{"id":70687,"date":"2016-02-16T04:03:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T09:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=70687"},"modified":"2016-02-16T04:03:43","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T09:03:43","slug":"ban-ki-moon-hoped-flattery-of-trudeau-would-lead-to-new-un-funding-tories-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/02\/16\/ban-ki-moon-hoped-flattery-of-trudeau-would-lead-to-new-un-funding-tories-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Ban Ki-Moon hoped flattery of Trudeau would lead to new UN funding, Tories say"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Prime<\/a>
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
(Photo from Trudeau’s official Twitter account<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2013 To hear Ban Ki-Moon tell it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s rapprochement with the United Nations was nothing short of the return of the prodigal son.<\/p>\n

But the Conservative opposition says the UN secretary general\u2019s flattery of Canada\u2019s new Liberal prime minister may have had a political motive \u2013 getting more support for some UN agencies and programs that the Harper government defunded.<\/p>\n

During his visit last week, Ban displayed an unabashed fondness for both the style and substance of Trudeau\u2019s performance as an emerging international statesman.<\/p>\n

Ban made it clear on numerous occasions during his two-day trip to Ottawa and Montreal that he was wholeheartedly embracing Trudeau\u2019s call to bring the country \u201cback\u201d to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Conservative deputy foreign affairs critic Peter Kent said Ban\u2019s effusive praise may have been a play for more UN funding for the environment and peacekeeping, as well as for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The Conservatives cut UNRWA funding because they alleged it had ties to Hamas, which Canada lists as a terrorist organization. UNRWA has denied the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does seem clear he was trolling for new UNRWA funding,\u201d Kent said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe may have asked that Canada re-engage with some of the UN committees and agencies that our government left because they were unworthy of time or money.\u201d<\/p>\n

International Co-operation Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Canada may indeed consider refunding UNRWA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe channel of communication is opened,\u201d she told CTV\u2019s Question Period on Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re evaluating the situation. And the decision will be taken shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent said the opposition will be looking for more specifics from the Liberals in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Roy Rempel, an ex-defence adviser in former prime minister Stephen Harper\u2019s office, said he believes Ban intentionally used Trudeau\u2019s \u201cwe\u2019re back\u201d slogan as a way of \u201cpositioning himself to be able to ask for more from Canada going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLast I checked, our mission in New York was still there and we were still one of the top 10 contributors to the UN budget,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the case under the Harper government, and I presume it will remain so under the new government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau\u2019s spokesman Cameron Ahmad said Ban was legitimately highlighting Canada\u2019s \u201cinvaluable contributions to the UN, in particular in spearheading real action on climate change, and sustainable development, and in bringing global attention to humanitarian crises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ban declined an interview while he was in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

But during his visit, he suggested that his admiration for Canada\u2019s new leader was rooted in his own childhood experiences in war-torn Korea.<\/p>\n

In addition to praising Canada for taking a leadership role at the Paris climate change talks late last year, Ban repeatedly thanked Trudeau for his decision to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees.<\/p>\n

Ban recalled fleeing his own burning village in South Korea when he was six years old in 1950. It was the start of the Korean War.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany brave Canadian soldiers came to Korea, and there were a lot of sacrifices, but on the basis of these sacrifices of Canadians and United Nations peacekeepers, Korea was saved from aggression,\u201d Ban told high school students at Ottawa\u2019s Glebe Collegiate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m standing before you as the secretary general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ban said when he travels the world meeting refugees and displaced people he feels a personal connection to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell them the same story: I was you. Do not despair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ban also gave hearty endorsements to Trudeau’s policies on refugees, the environment and something else \u2013 his decision to make himself his own minister of youth, something no other world leader had done, Ban said.<\/p>\n

Ban told the high school crowd that half the world is under age 25, and that they were among its largest and most influential demographic.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaise your voice. You may challenge your prime minister, your minister, your principal, your teachers,\u201d Ban said, seated next to Trudeau. \u201cTell them\u2026 this is my world; make this world better for us. This is your prerogative right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 To hear Ban Ki-Moon tell it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s rapprochement with the United Nations was nothing short …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":70688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18,16,483],"tags":[9636],"class_list":["post-70687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","category-news","category-politics","tag-cp","mauthors-mike-blanchfield","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}