In a recent article, Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May wrote: "Sadly, under Stephen Harper, the role of our diplomatic corps has been de-emphasized with embassies closing, diplomats treated as irrelevant, and Canada's respect for multilateralism itself called into question. Our role as peacemakers, a role invented by former Prime Minister Lester Pearson, has also fallen."Days earlier the president of the Rideau Institute, Steven Staples, co-authored a column in the Ottawa Citizen decrying the current government's lack of commitment to "peacekeeping." It noted: "Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting 'peacekeeping,' as it came to be known, a project that helped to define our national identity and character."In a major international affairs speech in Montréal last February the leader of the official opposition, Tom Mulcair, focused on how Harper was breaking with Pearson's purported legacy. He repeated a variation of his claim that "Lester Pearson was a model for what Canada has done in the past and should be doing today." If Mulcair actually believes this statement -- he likely knows no more about Pearson's foreign-policy legacy than the myth of 'peacekeeper' -- the NDP leader has a lot to defend.Pearson's record speaks for itself:-He had Canada deliver weapons to the French to put down the Algerian and Vietnamese independence movements.-Asked in Parliament, Pearson refused to call for Nelson Mandela's release from prison.-Pearson backed the mid-1950s CIA coups in Iran and Guatemala.-He incited individuals to destroy a Canadian peace group after it called for the outlawing of nuclear weapons.-Pearson threatened to quit as external affairs minister if Canada failed to deploy ground troops to Korea.-Most controversially, he agreed to have Canada's representatives to the International Control Commission for Vietnam spy for the U.S. and deliver their bombing threats to the North Vietnamese leadership.
[ed notes;click link for whole piece.. then see.. Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy - Yves Engler - YouTube
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