Writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe in today’s column:
Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, does not come across as a man who is much concerned whether or not he has allies for his political stands.
However, Harper may not welcome India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with him in boycotting the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit in Sri Lanka in mid November.
If Singh does join Harper in staying away from the Colombo summit to protest the human rights record of the Sri Lankan government, it will tend to confirm the criticism of the embargo.
Both men have been accused, not of taking a principled human rights stand, but of engaging in tawdry domestic politics by attempting to appeal for electoral support from the ethnic Tamil populations in both countries …
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