CANNON FODDER (or, Mudder)

Federal Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon is much in the news today.

Abousfian Abdelrazik is suing the government – and Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon personally – for $27-million over Canada's role in his arrest and alleged torture in Sudan and for violating his constitutional right to come home.

Mr. Abdelrazik, who spent nearly six years in prison or forced exile while his attempts to come home were thwarted, returned to Canada in June after Ottawa was ordered by a federal judge to repatriate the 47-year-old Sudanese-Canadian.

I have absolutely no idea if Mr. Abdelrazik has a legitimate case or not.

But I have long advocated that injured or aggrieved people sue government officials - whether parole board members or members of Parliament or receptionists in the dog catcher's office - so that officials will begin to take their responsibilities more seriously. Remember accountability?

On the other hand...

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon led a Canadian walkout as Iran's president began speaking to the United Nations Wednesday night, a boycott that was followed by diplomats from the United States and other countries. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then launched into a tirade against the United States, Israel, and Jews.

And for that, Cannon is to be roundly praised.

What is the UN thinking about? Yesterday they were treated to rambling rants by Ahmadinejad and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, two criminal terrorist madmen.

Is the UN going out of its way to make itself even more irrelevant and clownish?