Found at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint/Canada_Day_shame_-_Editorial.html
Canada Day
shame - Editorial
(The
following article is from
the July 1-31,
2007
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
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People's
Voice Editorial, July 1-31, 2007
Canadians
often pride ourselves
on being a country which defends human rights and civil liberties. But
this Canada Day, a good look in the mirror is needed.
Residents of
Kitigan Zibi (north
of Ottawa) awoke on June 21, National Aboriginal Day, to find their
cultural centre covered with swastikas and "white power" grafitti. A
rash of similar racist attacks in recent months have targetted mosques,
Muslim student centres, synagogues and other sites.
On June 26,
indigenous
anti-uranium mining activist John Graham lost his appeal against
extradition to the United States, where he is accused by the FBI in the
murder of Anna Mae Aquash. US prosecutors have presented only the
flimsiest evidence against Graham, but judges have ruled that Canada's
extradition treaty with the US leaves them no grounds to reject the
request.
Canadian
military forces in
Kandahar turn over "suspects" to the Afghan government, after which
they often face abuse and torture. Canada has lined up with one group
of reactionary warlords in Afghanistan - those currently aligned with
the United States - in the name of "liberating women." There is
virtually no progress towards gender equality to show for this effort,
but thousands of civilians and 60 Canadians have been killed in the
process.
Five years
after his arrest,
Canadian child soldier Omar Khadr languishes in the Guantanamo Bay
concentration camp, even after charges against him have been dropped
twice. The government of Stephen Harper - so quick to pose as defenders
of children - refuses to lift a finger to demand his return to Canada.
We could fill
every page of this
newspaper with similar examples. Canada a shining defender of human
rights? That reputation gets further from the truth every day.