Foreign Affairs

Ottawa trying to recoup nearly $2M missing from embassy

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs, Corruption, Immigration
Rating: 
3

Steve Rennie – April 15, 2013

A decade after an accountant at the Canadian embassy in Venezuela is said to have misappropriated more than $2 million, the federal government is still trying to get most of its money back.

Figures released last fall show Canada has yet to recoup $1.75 million of the $2.2 million lost to "fraud involving immigration revenue." But a newly released document tells the full story. A report by Foreign Affairs' special investigations unit reveals for the first time how an accountant and his brother-in-law allegedly siphoned the money from the embassy's bank accounts.

Federal probe confirms ‘serious’ problems at Canadian embassy in Denmark

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs
Rating: 
4

Ian MacLeod – January 3, 2013

A federal probe into whistleblower allegations of misconduct by diplomats at Canada’s embassy in Copenhagen confirms “serious” problems at the mission, according to a senior government official.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird ordered the investigation in mid-August after a scathing written grievance about embassy operations in the Danish capital was delivered to him by a band of current and former local embassy employees.

Dallaire decries cluster-bomb bill

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs, National Defence, Defence industry
Rating: 
3

Chris Cobb – December 6, 2012

Controversial legislation that will commit Canada to an international treaty banning deadly cluster munitions is flawed and puts members of Canada’s military in a “horrific moral and ethical dilemma” former army general Senator Roméo Dallaire said Thursday.

Bill S-10 passed unchanged through the Conservative-controlled Senate Wednesday but Dallaire and other critics say the legislation is compromised and against the spirit of the treaty that Canada helped negotiate and signed four years ago this month.

Buried report on Copenhagen embassy suggests a decade of troubles

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs
Rating: 
3

Ian MacLeod – September 5, 2012

Mistrust and flagging morale have afflicted staff at Canada’s embassy in Copenhagen for at least a decade, a hidden government audit suggests.

The findings of an October 2003 inspection of embassy operations surfaced this week as the Department of Foreign Affairs continues investigating allegations by current and former locally-engaged staff (LES) of an “institutionalized culture” of misconduct, harassment and intimidation by Canadian diplomats in the Danish capital.

Embassy employees felt 'duty' to blow whistle

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs
Rating: 
4

Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen – August 24, 2012

An “institutionalized culture” of misconduct and harassment has persisted at Canada’s embassy in Copenhagen since 1995 when a former ambassador was recalled after a suspected sex scandal, says a longtime embassy employee.

Meanwhile, two government investigators are expected to return to Ottawa on Sunday with the results of a weeklong fact-finding probe at the embassy.

'Serious' allegations of misconduct at Canadian embassy in Denmark

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs
Rating: 
4
Peter Lundy

Ian MacLeod, The Ottawa Citizen – August 24, 2012

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has ordered an immediate investigation into “serious” allegations of misconduct by diplomatic staff at the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen, the Citizen has learned.

The accusations include financial mismanagement, abuses of government property, diplomatic privileges and racial harassment. They are supported by as many as 13 current and former locally engaged embassy staff. Some of the grievances date back several years.

Canada criticized for its position on cluster munitions

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs, National Defence, Defence industry
Rating: 
0

Chris Cobb – June 3, 2012

In a rare public attack, a former Australian prime minister has lashed out at Canada for what he says is a lack of commitment to an international treaty to ban deadly cluster munitions.

Long-serving Australian PM Malcolm Fraser, in a statement released to the Ottawa Citizen, accuses the Conservative government of departing from Canada's traditional international leadership.

Canada's severely flawed cluster bomb bill

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs, National Defence, Defence industry
Rating: 
0

The proposed legislation is the worst of any country that has ratified or acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions to date

Earl Turcotte – May 2, 2012

On April 25, the Canadian government tabled long-awaited national legislation that will finally enable Canada to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Unfortunately, the legislation is tragically, shockingly flawed.

The legislation stems from 2007, when Norway, with strong support from Austria, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, and the Holy See, initiated the Oslo Process leading to the negotiation of the convention.

Canada’s cluster bomb legislation worst: experts

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs, National Defence, Defence industry
Rating: 
3

Chris Cobb – April 29, 2012

New federal legislation intended to cement Canada’s role in a major international treaty to ban lethal cluster bombs is weak and will make Canada deliberately complicit in the use of the weapons, say experts.

“It falls way below even the minimum threshold of legality under international humanitarian law and is an insult to colleagues in other countries who, seemingly unlike Canada, have negotiated in good faith,” said former Foreign Affairs arms negotiator Earl Turcotte, who led Canada’s negotiating team at the treaty negotiations.

Top court blocks government's effort to restrict Afghan human rights info

Topics: 
Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan, Access to information
Rating: 
0

Robert Hiltz – March 29, 2012

An appeal by the Department of Foreign Affairs to block an Ottawa law professor from getting a better look at reacted documents that detail the status of human rights in Afghanistan won't be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Department of Foreign Affairs had been trying to prevent University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran from gaining further access to the departmental reports.

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