Trudeau’s Foreign Policy Problems

By Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

Justin Trudeau has strained nearly every international relationship Canada has, notably with the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and now, of course, China.

Relations with India have not recovered from last year’s fiasco, when Trudeau, visiting India, seemed oblivious to the threat of Sikh separatism there. 

A Canadian man convicted in a failed attempt to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 had been invited to a formal event hosted by the Canadian High Commission in Delhi.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has still not forgiven Trudeau for this gaffe. Trudeau had already been beset by allegations that his Liberal Party curries favor with Canada’s prominent Sikh community by supporting secessionist Sikh groups that want an independent homeland called Khalistan.

In August, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expelled Canada’s ambassador and withdrew his own envoy after Foreign Minister Freeland used Twitter to call for the release of women’s rights activists who had been arrested in the country.

Saudi Arabia ordered 15,000 Saudi students to leave Canada, halted direct flights to and from Canada and froze new trade and investment.

More recently, a Saudi teen was described as a “brave new Canadian” as she fled her allegedly abusive family by Freeland, who appeared alongside Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun with her arm around the teen at Pearson Airport in January.

Following Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, two Canadians were seized by the Chinese government in December, and a third had his 15-year sentence for drug dealing raised to death, in apparent retaliation.

Countries such as the U.S. – who want to extradite Meng -- the U.K., Australia and France would normally have been expected to put a word in for their release without much prompting were largely silent.

Canada shares very few civic values with the Communist government and there is no indication that Beijing under President Xi Jinping intends to do anything but intensify his authoritarian state.

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, so the ramifications could be extremely serious. China’s ambassador Lu Shaye called the detention of Meng an example of “western egoism and white supremacy.”

Canada’s overarching vital interest is to maintain a secure and open border for bilateral trade and a strong security alliance with the U.S. Some 75 per cent of our exports go south of the border.

Yet renegotiating the new North American trade deal took much longer than anticipated, thanks in part to U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to walk away from the talks.

The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was finally signed by Trudeau, Trump, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in November, but has still to be ratified by the U.S. Congress.

What about Russia and Ukraine? Relations with Moscow are in deep freeze, while we uphold the supposedly democratic government in Ukraine. But all is not as it seems.

Under the post-Euromaidan government, there is much less freedom in Ukraine and much more political violence.

Ukraine remains a corrupt state run by oligarchs, something that isn’t mentioned by our foreign minister, who hates Russia and supports the Kyiv regime wholeheartedly. But that government is no shining example of democracy.

Repressive measures include persecutions and imprisonment of citizens holding dissenting opinion; searches of the offices of media outlets that dare to criticize the new Ukrainian power holders; attacks by ultra-right nationalists against journalists and media offices; and cyber-bullying of journalists and bloggers who hold alternative opinions.

All of this is carried out with the informal support by the administration of President Petro Poroshenko, who is up for re-election in March.

There is one bright spot, however. Ottawa has recognized Juan Guaido as the legitimate head of state in Venezuela, to send a clear message about what Trudeau has called “the illegitimacy” of the Nicolas Maduro regime. Venezuelan lawmakers named Guaido interim president in January.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has repeatedly criticized Caracas’ human rights record. Recently she described the Maduro regime as a “dictatorship.”

Canada renewed its calls to allow humanitarian aid into Venezuela in a joint statement by Freeland and Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau.

“Canada is deeply concerned by the acts of violence allegedly perpetrated by the Maduro regime, designed to block the entry of relief items from neighbouring countries,” it read.