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Should Stephen Harper be speaking at the United Nations?

Another United Nations' general assembly, another year for the opposition parties to complain about Stephen Harper disengaging from the international community.

This week, world leaders — ranging from U.S. President Barack Obama to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff — are addressing the opening of the UN general assembly in New York.

This year, like last year, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will speak on behalf of Canada. In fact, Harper has only addressed the assembly once since becoming prime minister.

NDP Foreign Affair critic Paul Dewar doesn't think that's right. In an op-ed published in the Globe and Mail, Dewar says that it's "embarrassing" that Harper "can't be bothered to show up, stand up, and speak up on behalf of Canada."

Sadly, this fits into a pattern of disengagement and withdrawal from the international community – a pattern that has weakened Canada’s reputation and influence abroad. By abandoning the hard work of diplomacy in favour of isolationist grandstanding, the government is harming the very foreign policy goals that it seeks to achieve.

This kind of arrogant isolationism has very concrete consequences.

The government’s policy of pulling out from important international agreements and institutions is leading to Canada getting pushed out from vital centres of diplomatic power.

It's not only the opposition parties going after Harper on this issue.

According to the Canadian Press, a group of "former cabinet ministers, senior diplomats, academics and foreign-policy experts" is urging the government to re-engage.

"We're increasingly denying ourselves a place at the table," Carolyn McAskie, a former assistant secretary general for peace building at the UN, told CP.

"We walk out of meetings because North Korea is in the chair. The reason you go to these meetings is so that you can engage all 193 (countries). You don't pick your friends and your enemies.They're all there. You go, you play the game...If you're not at the table, you don't have a voice."

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If Harper is indeed snubbing the UN, no one should be surprised.

In recent years, the UN has done a lot of things that have been counter to Canada's foreign policy.

In 2011, they named North Korea chair of a UN disarmament conference. That's North Korea, a country that has breached a number of arms embargoes and has made threats to expand its nuclear weapons program.

Also in 2011, while the international community was dealing with the human rights atrocities taking place in Syria at the hands of the Assad regime, UNESCO welcomed the embattled Arab country to its human rights committee.

Last year, James Anaya, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous peoples of the UN, called the housing crisis in Attawapiskat "dire" noting the problem appears to be widespread.

"I have been in communication with the Government of Canada to express my deep concern," Anaya wrote in a statement.

"The social and economic situation of the Attawapiskat seems to represent the condition of many First Nation communities living on reserves throughout Canada, which is allegedly akin to third world conditions."

Different UN agencies have also been critical of Canada's human rights record, food security programs and for changes to the refugee act.

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The National Post's Kelly McParland suggests that Harper is making the right decision by taking a pass on a "UN blowhard opportunity."

"It’s a mystery what glories Mr. Dewar sees in being a part of this crowd, especially since previous Canadian prime ministers also skipped the General Assembly as often as they attended," McParland wrote.

"The reason Mr. Harper’s case is treated as a special case is because, unlike Brian Mulroney or Jean Chretien, he refrains from mouthing the usual insincere platitudes about the value of the world body. He has little time for the place, and it shows."

While Harper isn't speaking at the opening to the General Assembly, he will co-host a UN meeting, this week, about the major health challenges facing women and children around the world.

What do you think? Should Stephen Harper be speaking at the opening of the UN General Assembly? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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