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WHO IS IN CHARGE AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS?

Having been a presence in the United Nations for many years, REAL Women of Canada has been witness to the remarkable zeal with which the Canadian delegations have promoted an extreme liberal agenda. With the conservatives narrowly gaining power, we were curious to see if something as minor as a federal election would have any effect on the powerful leftist movement our country has led at the UN, up until now. It hasn't. It was business as usual for the Canadians, at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held February 27 to March 10, 2006, in New York, where delegates from around the world gathered to discuss women's participation in development and decision making.

Perhaps the newly elected Conservative government was only just settling in, so reasonably, could not make any substantial changes in foreign policy. However, we should expect Canada's international role to reflect the conservative mandate to protect family values, fundamental human rights, and national sovereignty, particularly as modern foreign affairs extend far beyond peacekeeping and foreign aid to include a host of serious moral and social issues.

The current problem with the UN Canadian mission is that our chief representatives and negotiators are leftist ideologues who are engaged in promoting questionable ideas, such as 'sexual rights', 'reproductive services', and 'gender mainstreaming'.

For example, in drafting this year's document at the Commission on the Status of Women, Canada's delegation promoted and supported such terminology as 'sexual rights', which is interpreted to include homosexual marriage, decriminalized prostitution, and child sexual rights, all of which the conservative party claims to oppose.

The Canadian delegation also supported the term 'reproductive services', in the document which previous Canadian delegations have admitted is interpreted to include abortion. Since abortion is legal in Canada, the only reason the delegation would promote it at the UN is to apply pressure on other nations to change their national abortion laws in compliance with our demands. Is this reflective of the Canadian spirit?

Even more bothersome, the Canadian delegation, at this Commission on the Status of Women meeting, supported the concept of creating quotas for female candidates in elections. This is the very same proposal put forward at the feminist February conference. (See article The Feminist Shell Game p. 6). Who is giving direction to the Canadian delegation? Is it the feminists from their command post in Ottawa, instead of our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter MacKay? REAL Women of Canada's representative, Ginger Malacko, spoke with the Canadian negotiator on this controversial subject and was told that Canada would support the demand for quotas, depending on the formulation of the language and which nations were promoting it! Does this mean that Canada will allow the UN to meddle in our electoral process if our buddies in the European Union tell us to? Of course, the real question is: does our new conservative government support the idea of electoral quotas for women, or does it mean we have a renegade delegation on our hands that is moving forward, unchecked, under the direction of the feminist sisterhood?

On the other hand perhaps, however, the Canadian delegation at the Status of Women meeting was making a last ditch effort to push personal beliefs before the conservative government can interfere. It's interesting however, that just weeks ago, at a foreign affairs consultation in Ottawa with non-government organizations, which REAL Women also attended, Canadian officials stated that they would not change their approach and that delegations would follow through with existing Liberal government directives.

In summary, either the conservative government feels that there is no need to make changes in the way Canada negotiates at the UN, hasn't had the time to change the situation, or perhaps believes breaking away from the status quo will be too controversial. Canada has been a strong promoter of abortion, homosexuality and left-leaning democracy for a very long time. It will require a level of diplomatic skill and backbone to make the appropriate adjustments to our foreign policy.

After all the election buzz about integrity and accountability, who is ultimately accountable for what goes on during UN negotiations? What we need is some clear leadership from Ottawa that will make Canadian foreign policy representative of current Canadian law and Canadian tradition and the views of the Canadian public, rather than the ideology of the feminist extremists who dominate the Canadian delegation. Shouldn't these feminist delegations be sent into retirement and be replaced by individuals more in tune with the views of the Canadian public? What we need is a Conservative government that isn't afraid of being conservative.

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