August 1, 2005

Dear Prime Minister,

I am in receipt of your stock e-mail response "Middle East conflict-90" (your title, not mine) where in your Executive Correspondence Assistant L.A. Lavell indicates he/she will be forwarding my e-mail to Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew via mina10@dfaitmaeci.gc.ca (no doubt Pettigrew's Executive Correspondence Assistant).  This is unacceptable.

Earlier this year, I attended a speech given by Liberal MP Hon.Bernard Patry, Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs before a group of several hundred concerned citizens at a meeting of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East in Montreal.

The audience posed many questions concerning the votes which your Government took in 2004 which evidenced an unprecedented and unwarranted shift in Canada's position towards full backing for Israel's Apartheid regime.  These votes include the December UN vote wherein Canada voted AGAINST the work of a UN committee on the Inalienable Human Rights of the Palestinian People (how Canada could vote against the human rights of ANYONE on the Planet is beyond comprehension) and Canada's refusal to join the UN in supporting the decision of the International Court of Justice which demanded Israel tear down the Apartheid Wall (a decison which WAS supported, I might add, by Canada's representative on the Court).  Evidently your government feels Israel is above the law, a view not shared by the Canadian people.
Mr. Patry candidly responded that there is a lot of frustration and concern on Parliament Hill  because these decisions did not involve Parliamentarians, did not involve his committee, did not involve the Foreign Affairs Department (i.e. Pettigrew), did not involve the Cabinet, but instead were made behind closed doors in your office.

So my questions are to you, Mister Prime Minister.  Why are you, on your own, making Foreign Affairs decisions concerning the Middle East which run contrary to public opinion in Canada and without the input of our elected officials and related departments and committees?  At whose behest?  In return for what?  As pointed out by journalist Marci McDonald in her recent Toronto Life Magazine article entitled "The Heather & Gerry Show", might this be evidence of a quid pro quo for the political fund raising of your bagman Gerry Schwartz?

We need an official inquiry concerning these issues.  They are very serious and run to the core of representaive democracy.  Stock e-mail "Middle East Conflict-90" from your Executive Correspondance Assistant L.A. Lavell just won't do in this instance.

The people of Canada have a right to know what is going on behind closed doors in the Prime Ministers' Office.  Our government is not your private boardroom where you can sell off the "assets" of the Canadian people, including our Foreign Policy, to the highest bidder or fundraiser.  Contrary to your neo-liberal ideology, Canada is not for sale.

We need an independent inquiry.  And we need it NOW before you do any further damage to our democracy.

Ron Saba
Editor
Montreal Planet Magazine

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