Canadians for Peace and Socialism
Box 168 Slocan BC
V0G 2C0
Phone/fax: 1 250 355 2669
Open Letter to Stephane Dion
Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
February 9, 2008
Dear Mr. Dion
Prime Minister Stephen Harper in collaboration with former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister John Manley is attempting to prevent a majority of the members of Parliament from uniting in their opposition to the US-NATO war in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister is involved in an elaborate charade to by-pass the elected Parliament of Canada and hand over its sovereign authority to the unelected supreme Councils of NATO.
As official leader of the opposition you confront the choice of accepting this betrayal and permitting a discredited lame duck US President, a pro-war right wing French president and a minority right wing Conservative Prime Minister to decide at NATO if Canada will remain in Afghanistan indefinitely or stand up in Parliament and oppose it.
The people of Canada in their majority are opposed to this war. Prime Minister Harper dismisses their views as of less importance than his reputation at NATO. No opposition party has a mandate to permit him to do that. The Manley Report is the platform the Prime Minister Harper crafted to win the next election. Liberals are helping him do it.
Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff is displaying his prodigious talent for obfuscation and fence sitting. He is playing Prime Minister Harper’s game. His gratuitous attack on the NDP MP’s during question period on February 5th should be grounds for his ouster from the front bench. It would remind your caucus that it is Prime Minister Harper and General Hillier calling for a war without end, not the NDP.
Canadians time and again have rejected an imperial geo-political stance for Canada in international relations. They expect their politicians to find ways to end this war not to extend it. That is what MP’s genuinely opposed to this war are attempting to do.
The NDP, the pro-peace Liberals and the Bloc must come together as a “peace caucus” in Parliament and oust the Harper Conservatives and give voice to the deep desire of the Canadian people for a foreign policy of peace. You can join them or Mr. Harper. There is no middle ground.
Yours truly
Don Currie, Chair Canadians for Peace and Socialism