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Peace organizations Call on Voters to Reject Harper's Militaristic Agenda |
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Written by Wire Services
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Friday, 13 January 2006 |
The Canadian Peace Alliance and the War Resisters Support Campaign joined together today to urge Canadian voters to reject the pro-war agenda being promoted by Stephen Harper in the current federal election.
"A vote for Stephen Harper is a vote for George Bush. This is a man who supported the invasion of Iraq and wants to sign on to the dangerous ballistic missile defence plan, two positions that the majority of Canadians have already clearly rejected," said Sid Lacombe, coordinator of the Canadian Peace Alliance, a peace network of more than 140 member groups representing more that 4 million Canadians.
"The Martin Liberals have already increased military spending and embroiled us in an unwinnable quagmire in Afghanistan; now Harper wants to make things even worse with increased support for militarism and war," Lacombe said.
The War Resisters Support Campaign, with supporters across Canada, has gathered over 30,000 signatures on a petition to the government urging that US soldiers who refuse to take part in - or return to - the Iraq War be given sanctuary, as was done during the Vietnam War.
"Stephen Harper's close ties to Bush supporters in the US make us doubt that a Harper Government would uphold Canada's tradition of offering sanctuary to US war resisters," said Vietnam War resister Lee Zaslofsky, speaking for the Campaign. "Rather, we fear he would curry favour with Washington by acting as an enforcement arm of the Pentagon, forcing US war resisters back to the US, where they would face prison or worse."
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