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December 20th 2009 (via e-mail)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6, HarpeS@parl.gc.ca
Mr. Harper:
I am a member of Amnesty International.
It is very distressing to read in the Toronto Star that KAIROS, a vital human rights and development organization, has arbitrarily had its CIDA funding cut off under your orders.
Working with over twenty partner organizations around the world, KAIROS sponsors projects promoting social and economic justice in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
The KAIROS current funding application was developed within two priority sectors of CIDA: promoting good governance (human rights) and advancing ecological sustainability (reducing the impact of climate change and addressing land degradation). It was approved at every level of CIDA before being declined on November 30.
Please can you explain why two of your cabinet ministers have issued different statements on this matter. The International Cooperation Minister, Bev Oda, told KAIROS it was because the group did not fit the government’s priorities of food security, helping youths and economic growth. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that its funding was lifted as part of the Conservatives’ effort to cut off anti-Semitic organizations.
I join with the United Church of Canada and other Canadian churches (the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Mennonite Central Committee – Canada), who are demanding to know why Mr. Kenney broadly assaulted a wide range of faith groups by accusing KAIROS of being anti-Semitic.
As a voter and taxpayer, I expect you to restore funding to KAIROS, which has a 35-year history of advancing the reach of Canada’s global citizenship.
Will Mr. Kenney offer a public apology for his uninformed accusations against KAIROS?
Yours truly
Anne Hansen, Victoria, BC
Copies:
The Hon. Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, oda.b@parl.gc.ca;
Margaret Biggs, President of CIDA, Margaret.Biggs@acdi-cida.gc.ca
Hon. Denise Savoie, MP, Savoie.D@parl.gc.ca
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December 12, 2009
Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Official Opposition, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Mr. Ignatieff:
I am a voter and taxpayer, concerned about human rights in Canada and around the world.
It is distressing to read about the murder of Mariano Abarca Roblero, age 51, who was gunned down at his home in Chiapas, Mexico. As you know, he had been involved in protecting his village from the environmental destruction wrought by Blackfire Exploration, a Canadian mining company.
Human rights violations such as these — resulting from the presence of Canadian oil, gas, and mining corporations in countries around the world — are compelling reasons why you are obliged to support Bill C-300, An Act Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries.
Prior to the Harper government, Canada was in many respects seen as a human rights leader. We are a signatory to international human rights instruments. The Canadian government is responsible for holding Canadian transnational companies accountable for human rights violations in countries in which they operate. Human rights abuses involving corporations are often carried out with impunity, as host nations are frequently unable or unwilling to prevent and punish such actions.
Further, the Canadian government should not be providing financial and political support – through Canada Pension Plan and Export Development Canada – to companies that flout international human rights standards.
As a member of Amnesty International, I demand that the Canadian government adopt stronger legal and policy frameworks to hold corporations to account for their abuse of human rights around the world.
Canada’s parliament will be voting soon on new legislation on corporate accountability under Bill C-300. Please inform me how you will vote on this legislation, so I can decide how I will vote in the next federal election.
Yours truly
Anne Hansen, Victoria, BC V8V 1B3
cc Denise Savoie, MP (Savoie.D@parl.gc.ca); Stephen Harper, Prime Minister (HarpeS@parl.gc.ca); Governor-General Michaëlle Jean (info@gg.ca); Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade (DayS@parl.gc.ca); Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation (OdaB@parl.gc.ca); Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs (CannoL@parl.gc.ca); Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Kent.P@parl.gc.ca); Jack Layton, NDP Leader (LaytoJ@parl.gc.ca)
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December 13th 2009
President Dr. Alvaro Uribe, Cra no 7-26, Placio de Narina, Santa Fe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Dear President:
RE: LILIANY OBANDO, POLITICAL PRISONER IN COLOMBIA
Please accept my apologies for not writing in Español.
I live in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where there is concern about a woman named named Liliany Obando, imprisoned in Bogotá, Colombia.
Liliany was arrested and charged with “rebellion” in August 2008. She has been in prison ever since.
The information available to me indicates that Liliany Obando has been jailed solely for her peaceful involvement in human rights activities in Colombia. At the time of her arrest, she was finalizing a solidarity project that involved researching the killings of peasant leaders.
I take the liberty of drawing your attention to the Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos: “Toda persona tiene derecho a un recurso efectivo ante los tribunales nacionales competentes, que la ampare contra actos que violen sus derechos fundamentales reconocidos por la constitución o por la ley” (Artículo 8); and “Nadie podrá ser arbitrariamente detenido, preso ni desterrado.” (Artículo 9).
I would be grateful to know of her status. The international community hopes for her freedom.
Yours truly
Anne Hansen (address), Victoria, British Colombia, Canada
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November 27th 2009
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Prime Minister Harper:
I join with Canadians who are outraged about the Canadian military’s complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees.
Canadians deserve and demand unconditional and complete answers to these human rights violations questions, rather than attacks on responsible civil servants who have brought this situation to public attention.
According to Mr. Richard Colvin, senior intelligence officer, who served in Afghanistan and is currently posted to Canada’s embassy in Washington, the government received repeated warnings that people who were taken prisoner and transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops were tortured by the Afghans. Yet the Canadian government failed to act.
I support the call for an independent public inquiry into the possibility that government and military officials abandoned their responsibility to ensure Canada acted within Canadian and International law, and upheld Canadian values.
