Rejecting Canada’s complicity with Egypt’s authoritarian military government
- Tadamon! Montreal statement, Feb. 2015.
A protester carrying a banner addressed to Mubarak: “The people want you to fall”. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy
Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising, against Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian rule, is now being systematically overturned by the military-backed regime of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, with the open complicity of western powers, including Canada’s Conservative government.
The spirit of Egypt’s globally celebrated revolution, defined by popular demands for “Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice,” chanted out by countless thousands on the streets braving police bullets just over four years ago, is under attack by an empowered army state, shaped by militarized neo-liberalism.
This political reality was made most evident in late January, with the deaths of multiple civilian demonstrators, shot by state police forces in broad daylight, killed during marches commemorating the martyrs of the January 25th “Day of Revolt” protests in 2011 that sparked the broader uprising that winter.
Thousands of political prisoners in Egypt remain behind bars without access to due process, many who are in critical health due to hunger strikes, all while Egyptian authorities continue to pass draconian legislation that violates fundamental human rights. And yet, Canada’s Conservative government provides ongoing political and economic complicity with al-Sisi’s military-backed regime.
This support must be challenged!