PM MIFFED ABOUT LACK OF SUPPORT ON FOREIGN POLICY
The Daily Herald-Tribune (Grande Prairie, Alberta)
Fort McMurray Today (Alberta)
Peterborough Examiner (Ontario)
June 25 2007
Toronto
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he’s being undermined by public
servants in the foreign service.
The Toronto Star obtained a recording of comments he made at a June
15 closed-door roundtable with Toronto-based ethnic media.
Harper complained at length about the reluctance of bureaucrats and
diplomats to defend his government’s hardline foreign policy stance.
His comments were a response to questions about his 2006 decision to
recognize the deaths of about 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey in 1915
as genocide.
The move – a departure from the position held by previous governments
– angered Turkey to the point it briefly recalled its ambassador
to Canada.
The head of the union representing Canada’s foreign service says
he’s "shocked" after hearing Harper’s comments, and says no formal
complaints have been filed against its members.