Canada embarrassed by Harper stand on abortion for Third World: IgnatieffBy Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS, cp.org, Updated: March 31, 2010 4:06 PM
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff speaks with the media
following party caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa,
Wednesday March 31, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldOTTAWA - Stephen Harper's refusal to include abortion in his G8 initiative on maternal health has turned into an international embarrassment for Canada, says Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
Ignatieff said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's rebuke of the prime minister's position is proof that Liberals were right when they insisted the initiative should include money for a full range of reproductive health services for women in the world's poorest countries.
But Harper countered that Canadians, not Clinton, will set their foreign policy, turning the issue into a matter of sovereignty.
At a G8 foreign ministers's meeting Tuesday, Clinton said maternal health must include reproductive health, including "contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion."
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband agreed with Clinton.
Only a day earlier, Clinton criticized Canada for leaving out some Nordic countries and aboriginal groups from a meeting of Arctic nations.
Ignatieff says that's a double slap for Canada from its closest allies.
"It's very rare in Canadian politics, to my memory, to have a Canadian government that takes leadership on the international stage, or tries to, and is thoroughly rebuked not only by the United States but by Great Britain," he said Wednesday.
"It's not a happy picture for Canada . . . I feel bad that Canada took a knock in the last few days."
Clinton also ruffled feathers by saying the United States would like Canadian troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond the scheduled 2011 exit date.
Ignatieff praised Clinton for being "admirably clear" on the abortion issue and said the Harper government should follow suit.
Yet the Liberal position has not been crystal clear either. While Ignatieff has been pushing for several months for the initiative to include the full range of reproductive health services, he has not uttered the word abortion - until Wednesday when he said it twice in French but ducked an opportunity to repeat it in English.
A Liberal motion in the Commons last week calling on the government to include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, did not specify abortion.
Many Liberals even argued that the motion was not about abortion.
However, about a dozen anti-abortion Liberals thought otherwise and helped defeat their own party's motion by abstaining, voting against it or failing to show up.
In the Commons, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, who introduced last week's motion, said the G8 initiative has become a "major diplomatic setback" for Canada.
But Harper brushed off Rae's criticism by mocking the Liberals' own lack of clarity on the issue.
"He's the one who put the question (about abortion) to the House of Commons. He's the one who got the answer he didn't want."
After some initial confusion, the government now says contraception will be part of the G8 initiative but that it won't re-open the abortion debate.
Harper said the initiative is "supported throughout the G8" but that member countries "will have different priorities in terms of the specific things they fund, particularly on the issue of abortion."
"Whether it comes to our role in Afghanistan, our sovereignty over our Arctic or ultimately our foreign aid priorities, it is Canada and Canadians who will make Canadian decisions," he added.
