Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki-moon, right, meets with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at UN headquarters during the 68th session of U.N. General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/David Karp)

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Why does Stephen Harper hate the United Nations? The prime minister’s disdain was on full display this week in New York, as he pressed the flesh at the American Business Council while skipping the opening of the UN General Assembly. It has become a ritual of sorts: Harper has only addressed the UN twice since becoming prime minister in 2006 and makes no secret of — or apologies for — his lack of respect for the organization.

Cue the outcry from foreign policy experts back home. This year, a group of them even released a booklet: The United Nations and Canada: What Canada has done and should be doing at the United Nations. They held a press conference denouncing Harper’s attitude and its impact on Canada’s international standing. “Canada couldn’t get elected dogcatcher at the United Nations today,” lamented one of the authors, Ian Smillie.

Sure, Canada is no longer the UN’s number one cheerleader — not like Lester B. Pearson, or even Brian Mulroney. But then, the UN isn’t the same organization, either. In the last thirty years, its reputation has been progressively tarnished by failures of its own making. From peacekeeping to human rights, the UN has not practiced what it preaches, leading many — including Harper — to turn their backs.

In 1994, UN peacekeepers failed to prevent the genocide of millions of Tutsis in Rwanda. A year later, thousands of Muslims were murdered in Srebrenica, Bosnia, under the UN’s watch. Then there was the Congo sexual abuse scandal from the early 2000s, where peacekeepers stand accused of hundred of counts of human rights violations and crimes, including rape and forced prostitution. These alleged incidents continued even after 63 peacekeepers were expelled from the country; prostitution rings, the rape of young girls and the use of a local hotel as a brothel by UN pilots have been reported.

In fact, the UN has an abysmal track record of sexual offences wherever its peacekeepers go. Most recently, another instance of sexual abuse was reported just this week connected with the UN mission in Mali.

Whether that bureaucracy is stealing money from Afghanistan reconstruction funds or splashing out $23 million on ‘ceiling art’, it’s easy to see how Harper — or any self-respecting leader — might refuse to take the UN seriously.

Then there was the Oil-for-Food scandal. In the 1990s, the UN established the Oil-for-Food program to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. The program was quickly subverted by dictator Saddam Hussein into a source of ready — and substantial — revenue. According to the commission that eventually investigated the matter, “oil surcharges were paid in connection with the contracts of 139 compa­nies and humanitarian kickbacks were paid in con­nection with the contracts of 2,253 companies … The Saddam Hussein regime received illicit income of $1.8 billion under the Oil-for-Food Program. $228.8 million was derived from the payment of surcharges in connec­tion with oil contracts. $1.55 billion came through kickbacks on humanitarian goods.”

Add to this the farce that is the UN Human Rights Council, the successor to the Commission on Human Rights. The UN created it in 2006 to address rights-related conflicts and situations around the world, from inadequate housing to violence against women. However, its 47 seats have been filled by regimes that oppress their own people, including the Libyan dictatorship of Moammar Gadhafi in 2003. The council’s membership includes, or has included, known human rights violators like China, Congo, Cuba, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone.

In 2009, Canada refused to accept a UNHRC report criticizing human rights practices in our country. One of the suggestions — made by none other than Egypt — was that judges and prosecutors be trained on the nature of race-based hate crimes. According to Hillel Neuer, executive director UN Watch, “the UN’s discussion of Canada’s human rights record was hard to take seriously when those doing the lecturing were serial human rights abusers like Iran, Russia, Cuba and Algeria.”

Finally, there’s the fact that the UN is perhaps the best example of an unaccountable, unfettered bureaucracy on Earth. Whether that bureaucracy is stealing money from Afghanistan reconstruction funds or splashing out $23 million on “ceiling art”, it’s easy to see how Harper — or any self-respecting leader — might refuse to take the UN seriously.

But that’s not all. Sadly, the UN has been remarkably consistent since its early days in one respect: bashing Israel. Despite the fact that it was instrumental in creating the Jewish state in 1948, the UN has served since then as a convenient forum for nations to deride the one truly democratic nation in the Middle East.

From resolutions condemning Israel for defending itself against aggression, to the racist rants of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to accepting the Palestinian application for statehood, the international body has demonstrated clear bias against Israel for decades. That fact was finally recognized by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who in a recent address to students in Jeursalem admitted that Israel has been subjected to “discrimination” at the UN.

Harper is a staunch supporter of Israel — not only as an ally of Canada but as a beacon of freedom in a part of the world that sorely needs it. When you add up all the UN’s other failings, the organization’s anti-Israel bias could well be the infamous stick that broke the camel’s — or in this case, the prime minister’s — back.

And frankly, it’s hard to blame him. Instead of complaining that Canada’s no longer in with the UN crowd, Canadians should praise our prime minister for taking a principled stand.

Tasha Kheiriddin is a well-known political writer and broadcaster who frequently comments in both English and French. In her student days, Tasha was active in youth politics in her hometown of Montreal, eventually serving as national policy director and then president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation of Canada. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. Tasha moved back to Montreal in 2006 and served as vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute, and later director for Quebec of the Fraser Institute, while also lecturing on conservative politics at McGill University. Tasha now lives in Whitby, Ontario with her daughter Zara, born in 2009.

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