Chretien
Rickey Singh, Contributor
THE GOVERNMENTS and people of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) share the loss of Canada on the death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, perhaps the best known Canadian Prime Minister in this region.
The charismatic and populist Mr. Trudeau had a special appeal for the people of the Caribbean who will recall the readiness with which he was always willing to speak up, with clarity and conviction, in support of the interests of the poor developing nations at the height of Cold War rivalry.
His resistance to uncritically follow America's hegemonic politics in the Caribbean-Latin American region had helped to strengthen not just Canada-Cuba relations but certainly influenced greater bonding between the Caribbean and Canada.
Member states of CARICOM have, over the years, come to appreciate Canada's friendship and adherence to its policy of non-interference in their domestic affairs as it seeks to improve trade and economic relations.
However, today's big question is whether the expected death of the ailing Trudeau should have been the reason for Prime Minister Jean Chretien to suddenly scuttle a scheduled summit of Caribbean Community heads of Government in Montego Bay, Jamaica, last Friday.
In paying tribute to Mr. Trudeau, shortly after learning of his death at 80 last Thursday, Prime Minister Chretien recognised that his former leader had given Canada, on the international stage, "a profile and stature well beyond our size and power. Wherever we were in the world, he made us feel proud to be Canadians."
Chretien's move
Caribbean political leaders and social commentators may readily empathise with such sentiment. But questions are being quietly and carefully raised in some quarters about Mr. Chretien's reaction to the news of Trudeau's death that led him to surprisingly abandon his planned meeting with CARICOM heads of government Friday in Montego Bay.
It was at the Canadian Prime Minister's request that a Canada-CARICOM Summit was arranged for September 29 in Montego Bay, and leaders of the region were already gathered for the event with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson as host.
Mr. Chretien's meeting with Caribbean leaders to discuss the forthcoming Third Summit of the Americas, which Canada will host in April next year in Quebec, was to follow his meeting with Central American leaders.
He had completed that meeting with the Central American leaders, and was on his way to Montego Bay for what was expected to be just a three-hour working session when he learnt of Mr. Trudeau's death. His abrupt cancellation of the scheduled meeting with Caribbean leaders would clearly have come as a surprise, though diplomatic niceties may not make it proper for any public expression of disappointment, or otherwise, on the part of any or all of the leaders who were already in Montego Bay.
After all, Mr. Trudeau's death was not a surprise. He was ailing for a long time, before finally succumbing to prostate cancer. He has long been out of government. Since 1984 in fact, after some 15 years heading Governments in Ottawa.
Questions
It is true that Mr. Chretien was a member of Mr. Trudeau's Cabinet and as Prime Minister he would be expected to join with the House of Commons in Canada to pay tribute to the late Prime Minister. But was it really necessary to suddenly fly away from the scheduled Montego Bay meeting, with all of the Caribbean leaders anxiously waiting on him?
In this era of satellite communications technology, could he not have made a statement to the Canadian people from Montego Bay on the passing of Mr. Trudeau, complete his requested and scheduled meeting with Caribbean leaders and then fly home?
Given the importance of the Montego Bay meeting, the private and official arrangements that would already have been in place for Mr. Trudeau's expected death, the urgency attached by Prime Minister Chretien to rush back home is, to say the least, perplexing. To their credit, the Caribbean leaders, who would have asked Mr. Chretien for, among other things, an explanation about the non-invitation to Cuba for the Third Summit of the Americas, quickly turned their attention to their own agenda on a range of issues other than what they had planned in relation to next year's meeting in Quebec.
In the intriguing world of diplomacy so many things are often left unsaid publicly. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that the strength of Canada-Caribbean relations can overlook what seems an unnecessary cancellation of a planned Caribbean-Canada meeting of heads of Government.
Over to you, Prime Minister Chretien.
Rickey Singh is a journalist based in Barbados.
