Cablegate: Demarche Request On Osce Cordoba Declaration

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001615

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM CA OSCE
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE REQUEST ON OSCE CORDOBA DECLARATION

REF: SECSTATE 99914

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. HANDLE ACCORDINGLY.

1. (SBU) Post delivered demarche points to Foreign Affairs
Acting Director for North American and Euro-Atlantic Security
and Defence Relations, Isabelle Poupart, the morning of May
31. In a follow-up discussion, Poupart said that the matter
had been resolved earlier in the day in Vienna with agreement
on acceptable language ("ongoing" role vs. "continued").

2. (SBU) Poupart acknowledged that Canada was not too
enthused about the "personal representative" concept because
it broke down the problem of discrimination into component
parts; the Canadian government favored maintaining a more
"holistic" approach that maintained focus on all aspects of
discrimination. Nonetheless, once a decision was taken in
favor of appointing the personal representatives, Poupart
continued, Canada was happy to let them finish their mandate
(end of 2005). At the same time, she observed, "very little"
had been heard from the personal representatives to date.
Canada looked forward to hearing from them in Cordoba.

3. (SBU) Poupart speculated that unfounded rumors in Vienna,
suggesting that Canada and others would seek to terminate the
mandate of the personal representatives at the Cordoba
meeting, were contributing factors to the perception that
Canada was still actively opposing the personal
representatives. Moreover, she said that use of the word
"continued" in the text was confusing, given that the
representatives were appointed for a one-year term only, and
"continued" could be taken as pre-judging the outcome of the
one-year review. Poupart was unaware of any NGOs contacting
Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC) about the matter, though she
indicated that "different Jewish organizations" had
approached the Canadian mission in Vienna.

Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa

DICKSON

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