He Ran, She Ran, We All Ran From I...Ran

On the world stage, Canada traditionally plays a cautionary role, a kind of Galapagos turtle, given to making small, almost imperceptible movements when it thinks no one is looking.

Every now and then, however, Canada startles. Think the discovery of insulin. Think the Avro Arrow.* Think (although here I push things a bit) Justin Bieber. And this brings me to the closing of the Canadian Embassy in Iran, and the subsequent booting out of all Iranian diplomats from their Canadian Embassy.

Now such actions are never taken without a great deal of thought, resembling if you will the burning of bridges a la Cortez in Mexico. A line has been drawn, and a point made crystal clear.

What on earth prompted such an action?

The Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs, John Baird, trotted out the usual reasons. Iran was a rogue state, determined to drive Israel into the sea, and determined as well to possess nuclear power. Moreover, the country was ruled by unhinged maniacs who have torn to pieces what once was a reasonable religion -- if, indeed, any religion can be termed 'reasonable'. Finally, both the American and the British embassies had previously come under attack, and readers will no doubt remember Canada's role in rescuing American diplomats from becoming hostages.

All true, but all known, and this begs a question, what was different this time?

This intrigued me, and I called in some markers by colleagues in The Trade. I knew that the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, attending an Asian Conference in Vladivostok, had extensive meetings with Vladimir Putin of Russia, Ju Jintao of China, and Hillary Clinton of the U.S.A. My sources also indicated a lengthy telephone conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. In terms of what was released to the public, there was the usual references to trade, the ghastly situation in Syria, and the parlous state of the world economy. Nothing new there, and there was nothing untoward to be found in cyberspace. (After the Julian Assange fiasco, really hot information is now almost totally verbal.)

Yet it was directly after after these meetings that Baird made his announcement with respect to the closure of the Embassies. And, folks, you can be sure that Baird did not make such an announcement on his own. This had to have been ordered by Harper, who runs a very tight ship indeed.

Further investigation led to a certain conclusion. After a check with Sir Harry, my superior in MI 6, I was told in no uncertain terms to shut up. All I can tell you, dear reader, is that October will be a very, very interesting month.

Interesting in the Chinese sense of the term.

* With the Avro Arrow, Canada had the temerity to create a jet fighter miles ahead of any other at the time. This startled the world. It also startled the United States, and  the President,John Kennedy, immediately made the Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker an offer he couldn't refuse. The Arrow was then scrapped. An uptick here was the fact that a goodly number of the aeronautical engineers at De Havilland, who had developed the plane, were hired to work at Cape Canaveral with that All- American scientist, Werner Von Braun, and became instrumental in paving America's way to place Neil Armstrong on the moon. So it goes.

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