Yours truly
Anne Hansen
cc Hon. Denise Savoie, MP, Savoie.D@parl.gc.ca
NDP Leader Jack Layton <Layton.J@parl.gc.ca>
Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff <Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca>
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe
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November 27th 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington DC, USA
Dear President Obama:
I am a member of Amnesty International, concerned about human rights here in Canada and around the world.
I am writing to express my profound disappointment at your willingness to continue with the Bush administration’s horrific legacy, by refusing to join the international treaty banning landmines. Human Rights Watch describes your position as a reprehensible rejection of the most successful disarmament and humanitarian treaty of the past decade.
Your decision on this matter is at odds with the vision and compassion embodied in your inaugural address. It contradicts your administration’s professed commitment to multilateralism, disarmament, and humanitarian affairs.
The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty has been endorsed by 158 countries, including nearly all of the US military allies. Every other member of NATO has endorsed the treaty, as has every other country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. The international stigma against the weapon has become so strong that in recent years the only government laying significant numbers of new landmines has been the abusive military government in Burma. Both Afghanistan and Iraq are parties to the Mine Ban Treaty and have comprehensively banned any use or even possession of the weapon.
More troubling is your intention to send more soldiers to Afghanistan. The White House has estimated it will cost $1 million per year for each additional soldier sent to Afghanistan. This is a suidical waste of Americans’ tax dollars, when your country and indeed all of humanity needs health care, renewable energy, and education.
I would be grateful for your reply.
Yours truly
Anne Hansen
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November 8th 2009
TO: Gail Shea, MP, Minister of Fisheries & Oceans, House of Commons, OTTAWA, ON K1A 0A6
Ms. Shea:
I am an artist living in British Columbia. I paint coastal scenes.
I join with Canadians who are alarmed about the catastrophic collapse of salmon stocks in the Fraser River. Equally distressing is the unregulated, ever-expanding fish farming industry on the Pacific coast.
As our wild salmon populations were taking a nosedive this past summer, the Minister of Fisheries and a delegation were in Norway at a fish farm trade show, advertising Canada as a welcome host for more fish farms. This is a shocking misuse of tax dollars for the benefit of private, foreign corporations. Furthermore, the ocean is a common resource, and not a realm that should be up for grabs for privatization.
Scientists have found that where salmon farms exist, wild salmon and trout are in steep decline. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that fish farms are fertile territory for parasites, bacteria and viruses. The Fraser river sockeye are dangerously infected with farm lice off Campbell River. The wild pink salmon in British Columbia’s Broughton Archipelago are on the brink of extinction, as documented in the December 14, 2007 edition of the prestigious Science journal.
The pink salmon are a keystone species, upon which the entire ecosystem depends. Everything feeds on the pinks – other salmon species, whales, bear, even the forest itself. The fisheries are an essential part of our coastal economy, of which tourism is a substantial component.
I call upon the Canadian government to take action to remove fish farms from BC’s most valuable wild salmon migratory routes, with a view toward phasing out ocean fish farming. (According to biologist Alexandra Morton, closed, on-land fish farming would be a safe, viable alternative.) With a resurrection of the traditional, wild fishing industry, every town and village with wild salmon running to or past it would again prosper.
In the meantime, will your ministry bring all fish farms into full compliance with the Fisheries Act?
Yours truly
Anne Hansen
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September 17th 2009
Hon. Denise Savoie, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Denise Savoie:
Thank you for your vital work in the House of Commons.
We trust you share our concern about the Canadian Coast Guard’s threat to destaff the remaining 27 of BC’s staffed lighthouses.
The first four victims slated for closure are: Entrance Island (NE of Gabriola Island), Trial Island (Victoria), Cape Mudge (Quadra Island) and Dryad Point (North of Bella Bella). All are scheduled to be destaffed by the spring of 2010 with the remaining lighthouses to become automated by 2014.
The removal of a human presence from the lighthouses would be an assault on public safety. As you know, lightkeepers are often called upon for assisting search & rescue, and RCMP and fisheries officers. They play a major role in maintaining public and environmental safety along the coast of BC, including spotting oil spills.
Our province’s significant boating population rely heavily on lightkeepers’ VHF weather bulletins, as the automated reports are not always available nor are they as detailed.
We hope you will rise to the defense of continued staffing of our lighthouses. They are a national treasure, tourist attraction, and a cultural legacy highly deserving of our taxpayer resources.
Yours truly
Anne Hansen
Leader, Liberal Party
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
IgnatM@parl.gc.ca
Mr. Ignatieff:
I am a taxpayer and voter, concerned about human rights in Canada and around the world.
A Canada-Colombia trade agreement is currently being considered in the House of Commons.
Our country must back away from this plan, in view of the widely-known human rights atrocities that occur with alarming regularity in Colombia.
Please look at Amnesty International’s website, with a long list of assassinations, abductions, forced evictions and brutal “disappearances” of peaceful, hard-working Colombians. They include farmers, office workers, journalists, mothers, and factory workers. Canada has no business in entering into arrangements with Colombia until this situation improves dramatically, and demonstrably.
The present Colombian political regime lays claim to the worst human rights record in the hemisphere; the second largest number of internally-displaced people (after Sudan); and the highest number of unionists murdered.
Last June, the Liberal Party promised not to support the agreement without a human rights impact assessment. Will your party abide by that promise — even before sending the trade agreement to committee for further debate?
Yours truly
Anne Hansen
