Mr. Speaker, under the banner of “Prospects and Challenges”, the National Council on Canadian Arab Relations hosted a dinner last evening celebration of Eid El Adha.
Canada's foreign affairs minister, in speaking on Iraq, used the occasion to stress the importance of “upholding the integrity of a rules based international system” for resolving conflicts “justly and peacefully”.
Given the Liberal government's ever shifting and contradictory approach to Iraq, the council's president, Hussein Amery, took the opportunity to plead for a more consistent application of the multilateral rules based principle.
The foreign affairs minister aroused renewed concerns with his declaration of Canada's policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one of “urging Israel to freeze all settlement activities in the occupied territories”.
Consistent application of the principle of rules based multilateralism would, at the very least, mean an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and a reversal of its settlement activities.
Nothing less, together with a two state solution and a cessation of violence, will assure lasting peace and justice for all people in this troubled region.