In the Media

Fighting poverty with political will – Wayne Marston, MP (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek)

Launched in June, the NDP’s End Poverty in Canada Campaign came to Hamilton on Friday February 2nd. The forums are intended to help build political will for change and provide an opportunity for dialogue on the barriers to end poverty.

Tony Martin, MP for Sault-Ste Marie and NDP Social Policy Critic, responded to my invitation to hold a forum in Hamilton and local NDP MP’s Chris Charlton and David Christopherson and MPP Andrea Horvath co-hosted. We welcomed and heard from over 70 people in attendance – several interested individuals and the rest, representatives of community groups or organizations who advocate on poverty issues.

PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star
DATE: 2007.01.25

BYLINE: Debra Black
SOURCE: Toronto Star

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NDP critic urges aid for Somali-Canadian

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NDP human rights critic Wayne Marston is calling on the Harper government to take immediate action to secure consular access for a Canadian citizen who was illegally detained by Kenya, then shipped to Ethiopia without due process.

Bashir Makhtal was arrested on the Kenya-Somalia border in late December and held in a Nairobi prison for more than three weeks before he was whisked away to Somalia and on to Ethiopia. According to documents filed with the Kenyan court, Makhtal said he was seeking "a transit visa to enable exit to Canada" when he was arrested. He was put on a plane to Mogadishu two days before his court date.

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.

PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator
PAGE: A13
BYLINE: Lisa Grace Marr

Drop in prices casts a chill over nation's labour unions

A second straight monthly decline in the price of raw materials and manufactured goods is putting a chill over labour organizations.

Prices charged by manufacturers were down 1.6 per cent in September after a .5 per cent drop in August, while raw materials were down 5.2 per cent after a 3.7 per cent decline a month earlier.

Statistics Canada, which released the figures yesterday, attributed the drop in the price of manufactured goods at the factory gate to sliding petroleum prices.

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.