OH CANADA: SAVE THE WORLD AND THYSELF-A PROPOSAL

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      OH CANADA: SAVE THE WORLD AND THYSELF, EH! -
A Three Act Play Written  for Immediate Performance on the World Stage .

Lester Pearson saved the world from itself in the 1956 Suez crisis. It's
time for Canada again to save the world and itself in the 1999 Kosovo
crisis. As a non-Canadian non-resident in Montreal, I offer a modest
proposal to resolve the present NATO/Kosovo crisis that only Canada is in
a position to  implement, but the implementation of which  is also of
vital interest and benefit for Canada.

1. ACT ONE
Canada should take the initiative to convene an Emergency Session of the
United Nations General Assembly to deal with the present serious crisis in
the UN system, the Balkans and the world. For  the Security Council is
paralyzed by the split down the middle vetoes of its permanent members,
three of which have therefore made an end run around the SC and replaced
the UN by NATO. This move sets a most serious precedent to set aside the
UN and its security and peace keeping institutions and mechanism
altogether and threatens to spell the deathknell of the UN as Manchuria in
1931 and Abessinya in 1936 did to its League of Nations predecessor before
WW II. And now NATO  seems unable to do anything better than to expand its
illegal war more and more and perhaps to provoke WW III.

The important and relevant Canadian counter-move precedent was set by
Prime Minister Lester Pearson  when in face of a similar threat  in 1956
he convoked the UN General Assembly  to deal with the Suez Crisis, in
which Britain and France were the aggressors and also paralyzed the
Security Council by their veto power. Moreover, Pearson elaborated,
presented and got approval and implementation of a  United Nations
Emergency Intervention Force  [UNEIF], whose military planning and then
overall command were in the hands of a Canadian general. British and
French aggression forces were replaced by and naturally excluded from this
UNIEF. The establishment of such a UNIEF is foreseen by the UN Charter,
under whose Articles 41 and 42 such a UN military force can be used
within the scope of exiting international law, particularly if it is alos
done under the auspices of a relevant UN 'regional' organization, which
in this case is the OSCE founded in Helsinki. NATO is NOT a UN
organization and even if it were 'sanctioned' or authorized  by the UN
Security Council which is decidedly NOT, all NATO intervention, like
that also assembed by the US under its own command  in the 1991 Gulf War 
against Iraq, is in direct violation of more than a half dozen sections of
the UN Charter, including some in Articles 41 and 42. This NATO action
instead virtually abrogates the entire UN Charter, organization and peace
keeping provisions and mechanisms. It was Lester Pearson's concern and 
merit to preempt that in the 1956 Suez crisis. Today it should and can be
Canada's role again to save the United Nations and the world by again 
convening the UN General Assembly. This time, Canada mustdemand an
immediate stop to the bombing and ethnic cleansing and the establishment
of a new multinational UNEIF and OSCE peace keeping - not war making -
force to go in on the ground to clean up, and avoid spreading further, the
mess NATO has made in Yugoslavia,  Macedonia,  Albania, etc. 
That would also offer NATO a face saving way out.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has said several times that as a member of
NATO, Canada had the obligation to go along with the other member's
decisions. Actually, that is not so, as Charles De Gaulle proved to the
extent of NATO moving its headquarters out of France.  It can be
forcefully argued however  that Mr. Chretien has far more mandate,
obligation, and precedent to 'go along with' - and indeed to exercise a
leadership role in - the United Nations for peace, as Canada more than any
other country has done in the UN over the past half century, and NOT for
war, which he is unwilling even to declare or to let Parliament debate. In
a word, history has placed Canada  in a privileged position to initiate
and take steps to save the world and the United Nations in this period of
crisis.  As it happens, Canada now also has a seat on the Security
Council, but to what avail? One would be to call the SC into emergency
session as well if only to dramatize the paralysis and ineffectiveness of
the SC - and of its titular head, the UN Secretary General, who maintained
a thunderous silence during this past month of war, the prevention of
which is the primary duty of his office under the UN Charter. If Canada
cannot move the SG to act, then perhaps it and others can make the SG move
out, that is to resign in protest against those on the SC who are making
it impossible for him to carry out even minimally the duties of his
office. Little would be lost, and much gained; since that would be a
political impulse now to reform the SC, which  is long overdue anyway.



ACT TWO
A second motion that Canada - and others - should bring in this Emergency
Session of the UN General Assembly is to move the United Nations out of
the United States. Under present circumstances, such a Canadian motion may
be considered with favor by  many member state delegations, and all the
more so if Canada garners prestige and shows some independence of
initiative and action [especially within North America] through its motion
in Act One.  An additional factor  that may incline some delegations to
move the UN out of the United States is that , after repeated requests and
agreements, the United States remains in arrears in its payment of dues to
the UN. Yet  the US wishes to use the UN it in its own interests whenever
it is convenient , but to disregard it  whenever it is not.

A third  motion that Canada could and should  then bring before the
General Assembly is to invite and welcome the UN to move to Canada in
general and to Montreal in particular. Canada and Montreal can offer  the
United Nations a whose series of advantages that  would be difficult for
others to match: 

- close to where it is now and still to Washington DC, yet in a country
that
is independent [if it has shown itself to so be in Act I!]

-the only North  American infrastructure  cities outside of the US

- in Montreal a truly bi-lingual city speaking two of the major UN
languages [attractive for francophone delegations!], and immigrants who
speak many other languages
     
- centrally located already metro accessible available and/or
constructable office and meeting space on Ilse St. Helene

- abundant housing at low costs relative to any other major city that
could harbor the UN

- relatively economical, given its present price level and the exchange
rate of the Canadian dollar
-
- voted the best country in the world to live in!

ACT THREE

What's in it for Canada? Plenty

- The prestige of reviving its traditional role of doing something useful
in and for the UN and the world.

- The need of taking an independent line on this UN issue will not only
garner further international prestige per se, but it could serve as an
impulse for greater Canadian independence  and bargaining power in other
matters as well.

- Bringing,constructing, running the  UN site in Canada brings  hundreds
of millions of dollars into Canada

The UN in Canada offers extra employment to the people of Quebec and ROC
Canadians , both highly and less skilled .

Bringing the UN to Montreal is likely de facto to settle the Quebec
in-or-out of the Federation issue in one fell swoop: With the UN in
Montreal, the benefits for Quebec to remain in Canada would far
outweigh any reasons to secede.  Moreover, the Government of Quebec 
and the City of Montreal [like New York City now] could make bi-lateral
'administrative' agreements with the UN for their co-habitation, so
that these and the UN itself could serve as institutional and moral
guarantors of Quebec as a distinct society. Of course, Canada still could
and should accommodate the  Quebecois, but it would not need to fall
and drown in any more  Meech Lake like swamp. And with Quebec finally safe
and sound in the Confederation of Canada ,  so would be the
Maritimes, Alberta, and BC. That is, Canada itself would be saved.

CURTAIN CALL
In three simple acts building on Canadian precedent and prestige at the
United Nations, Canada today has the golden opportunity to not only to
save the United Nations itself, but The World, Quebec, and Canada itself
into the bargain. All we [I wish I could say 'we' ] need is a little bit
of the political will and leadership in the tradition of Dief and Lester.
JUST SAY YES!  LET'S DO IT!!        [Applause]