Coffee with… Bob Rae | The anti-wooden language

Sometimes Bob Rae hesitates. He then consults his wife, Arlene. “Could I write that? She replies: “No, bad idea. Wait a bit. » Take time to reflect. Resist impulsiveness.

But more often than not, Bob Rae tweets. Without restraint. Without putting on white gloves. And it is not because he is now Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations that he deprives himself of it. Quite the contrary.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bob Rae has emerged as one of the most virulent critics of Vladimir Putin, whom he did not hesitate to describe as “horrible successor to Stalin” on Twitter.

The ambassador is ironic, scandalized, responds to Russian propaganda in 280 well-packed characters. The least diplomatic of all the diplomats who populate the city of New York shakes up conventions.

It’s that Bob Rae is an angry man. For him, it is impossible to remain a diplomat, precisely, in the face of a superpower which undertakes to bring a country to its heels by bombarding its towns and villages, raping its women and massacring its civilian population. “We cannot remain silent in the face of this situation. You have to describe it as it is. »

Exposing it in all its cruelty.

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Thus, it is above all the horror of this war which explains the brutal frankness of the diplomat on Twitter. But it’s not just that. After 50 years in public life, Bob Rae has developed a deep allergy to the language of wood.

In 2016 he wrote What’s Happened to Politics, a charge against this practice, widespread among elected officials, of avoiding debates in favor of short repeated “clips” ad nauseam for the newsletter. “Political discourse has become much less substantial than it should be,” he laments via videoconference from his New York residence.

At 73, the former NDP premier of Ontario – and former interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada – has vowed never to speak idly again. Never again, empty words. Even at the United Nations. Especially at the United Nations, in fact.

“In the job I do, it’s important to communicate with people as candidly as possible. »

At 71^and day of the invasion in Ukraine, the UN Security Council issued a statement in which it expressed its “deep concern” about the maintenance of peace and security in that country.

The words used were so timid, so empty of meaning that they inspired an “ironical poem” in Bob Rae. On May 8, the ambassador wrote on Twitter:

#Impotence

The UN Security Council is “deeply concerned”

When mothers are slaughtered and babies are burned

The UN Security Council is “deeply concerned” when mothers are massacred and babies are burned. In two lines, Bob Rae summed up the shocking inability of the UN Security Council to do anything to end the war in Ukraine.

This impotence revolts him. “It took months to get a statement from the Security Council. It’s not even a resolution, it’s a statement that says nothing. “We are concerned”, what does that mean? »

The crux of the problem, says Bob Rae, is the right of veto granted to the five permanent members – including Russia – of the UN Security Council. “As anachronistic as it is undemocratic”, this right of veto is enshrined in the United Nations Charter. It cannot be removed without amending the charter. But to modify the charter, you need the consent of the permanent members, who have no interest in losing their right of veto…

In short, it is paralysis.

In this context, is the UN still useful?

“It’s a humanitarian organization,” replies Bob Rae. The World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN agencies are doing a remarkable job.

“Because it is a war of aggression, insists Bob Rae. It is a war of total destruction. Not a “special military operation”, as Vladimir Putin proclaims in his Newspeak.

“We live in an Orwellian world”, drops the ambassador, who was marked, from adolescence, by the works of George Orwell.

The dystopia described by the author of 1984 has rarely seemed so close to reality. “The world is filled with lies, propaganda and misinformation. You have to occupy the space to replicate. Attack the sources of misinformation. “Above all, do not be silent.

“Right now it is Russia that is saying absolutely false things about the war in Ukraine. I think it is necessary to correct them. He does not waste an opportunity to do so. About the declaration of the Russian Communist Party which calls on Twitter to free Ukraine from fascism, he retorts: “Pure delirium. Look in the mirror, guys. »

To a Russian official who is surprised, on the same platform, to see Finland and Sweden want to join NATO, he replies: “So you kill tens of thousands of people, you destroy entire cities, then you are disconcerted when others seek protection. When you act impulsively, cruelly and vengefully, don’t be surprised at the consequences. »

A strange twist in history: Bob Rae occupies the seat occupied 50 years ago by his own father, Saul Rae, a career diplomat. “He would probably have asked me: what took you so long? »

After a five-decade detour in politics, Bob Rae may have been destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. But he could not have foreseen that he would land in this seat at a time when the United Nations is going through one of the most perilous periods in its history.

A pivotal moment, where things have to be said as they are. And don’t miss anything.

“A victory for Mr. Putin would be a disaster, a catastrophe, and not only for the Ukrainians. It would lead to other Russian conquests, in Georgia, in Moldavia, in the Baltic countries…

How to resist ? “We must support Ukraine, militarily and in every way we can, with the only condition of not widening the conflict”, replies Bob Rae. Because engaging in an escalation with a nuclear power would not just be a disaster or a catastrophe. It would be a cataclysm.

“Always think about the consequences of what we do and try not to act impulsively,” says Bob Rae. It is impulsive actions that cause problems, in private life and in public life. And on Twitter, as his wife sometimes reminds him.