Human Rights

NDP CALLS FOR SPECIAL HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY TO CHINA
Marston calls on Conservatives to stand up for Canadian Huseyin Celil

OTTAWA – During Question Period today, the NDP Human Rights critic Wayne Marston (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) made an emotional plea for a Canadian diplomatic envoy to advocate for Huseyin Celil, the Canadian citizen illegally detained in a Chinese prison.

“The Parliamentary Secretary has spent his career agitating for human rights in China any past victory will be for nothing if this Canadian is murdered in China,” said Marston. “Huseyin Celil will never come home to his wife and children if this government doesn’t do more than talk about human rights when it is politically expedient.”

STATEMENT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Mr. Speaker, this week Canadians will don red ribbons to remind us all of the continuing fight against HIV-AIDS in our communities and around the world. December 1 is Global HIV-AIDS Awareness Day.

As we look at fighting the HIV-AIDS pandemic, we must not ignore the need to protect the human rights of people living with HIV. To respond effectively to the HIV epidemic, we must respect and protect the rights of those who are most affected and most at risk.

The Canadian government must find a way to more effectively ensure drug treatments are flowing from Canada to the developing world. This includes fixing the fundamentally flawed legislation allowing the export of generic drugs and meeting our dollar commitments to the global fund in the fight against HIV-AIDS.

PUBLICATION: The Province

BYLINE: James McNulty

Hypocrisy on human rights: Acts tough on world stage, ignores home front

Stephen Harper's tough-guy stance as global human-rights cop is more vanishing act when it comes to his own country.

For all of his stone-throwing at the likes of China, the PM is a ducker back home, human-rights grievances piled high under his Conservative regime.

Harper's government has yet to apologize to Maher Arar, for example. Thanks to faulty RCMP intelligence, the Canadian citizen was arrested by U.S. authorities and whisked off to Syria for torture in a tiny cell.

NDP BLASTS CONSERVATIVES FOR EMPTY PROMISES
Conservatives fail to keep election promise and ratify UN protocol on Torture

OTTAWA – Wayne Marston, MP (Hamilton East – Stoney Creek) held a press conference today in Ottawa demanding that Harper keeps his election promise and put the UN Optional Protocol Against Torture before the House for ratification.

“While in China last week, Harper says he talked about human rights and the Huseyin Celil case in particular. But Canadians want more than words from this government, they want action to eliminate torture and protect our citizens at home and abroad. The first thing the Conservative government needs to do is to meet our international obligations and do what is right by adopting the Optional Protocol on Torture,” said Marston.

Mr. Wayne Marston: Being a democratic socialist might set the tone for a bit of this. First of all, I agree with a lot of the things you've said. I come out of the Canadian trade union movement myself.

I think part of the problem we have today is that these good folks have come here talking about a specific issue and they've stumbled into us discussing the broader issue of our policy. I think that has put them in an awkward position.

Just as a quick question, how many of you have been to Cuba, have actually visited?

Mr. Brian Dijkema (Ontario Solidarity Organizer, CLAC Solidarity, Christian Labour Association of Canada): I would be very interested to see if I could get into the country. The reason is because—

Mr. Wayne Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, NDP): Sitting here listening to your description of the Dalai Lama's middle-of-the road approach and when you consider that 1.2 million have died, it certainly speaks well of the total philosophy within your country, and particularly of the Dalai Lama.

To the chair, I don't think we should underestimate the request or suggestion we heard earlier about a motion of support for the position of the Dalai Lama. There are certain subtleties that have to come into play, and I appreciate listening here to the messaging that came through on that.

Mr. Wayne Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, NDP): I should stress that I'm new to the committee and new to Parliament as well, but one thing that strikes me is that Canada's engagement on human rights in China has taken a back seat to trade imperatives. I'm concerned about that.

I listened to your comments earlier about civil society groups and bypassing the regime. More recently, you spoke about how other countries tend to be encouraging that. Are we in a position to put some people at risk if we do that?

Second, I've stated among my caucus for a while that the Olympics offer an opportunity to influence that we're not going to see in several generations. Perhaps you might have some recommendations as to how we could move forward on that. One of the things I would believe is that if we brought the sponsors and the IOC before this committee, it might be a place to plant some seeds and it might be helpful.

PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator

PAGE: A9

Anti-war groups stage protests at City Hall

More than 100 people gathered outside City Hall Saturday afternoon to protest against Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan.

The anti-war protesters from local organizations huddled in the cold rain listening to speeches and raising placards for honking passing cars before taking their message to the streets on a short march along Main and King streets.

New Democrat MP Wayne Marston echoed his party's criticism of Canada's military role in Afghanistan and called for more humanitarian and reconstruction aid.