The Canadian ambassadors were all gathered in Ottawa this week as part of an initiative by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to refocus their action. This recovery, of which The duty revealed the tenor, comes late in the Liberal mandate, so much so that a certain skepticism emerges from it.
A working document (The future of diplomacy. Transforming Global Affairs Canada), paints a harsh portrait of the administration of the diplomatic network. We suspected it a little, by dint of noting anecdotal incidents that are not funny, such as the mess in the evacuation of Afghan allies from Canada following the fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban. Slowness was the watchword of the operation to bring 40,000 Afghans to Canada, when they were plunged into an immediate situation of life or death for having collaborated with the Canadian forces.
The heavy step of the bureaucracy will have prevailed over the humanitarian emergency. In terms of statistics, nothing will appear in a year or two. Ottawa has now welcomed 33,000 Afghan refugees out of the target of 40,000, almost two years after the end of the parenthesis that was the occupation of Afghanistan. Is this the kind of diplomacy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had in mind when he was elected? The very one who professed that “Canada was back” for its international allies? The hollow slogan contrasts with reality.
Minister Joly’s working document makes a severe statement about Canadian diplomacy: rigid, allergic to risk, absent abroad, slow to react to crises (why!), not very specialized and too focused on a single language of this beautiful bilingual country from coast to coast. We’ll let you guess which one. The galloping anglicization of Global Affairs and its indifference to French remain known but unresolved problems.
Nevertheless, we salute the initiative of Minister Joly, who took the trouble to consult the entire Canadian diplomatic network, in an approach imbued with “humility and audacity”, knowing full well that frustrations were accumulating on all time zones. The last such initiative dates back to 2005, under the short-lived government of Paul Martin.
Among other things, the issues of diversity, inclusion and linguistic duality are named as factors of excellence and the main assets of Global Affairs. Faced with the inexorable decline of French within the ministry and embassies, the best service that Minister Joly could render to the French fact internationally is to accept a more generous interpretation of the Gérin-Lajoie doctrine, allowing in Quebec to act on the international scene in its fields of competence. Support for the request of the Quebec Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, for Quebec to obtain a full seat at UNESCO, would send a strong message about the importance of the French language and culture for Global Affairs , even if the ball is definitely in the UN’s court. We can always dream.
Canada has an enviable diplomatic presence around the world. It maintains relations with almost all the countries. By the end of the year, the Canadian diplomatic network should include 182 embassies, high commissions and consulates in 112 countries. Are the priorities in the right place given the evolution of global geopolitics? This is one of the underlying questions of the report, which names the climate crisis, migratory flows, competition for natural resources and armed conflicts as distinctive factors of contemporary international relations.
Minister Joly’s preliminary analysis suggests there is room for improvement, particularly at the UN, where Canada has only 25 mission members, a far cry from 13e rank. Ottawa wishes to increase its presence not only at the UN, but also in countries of “high strategic value”, starting from an obvious principle: the situation has changed.
From a unipolar world after the Second World War, we have moved to a multipolar reconfiguration of world relations, in the presence of state and non-state actors. The weight and influence of the G7 countries have diminished in favor of emerging countries, namely those of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Conflicts and international concerns come to national and even local scales.
Thus, it is imperative to rethink Canadian diplomatic action, bearing in mind that our main ally, whether we like it or not, still and always remains the less and less predictable giant south of the border. Canada can do more and act differently on the world stage, that’s for sure. Still, it will have to equip itself with a less bureaucratic diplomatic network, equal to its ambitions. This is a challenge with a high risk of pitfalls, so strong is the force of inertia within this government.