Monday, August 28, 2006

Putting Canada In Harms Way




The Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Harper.S@parl.gc.ca

CSIS is advising Canadians that in light of our troops fighting in Afghanistan and your decision not to send a contingent of our armed forces to help keep the peace in Lebanon will make us more likely targets of extremists.

It is one thing that any person legitimately carrying or directing a weapon to defend our laws and justice, who has done so on a voluntary basis, with the full understanding that he or she will be called to place themselves in harms way, is an honourable thing. But you have chosen to place the citizens of Canada in harms way unilaterally in a non-voluntary way without a mandate from all Canadians including the majority of us who did not vote for you. This is an insidious form of conscription.

Information has been made available to the NDP that there is some capacity to send ‘peacekeepers’ to Lebanon. It is also distressing that you are joining the other major occupiers of Iraq, the US, Australia and Britain in declining help to the UN for their mission.

Your decision, and those of your cabinet, the posturing and vocabulary are no doubt inflammatory to those who you are trying to protect us from. You are replicating American foreign policy for your supporters benefit, not most Canadians and the world in general. One wonders at the method behind the madness of making us bigger targets but surely it could be seen as ultimately tying into the North American Security Perimeter and all our sovereignty that will go down with it.

The best thing I can give you in your favour is at least you have removed the sweater over our eyes and revealed the degeneration of the reputation of Canadians as peacekeepers and God knows what else some politicians have been perpetrating in our names since Mulroney.

I feel that it would be Canada’s interest that you send some legitimate peacekeepers to Lebanon for as long as required and begin exiting out of Afghanistan.

Respectfully,
John Warren

E-copy to:
BENNETT, Carolyn Bennett.C@parl.gc.ca
COTLER, Irwin Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca
DAY, Stockwell Day.S@parl.gc.ca
DION, Stéphane Dion.S@parl.gc.ca
GRAHAM, William Graham.B@parl.gc.ca
The Hon. Jack Layton Layton.J@parl.gc.ca
MACKAY, Peter Mackay.P@parl.gc.ca
MCDONOUGH, Alexa McDonough.A@parl.gc.ca
ORCHARD, David davidorchard@sasktel.net
The Globe and Mail letters@globeandmail.com
The Toronto Star lettertoed@thestar.ca
Toronto Now Magazine letters@nowtoronto.com
The National Post