Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Tokenism

The Harper Government does this;

Ottawa hopes to make Aung San Suu Kyi an honorary Canadian citizen


Instead of doing this;

NDP calls for review of Canadian Pension Plan investments in Burma

And increasing the number of Burmese refugees we accept into Canada.

There are currently 140,000 Karen refugees from Myanmar living in nine border camps in Thailand, and many of them have been there for up to 20 years.

The Canadian government has pledged to resettle roughly 2,000 of the Karen refugees in this country, and the Grimsby church’s sponsorship is part of that initiative.

In fact making Aung San Suu Kyi an honorary Canadian citizen will not change what is happening in Burma. Nor give Canada any sway over the Burmese military junta.

There was never any chance that the monk-led "Saffron Revolution" in Burma in the last six weeks would be successful.

The notion of the junta collapsing and fleeing in the face of the moral armour of the monks and the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi is fanciful nonsense.

The generals have ruled Burma since 1962 -- two generations -- and, as they have shown in 1988 and in the last few weeks, they will not give up their golden goose without inflicting extreme violence on their enemies.



And considering how badly Foreign Affairs has bungled the cases of actual Canadians held as political prisoners well I hope she isn't expecting much.

Meanwhile these Canadian Citizens want to know why their government aided and abetted their imprisonment and torture. But they don't get to find out cause Harper has approved a secret Star Chamber review of their cases.

And this Canadian citizen remains incarcerated illegally at Gitmo facing a Star Chamber trial and the Harper government has done nothing about it.



SEE:

Canada's Not So White Knight In Burma

Burma Watch

Blogs Left and Right Unite

Blogging Burma

Myanmar Ghost Dance

No Reincarnation Without Permission

The Road Out of Mandalay


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
, , , , ,
, , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment