Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Con-sular services

Once upon a time I had a late evening date with the official security forces of an otherwise beautiful South East Asian country. Canada has no consular representation in that country, so the Australian embassy handles Canadians needing assistance.

After dressing my wounds, and locating my terrified travelling companion, I headed to the Australian embassy. Their assistance and advice proved to be invaluable in both advising me of the best course of action and securing replacement cash. The key piece of advice they gave me was to not, under any circumstances, approach the local police about this as I would likely be disappeared.

Now, after reading two posts this morning at Dr. Dawg's, (here and here), I am left seriously wondering if had the embassy been Canadian, whether I would have been turned over to local authorities and vanished. If my skin were a little darker than my northwest European ancestory allows, I don't think there would be any doubt about my fate.

The policy standard emerging from Conservative government is to side with the local authorities (no matter how diabolical) under all circumstances. Indeed, it seems to go farther than that, where the policy is now to actively or passively assist local authorities in their efforts against Canadian citizens in trouble. This goes beyond any measure of objective statecraft. Senior members of DFAIT up to and including the minister are now taking a personal and active extra-judicial role in the fate of individual Canadians.

I've picked a lot of apples. Fuji apples are susceptible to a particular form of core rot where they look healthy and feel firm on the outside, but cut one open and the inside is a slimy rotten pulp. An experienced picker can detect a hollowness in the fruit through his or her fingers indicating this condition. These must be dropped to the ground or otherwise discarded as they are unfit for human consumption.

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