Wary of reciprocity: some embassies are raising concerns over diplomatic security in Ottawa

With a number of embassies and high commissions raising concerns over the level of diplomatic security they are given, the Canadian government maintains protection obligations are taken “seriously.” Israel, Bangladesh, Senegal, and, most recently, Russia have raised concerns over the diplomatic protection they receive from Canada. As a party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, Canada is obligated to ensure that the “person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable,” “take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom, or dignity,” and that diplomatic officials be treated with “due respect.” Israel has been pushing Global Affairs to restore around-the-clock diplomatic protection for its head of mission, according to a Canadian Press report. That protection was decreased following the departure of its previous ambassador, unnamed senior officials told the wire agency. Bangladesh High Commissioner Khalilur Rahman raised his concern with the state of his protection in an interview with The Hill Times in August. He said that he was pushed by a former employee of the high commission while at a Bangladesh-Canada Association of Ottawa Valley event. “The Government of Canada is unable to protect me and give me protection, as tried to threaten me and assault me in a public place,” he said at the time. “My protection is of paramount importance to the host country,” he added. “Go to Bangladesh, you touch an ambassador and you’re done.” The Russian Embassy has raised its concerns over diplomatic security a number of times since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, including in response to an alleged hostile protest in February. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia Senegal raised its concerns over a “flagrant” breach of the Vienna Convention when, it said, an embassy official was assaulted at their home in Gatineau, Que., during an arrest over a landlord dispute. After the incident, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que.) spoke with her Senegalese counterpart Aïssata Tall Sall “to reiterate that Canada looks forward to a full investigation into the alleged treatment of a Senegalese diplomat in ,” according to an Aug. 9 tweet. The Quebec police watchdog announced an investigation into the matter. Since the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Embassy has raised concerns regarding its diplomatic protection, including over what it claimed were hostile protests outside of its embassy at the start of the war, as well as asserting that an individual threw a Molotov cocktail onto the embassy grounds in September. The RCMP said they have opened an investigation into the incident. Most recently, the Russian Embassy shared an email with reporters that it alleges it received on Oct. 10, in which the sender threatens to bomb the embassy and to kill Russian Ambassador Oleg Stepanov and his family. The Hill Times has not confirmed the veracity of the threat. “Despite our concerns,” a Russian Embassy spokesperson said in an email, “the Canadian authorities have not taken any meaningful measures to ensure safety of us and our families.” The Russian Embassy has previously called for a constant security presence at the mission. Former chief protocol officer Roy Norton says security is provided based on assessed threats. The Hill Times photograph by Chelsea Nash A Global Affairs spokesperson said that “Canada takes seriously its security-related obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” but wouldn’t comment on whether it views the most recent threat against the Russian Embassy as legitimate. An RCMP spokesperson said the national police force will “continue to work in collaboration with their police of jurisdiction counterparts to assist in determining the protective posture for Russian missions in Canada.” “The RCMP recognizes the need to maintain an enhanced vigilance posture that is commensurate to the current threat environment with a capacity to increase our posture, if required,” the official noted in an email. The spokesperson said the RCMP is currently investigating the email and that it “takes all reports of threats seriously, including any that may relate to our mandate towards foreign missions in Canada, such as embassies and consulates.” Former Canadian diplomats said the number of incidents in recent weeks and months don’t represent an increase from the past but rather is evidence of a continued trend of most embassies wishing for increased protection. “It’s probably the case that more ambassadors than not would welcome security all the time,” said Roy Norton, who was Canada’s chief protocol officer from 2016 to 2019. However, Norton said, the Vienna Convention doesn’t guarantee around-the-clock security. “ do probably err on the side of wanting more than less and they are probably not, in my own experience anyway, they aren’t universally happy with what they get,” he said. “But the commitment isn’t to make them happy. The commitment is to protect them against assessed threats.” To help facilitate the reporting and assessing of threats, there is an RCMP officer embedded within Global Affairs’ protocol office. “Our commitment is to protect them, but there has to be an assessment of threats, and people merely expressing worries isn’t sufficient to trigger the provision of security until after such time as assessments have been done and a judgement has been arrived at as to how real the perceived threat is,” Norton said, remarking that since nobody wants a serious incident to happen, that could lead to providing more security rather than less. Norton said security is increased and decreased in relation to an assessed threat and can be pulled back if the threat dissipates. He added that providing additional diplomatic protection comes with a “significant cost,” but noted that cost isn’t a reason to ignore Vienna Convention obligations. Norton said there haven’t been many security issues in Ottawa, noting the last significant incident was in the 1980s involving the Turkish Embassy, including the 1982 assassination of Turkish military attaché Atilla Altıkat by Armenian militants. Showcasing how diplomatic security is reassessed, after a suspicious package was found at the Turkish Embassy in June 2020, The Hill Times observed a noticeable increase in the RCMP presence in weeks that followed the incident. Israel is pushing for around-the-clock protection for Ambassador Ronen Hoffman, according to a media report. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia Former Canadian diplomat Daniel Livermore, who oversaw the security of Canadian embassies abroad, said there should be a better assessment system. He said the RCMP doesn’t have the resources to respond adequately to the threats. “The last thing the RCMP wants to get into is the protection of embassies—that’s one of the last jobs they want to find themselves saddled with,” he said. Even without Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the security of the Russian Embassy remains a constant concern, he said. “You have a raft of diaspora communities in Canada that don’t like the Russians, so Russia has always been a prime candidate for extra protection and that’s the kind of thing that the RCMP would tend to take a bit seriously,” he said, but he noted that there is a limit in protecting Russian diplomats and their chancery. Livermore said there is a question over reciprocity if countries are raising concerns over diplomatic protection, especially with regard to Russia. “If the Russians come up with … there has to be some sign that the RCMP is responding to that, no matter what the situation is on the ground in Ukraine might be. Certainly, the last thing you want is that something should happen to the Russian ambassador, because that would be pretty disastrous to what would happen to Canadian staff in Moscow,” he said. Retired Canadian diplomat Gar Pardy said most countries take their Vienna Convention obligations “very seriously” due to the possibility for a reciprocal response. “The issue becomes whether there is a little payback if the Russians don’t get the level of protection they think they need in Ottawa, then you can generate situations in which, in effect, you don’t get the protection you need in Moscow,” he said. He said reciprocity is the “ultimate sanction” to ensure that host countries provide adequate diplomatic security. nmoss@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Wary of reciprocity: some embassies are raising concerns over diplomatic security in Ottawa

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Wary of reciprocity: some embassies are raising concerns over diplomatic security in Ottawa

The RCMP is investigating a threat made against the Russian Embassy and Ambassador Oleg Stepanov as Global Affairs says it takes its diplomatic protection obligations 'seriously.'

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