Canada’s Bob Rae is a diplomat who has earned a reputation for frankness, having bluntly said that the Russians are lying because “their lips are moving” and distributing a document mocking Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. Sitting down with him I experienced that candidness firsthand. Perched at the United Nations Secretariat in New York since the start of the pandemic, Rae has no delusions about the difficulties that come with putting quarreling global leaders in the same room. But during his time as Canada’s ambassador to the U.N., he’s earned the green light from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to carve his own lane for unflinching commentary. Rae previously served as Ontario’s social democrat premier before becoming the Liberal Party’s interim leader. In his time as U.N. ambassador, Rae and the Canadians have been thrust into a world where they have to balance tough talk against Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s treatment of Uighurs against its desire for a global solution to climate change. Now, Canada is in the driver seat to solve one of the worst humanitarian crises in the Western hemisphere: Haiti. He had a lot to say about all of it. The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Let’s start with Haiti, where Canada’s taking a leading role in addressing the humanitarian crisis. I know that Canada has sanctioned 15 entities since November. Have we seen any forward progression in Haiti? I think the world is coming together. It's taking too long, but it's going to happen. We've rightly changed some of our approaches from the past. We're zeroing in on the corruption question — because it's critical. The corruption of the economic, social and political elite in Haiti is, in my view, at the core of the problem and it has to be dealt with, and that includes more effectively by everybody. And the process of doing that is one that we have actively been encouraging and leaning on. Any effort that we make that does not deal with corruption will not succeed. It's been too long coming. But we're now in so we gotta keep going. I would encourage other countries to take this more seriously. And we would encourage the Haitian authorities to deal with it more effectively than they have, because it is at the root of the challenges facing the country. I mean, we've poured billions of dollars into Haiti and most of that money has been skimmed off by the elites. We need to start speaking loudly about this. Everybody's been too quiet about it, and we need to address it. Canada hasn’t shared publicly the evidence on why it’s sanctioning Haiti. Can you tell us why? Well, I mean if you're dealing with any criminal matter, it's not normal for a prosecutor to share the evidence that they have. We are working with other countries — including through the U.N. — and we are encouraging other countries like the United States, frankly, to do more. We need a global effort to deal with the flow of weapons into Haiti. We've got to have a much wider discussion about how we deal with the gangs because that's the core issue. And, it's going to involve the Haitian’s civil society and Haitian’s political leadership working together. The idea that some external force — whether it's Canada and the United States or anybody else — can come in and solve the problem is not correct. We've tried simply sending in a strike force or sending up a military solution and it hasn't led to a sustainable solution for the country.
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