07) HARPER HAS NO
"MORAL
AUTHORITY" TO HELP HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM
(The
following
article is from the February 1-14, 2009, issue of People's Voice,
Canada's
leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the
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The record of the Conservative Party
made it unacceptable to include Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the
recent sod-turning ceremony for the Canadian Human Rights Museum in
Winnipeg, according to the Communist Party's Manitoba Committee.
"This is a
government that
commits war crimes in Afghanistan and genocide against the Aboriginal
peoples in Canada, prefers to let the unemployed working class rot
during the economic crisis, attacks the equality of women and other
discriminated groups, and violates or allows the violation of the most
basic civil rights of citizens such as Omar Khadr, the four Canadians
sent to torture in Syria, and Abousfian Abdelrazik, stranded in Sudan
since 2003," said CP (Manitoba) leader Darrell Rankin.
"It is a
government that
believes jobs, education, health, equality and peace are not human
rights," continued Rankin. "It is a government that does not believe
all nations have rights including peace and sovereignty. It is a
government that does not believe citizenship should correspond with
diplomatic support, no rendition and freedom from torture. It is a
government that does not respect the United Nations Charter, the
democratic legacy of the fight against fascism.
"It is a
government that attacks
collective agreements and wages, privatizes property, destroys science
and regulation, and kills the environment, the ill and consumers to
make money for the corporations. It is a government that could not care
less about the hungry, victims of the global food crisis, except when
it has shipped some morsels to Haiti and Afghanistan which are now its
provinces because it is the occupier.
"It is a
government that spends
its time in secret talks with corporations about a new relationship
with the U.S. and Mexico. It is a government that has done nothing to
honour its promise of accountability, instead keeping its candidates
away from public election meetings, muzzling cabinet ministers and
making media sign a waiting list to ask questions.
"It is a
government that is more
friendly with the abusers of power in the world than with the
governments that are doing the most to protect and improve the rights
of their citizens. It promotes friendship by signing free trade deals
with the Colombian oligarchy, guilty of the state murder of countless
Colombian citizens. It defends Israel's criminal and genocidal actions
against the Palestinian people in Gaza...
"It is a
government that issues
gag orders, drops voters from lists and fires directors to get its way
with the Canadian Wheat Board, a sign of what kind of elections Canada
would have if the Conservative Party ever gets a majority government.
"It is a
government that does
not believe in or support child care. It is a government that honours
only profit, the corporations, tax cuts for the wealthy and military
spending...
"The
government of P.M. Stephen
Harper should be a display in the museum of an example of a violator of
human rights. The invitation to Harper to attend the sod turning
ceremony is another sign that the organizers believe human rights
belong in a museum, as a part of our past."