The UN Swings at Israel but Hits…Canada
Antonio Guterres is the first Secretary General of the United Nations seemingly to be actively working to destroy Israel. Indeed it appears that the one criterion needed to be appointed to a major UN post by Mr. Guterres is hatred of Israel. The Secretary General appointed Francesca Albanese as Special UN Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories notwithstanding the fact that she misrepresented herself as being a lawyer, has gone so far as to deny Israel’s right even to defend itself, claimed the United States is controlled by the “Jewish Lobby” (while denying that this remark was antisemitic) and made innumerable other statements generally considered to be antisemitic.
Mr. Guterres named Volkur Turk, an Austrian lawyer, as UN High Commission for Human Rights. Turk has been a fierce and frequent critic of Israel who has called Israel’s war in Gaza “unjustifiable” and who has consistently called for pressure on Israel to end the Gaza war while mostly remaining silent about Hamas and its hostages. Recently, Mr. Guterres denied the appointment of Kenyan Alice Nderitu as United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide after she refused to accept that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
When it became clear in December 2023 that Israel would not fold in the face of the October 7 atrocity and would take the fight right back to Gaza, Secretary General Guterres took the extraordinary step of invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter that gives the Secretary General the ability to refer to the Security Council any matter that threatens world peace. He did not do that when India and Pakistan, two nuclear armed nations, began shooting at each other in May 2025 and he has never done so over the Ukraine-Russia was that began in 2002 and has resulted in far more casualties than the Gaza war.
Despite Mr. Guterres’s best efforts, Israel remains strong and vibrant. Indeed this week Israel announced its largest export deal ever, a $35B transaction to export natural gas to Egypt. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-israels-largest-gas-deal-leviathan-partners-ink-35-billion-export-deal-with-egypt/
It is another United Nations entity, however, the fired the shot which could bring down a nation, albeit one that is an ocean away from Israel. Last week the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion on climate change and fossil fuels. https://www.ciel.org/news/icj-climate-opinion-ends-fossil-fuel-impunity/ The extraordinary opinion declared that it is every country’s duty to fight climate change, and it declared that the use of fossil fuels may be a violation of international law. Expect environmental groups to try to use this to ban the sale or transmission of coal, oil or natural gas.
Perhaps more than anyone else, this puts Canada’s Prime Minister Marc Carney in a difficult position. His richer western provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan demand the right to sell their oil and natural gas, while eastern provinces like Quebec and to some extent Ontario seek to prevent that. This has caused the western provinces to threaten to separate from the rest of Canada, either to become independent or possibly join the United States. With British Columbia, the farthest west Canadian province, now contemplating joining the other western provinces, Carney literally may lose his nation over the issue of energy. This becomes especially dangerous for Carney as the Canadian federal system requires a series of “equalization payments” in which the richer provinces subsidize the poorer ones. In recent years those payments entirely have flowed from the western provinces to the eastern ones. Now the east appears to be trying to ban the process which generates the money they themselves receive.
Enter the ICJ. Carney, who has portrayed himself as an internationalist upholding international law, will face increasing calls to continue to ban new fossil fuel generation and transmission. This will only cause the western separation movement to grow. Already procedures are being developed in Alberta and Saskatchewan for a referendum on separation. If Carney permits new pipelines and sales, he will be accused by his eastern base – which constitutes almost the entirety of his political support- of blatantly violating international law. If Carney refuses to allow it he cuts off the source of the equalization payments so desperately needed by Eastern Canada and he literally may lose his country.
Despite Secretary General Guterres’s machinations, Israel will come out of this period stronger than before. Although not being the target, the real question is whether Canada will survive at all.
