off.
“Canada will not apologize for promoting a principled foreign policy,” Baird spokesman Joseph Lavoie told the Globe. “Those who choose to focus on where the minister stops for coffee instead of the larger, substantive issues at play do a disservice to the cause of peace.”
Ottawa had just finished patching up relations with the United Arab Emirates that chilled in 2010 when the government refused additional landing rights to two UAE-based airlines at the behest of Air Canada.
The UAE responded by ordering Canada's military out of a desert air base used to provide support for the mission in Afghanistan and it imposed costly visa requirements on Canadians travelling to the Emirates. Baird mended fences with the Gulf state over some Tim Hortons coffee during his visit there last month.
[ Related: John Baird unfazed by criticism after meeting with Israelis in East Jerusalem ]
Baird, meanwhile, has written off even attempting to win one of the rotating Security Council seats opening up next year.
He told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Canada, after its embarrassing loss to Portugal in 2010, would not run this time, The Canadian Press reported.
“Canada’s principled foreign policy is not for sale for a Security Council seat,” said Baird, employing the boiler-plate term the government uses to describe its engagement with the world.
“We are aggressively working on humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable, including Syria; we are taking real leadership when it comes to standing up against the evil that is Iran; and no one is standing up stronger against the regime in Colombo, Sri Lanka, than this prime minister and this government.”
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