Liberal ThinkFest

That festering aggrievement just ballooned into a miasmic fog of indignant flagellation at the lapse of morals and ethics that overtook Canada once the self-esteemed Robert Fowler left the corridors of power, advising one government executive after another. He might have predicted that everything would just fall apart without his guiding thoughts. And he was right, and he was right there at the Liberal ThinkFest to make sure everyone knew he was right.

He did own, perhaps reluctantly, to a brief acknowledgement that the Conservative government of Stephen Harper did their duty in saving his life after abduction by al-Qaeda in Niger. He forgives them for they know not what they do. No one in his beloved Africa is responsible for the murderous rampages continually embarked upon, tribal revenge exacted as an existential imperative, raking down every unfortunate soul in their path.

The speech Mr. Fowler with his long history at Department of Foreign Affairs (when it was External Affairs), and as foreign policy adviser to Liberal prime ministers, Messrs. Trudeau and Turner; Conservative prime minister Mulroney - formerly Canada's longest-serving ambassador to that hallowed international hall of infamy, the United Nations - feels he has the experience and the authority to critique his government and his country.

His opinion does appear to contrarians who view his experience and his distinguished past with less than perfect respect, to be confrontational, conflicted, distorted and self-promoting. This is what is called oppositional political perspective. Otherwise his speech was interesting, albeit conclusively errant. This knight's cause was caustically enunciated and the values of his government faulted.

Insisting as he has that the current Conservative government must "accept the reality and importance of the ironclad link between ... continuing turmoil and volatility in the Middle East and the rise (and) growing strength of international terrorism". We can be forgiven for casting grave doubt on this conclusion, one set aside with a good measure of intellectual contempt by those who are in possession of a balanced assessment through the rigour of intelligent thought.

Israel represents, within the Middle East, not only a non-Muslim, Judaic presence as an insult to Islam, but also the presence of Western thought, governance and social and political structuring within a society that abhors all of that. Because it represents, in its social, political, structural and commercial success, all that Islam does not recognize. Because it represents in live form, a victorious West, a vanquished Islamic global presence.

It is a symbol of loss of prestige, of international standing, of successful humanity, not a cause of the rise of terror in and of itself. Remove Israel from the picture and the first line of defence is suddenly absent. The risen and rising tide of fundamentalist Islamist jihad will not suddenly collapse, it will be empowered to continue its rabid defiance of modernity and peace while marching toward its renascent caliphate.

His passionately (anti-Semitic) claims that Canadian politicians of all stripes formulate foreign policy on the Middle East and other issues only with a view to winning votes and scoring political points at home for the vital Jewish vote is patently absurd. How many Jews in Canada? How does 365,000 sound? How many Muslims living in Canada? Over a million, and growing. So which demographic vote is the more important?

His contention that politicians are busy in "the scramble to lock up the Jewish vote in Canada [and] selling out our widely admired and long-established reputation for fairness and justice..." hardly reflects reality. In his original department, External Affairs, the bias was always toward the Arab states to the detriment of Israel. But Canada itself has always been an ally of Israel, the myth being that Stephen Harper's Conservative government altered policy.

Mr. Fowler is free to believe what he will, and he is also free, in Canada's liberal-democratic society with its guarantees of free speech, to spout what he will. Even while teaching at the University of Ottawa. Which also does go a long way to explaining that esteemed university's long-perceived biases.

Of course the Liberals' record did not come off completely unscathed. It was an equal-opportunity blame-fest, and much of the accusations levelled against Liberal politicians who went out of their way to appear to make common cause with the supporters of Tamil Tigers, the Free Khalistan separatists and other radical immigrant groups who brought their religious and political agendas with them from abroad were well founded, but old stuff.

Ill-wishing Canada on the issue of assuming a winning vote for one of the United Nations Security Council 2011-12 seats does not reflect nicely on Mr. Fowler's opinion of his home and native land. Particularly as it appears he will soon have his fervent wishes become reality in the Canadian retrieval of our troops in Afghanistan. To deploy them, under UN guidance in the hellhole wars of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Canadian battle groups back into peacekeeping. On a continent that has never known internal peace. One that forever sends its clans and tribes on missions to destroy one another. And there is that Middle East connection again; with the recently-convened Arab League meeting agreed in support for Arab countries suffering under the indignity of "Western pressure".

Sudan most notably, censured by the international community and its president sought to stand trial for crimes against humanity resulting from Sudan's Arab administration and its Arab militias having slaughtered tens of thousands of non-Arab Muslims in Darfur, raping thousands upon thousands of women and girls, creating hundreds of thousands of homeless refugees who, even in their camps are murdered and raped by the Arab janjaweed and dying of starvation.

There's the values, morals and solidarity of which the knowledgeable and experienced Robert Fowler speaks so convincingly.