Letter to Peter MacKay, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs
Copy of a letter to Peter MacKay, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, by a friend and supporter of Tadamon!
The author prefers to remain anonymous.
16 July 2006
Hon. Peter MacKay
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Dear Mr. MacKay,
You and Prime Minister Harper have shamed Canada in the eyes of the world. I am referring, here, to your statements of last week on the current crisis in the Middle East. These statements were so lacking in balance, in any measure of objectivity or in basic knowledge of the region’s history that they were nothing short of embarassments, especially to Canadians who expect that elected officials and members of Cabinet will live up to fairly high standards when taking positions on the questions of the day.
First, Mr. Harper, in statements in London, England early last week, condoned the Israeli military assault on Lebanon when he characterized it as legitimate self-defense and judged it as “measured”. This, of course, is tantamount to condoning state crimes, state terror and the disregard of international law and conventions. This assessment of Mr. Harper’s statement is shared by many Canadians.
Second, in your July 12 statement on “Recent events in theMiddle East”, you direct your condemnation and criticism to Hizbollah and then call on the governments of Lebanon, Syria and Iran to take measures presumably to bring an end to the crisis. Yet, no condemnation is directed at Israel, nor even a word of criticism, nor, for that matter, a call to do anything whatsoever. Mr. MacKay, your statement, made as Israel – a nuclear power and a military behemoth – was bombarding Lebanon from the sky, land and sea, does not include a single word of concern over Israel’s conduct. It constituted, therefore, tacit approval of the Israeli assault. Four days hence, you have still not issued a single word of criticism of Israel’s action. Do you realize Mr. Mackay that in condoning Israeli actions, you are complicit in practices of mass, indiscriminate punishment of an entire population, in murder of civilians, in state terror and in a project of regional hegemony through force and regime destabilizaton?
Mr. Minister, your stance on this issue – as well as that of the Prime Minister – has squandered any political or moral capital Canada may have built with the Arab people. This will not be easy to recover. You have tarnished Canada’s reputation in the region, and you have undermined whatever comfort Canadians could take from the fact that their government did not stand on the same ground as the United States when it came to its dealings in the Middle East. This is a great shame, Mr. Mackay, for Canada’s international role. It has also brought shame on Canada.
Montreal, Quebec
Je partage exactement la meme opinion. Mr harper doit lire un peu d’histoire… Mr MacKay doit faire d’abord une formation de la politique etrangere. ce gouvernement est une tache noire sur le CANADA qu’on connait a date.
RDV les elections prochaines.
Comment by El bachir — July 19th, 2006 @ 9:35 AMla position extreme droite de m harper est une honte pour tout le monde
Comment by khadir A . J — July 20th, 2006 @ 10:26 AMAvec ses gestes et ses déclarations ( coupures suite à l’élection du Hamas, qualifier de ‘mesurée’ ce qu’il appelle ‘riposte’ de la part d’Israël….) Harper, permier ministre du Canada fait passer Bush pour un modéré !!!
Avec les impôts de chacune et chacun d’entre nous, il est en train d’engloutir 17 milliards en matériel militaire…. pour protéger la population canadienne ???
Nous sommes responsables de faire tout en notre possible pour neutraliser ce nouveau faucon international. C’est un devoir élémentaire de citoyen. Laisser le premier ministre de notre pays agir sans dénoncer, riposter, neutraliser… c’est admettre notre complicité.
Comment by Pierre LaGrenade — July 26th, 2006 @ 4:25 PMOur Prime Minister is green, green, green, He has no idea how politics works and he is an embarassement to our nation. He should at least get some insight on the whole Middle East Crisis before making any kind of judgement on such a serious situation. What is worst..is that he doesn’t even think twice about what he is stating. It’s anything! If George W Bush says ‘ jump’ he asks ‘ how high?…That is what I think of Stephen Harper and his ‘ green ‘ green ‘ comments. Thank You.
Comment by Marie-Jeanne Blais — July 27th, 2006 @ 7:04 AM