The Canadian Peace Alliance is blaming Conservative leader Stephen Harper for his government’s silence on the case of Malalai Joya, the 30-year-old female parliamentarian suspended from the Afghan parliament in May of 2007.
"During this election campaign in Canada, we're going to be making it clear to the Conservatives it's unacceptable that they remain silent on Joya's situation," said CPA Co-Chair Christine Jones. "What the public wants is for the war to be ended now, not in 2011."
Michael Byers, NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre, said the government's evasiveness is "tragic and hypocritical."
"We're told that we're fighting in Kandahar for democracy and women's rights," he said. "But when a democratically elected woman is threatened with death and expelled from the Afghan parliament for criticizing corruption, nepotism and human right violations, suddenly the Harper government stands for nothing at all."
Both the Prime Minister’s Office and the Harper campaign failed to respond to requests for an interview.
“Canada strongly supports the development of democratic institutions of governance in Afghanistan," said Anne Howland, director of communications for retiring foreign affairs minister David Emerson, in an e-mail. "We respect the independence of Afghan lawmakers and their right to legislate within the framework of the Afghan constitution and international law. We continue to monitor this issue closely, together with our international partners, particularly given possible implications for the protection and promotion of women's rights.”
Howland did not answer a follow-up question about whether Canada had directly and publicly criticized the Afghan parliament for expelling Joya.
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G West
3 years ago
Tragic and hypocritical
But entirely typical.
That's Harper's modus operandi : sophisticated middle class pork barreling. He's not the slightest bit interested in Afghanistan or the Afghan people except as a way to connect with a military right wing constituency here in Canada.
He's busy chopping up the electorate into interest 'segments' - doling out lumps of cash to each of them and hoping that, in aggregate, this kind of local populism - in a cozy sweater - will deliver enough carefully targeted votes to push his jalopy over the finish line with a majority.
The CPC reluctance to do anything but follow the script is key - but it might still fall off the tracks and be exposed for what it is if we still had a free and independent press in this country...
We don't. And that, in the end, will be a bigger problem than anything pee wee can do to the nation.
I wish we could do more for Afghan women and children and decent democrats like Malalai Joya -but no one should expect anything from clods like Harper and Emerson.
In the end, the best thing Canada can do is get out.
YerMomma
3 years ago
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