On The Hill

In September 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin gave a keynote address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He spoke of human tragedies taking place and the need for a new tool at the international level to address them.

Mr. Martin championed the Responsibility to Protect, which established a collective international responsibility to defend populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity. Today, Canada must put those words into action and help the people of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has deployed his security services and Green Bomber militia members to brutalize human-rights advocates and ordinary citizens, resulting in thousands of attacks on civilians that have included rape, torture and murder.

President Mugabe has recently withheld food from his starving populace and has forced out some of the few NGOs still operating in the country. This has resulted in a critical shortage of medications in a country where 25 per cent of the population is infected with HIV. The average life expectancy for a woman in Zimbabwe is now 32 years while for man it's 37, the lowest in the world.

Unfortunately, despite the disastrous state of affairs in Zimbabwe, and despite a $13 billion surplus, the Conservative government has cut the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funding for humanitarian and relief programs, an unconscionable act.

As your Member of Parliament for nearly three years now, I have been working to promote greater support for human rights abroad. In the 1980s, I lived in Cotê d’Ivoire where I worked on behalf of UNICEF in 23 West and Central African countries and am familiar with the dire situations that occur in the developing world.

I am calling on the Conservative government to change course and take strong action against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in light of his continued use of state-sponsored violence and gross human rights abuses against innocent civilians. Respected human rights observers have called on the Conservative government to help the beleaguered people of Zimbabwe, by:

%u25CF Increasing aid from $4 million to $20 million for medicines, food and other essential supplies;

%u25CF Appointing a special Canadian envoy for this crisis; and

%u25CF Pressuring the UN Security Council to sanction Robert Mugabe and bring him before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

If the situation in Zimbabwe does not improve, I believe that further action should be considered, including possibly expelling the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Canada. The world cannot stand for the destruction of Zimbabwe and the plight of its people. Canada enjoys government relations with other African leaders, the Commonwealth, and other multi-lateral organizations. We have both an opportunity, and a responsibility, to help.