FIRST READING: Canada says it didn’t endorse UN Iran appointment (except it did)

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Negrea then circulated these statements in a press release published to the official website of the United States Mission to the United Nations.

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No such statement came from Canada, and Canada remains listed among the members endorsing Iran’s appointment to the committee.

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Canadian lawyer Hiller Neuer, who runs the organization UN Watch, noted in a critique that Canada has previously participated in efforts to keep Iran off UN committees, and has even exercised its right to “dissociate from consensus.”

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In 2010, Canada participated in an ECOSOC vote to bar Iran from participation in the agency UN Women.

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And as recently as 2022, Canada withdrew its support for a motion to appoint Russia to the UN Committee on Social Economic and Cultural Rights.

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“Canada knows how to disassociate itself from immoral consensus elections at ECOSOC,” wrote Neuer in a post to X.

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This isn’t the first time that Canada has kept quiet as the Islamic Republic of Iran has been appointed to UN committees. But the April 8 instance comes only weeks after the Iranian government oversaw the mass killings of thousands of anti-government demonstrators.

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Recent months have also seen instances of Canadian Armed Forces members coming under fire from Iranian missiles, and Canadian security officials alleging an Iranian plot to kill former Canadian minister of justice Irwin Cotler.

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Canada is not the only ECOSOC member state whose government has claimed that it played no role in granting a committee appointment to Iran despite video evidence of the opposite.

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In an April 18 post to X, an account run by the German Foreign Office responded to criticism on why it didn’t follow the U.S. lead in “dissociating” from Iran’s appointment.

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“An election of Iran by Germany did not take place,” wrote the account in German.

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IN OTHER NEWS

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One of the very first scandals faced during the tenure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was allegations that he was hosting “cash for access” fundraisers in Vancouver involving higher-ups from the People’s Republic of China. According to reporting by Tom Blackwell in the National Post, Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to be doing much the same by hosting $2,000-a-head private fundraisers featuring business figures with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

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On Sunday, Prime Minister Mark Carney released a video (now with 400,000 views on YouTube) which reiterated his argument that Canada’s historic ties to the U.S. are now a vulnerability.

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As the American broadcaster CBS described the video, Carney argued that “Canada’s strong economic ties to the United States were once a strength but are now a weakness that must be corrected.”

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As to what prompted the video, the two most cynical interpretations are that it was an attempt to distract from worsening inflation figures. Or, that Carney is preparing the ground for Canada’s trade relationship with the U.S. to get even worse.

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Renegotiations of Canada’s free trade agreement with the U.S. are set to begin in July, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has already hinted at his disdain for the Canadian camp.

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In a Friday panel, Lutnick said that the Carney government’s move to distance itself from the U.S. on trade was “the worst strategy I have ever heard.” “They suck,” he added.

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“We are a $30 trillion economy. We are the consumer of the world. Carney has a problem with us. He gets on a plane and he goes to China. Does he think the Chinese economy is going to buy his stuff?” Lutnick told a crowd at the Semafor World Economy summit.

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The last days of Daylight Saving Time may finally be at hand. For years, Canadian provincial governments have signalled their intention to end twice-year clock changes, but held back until they could get neighbouring provinces and U.S. states to join in. But with B.C. announcing its unilateral plan to switch to permanent DST in March, Alberta has also thrown its lot into the permanent DST ring. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced this week that Albertans will never be changing their clocks again.

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First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

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