CANADA MUST SUPPORT UN HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS IN GAZA
CANADA MUST SUPPORT UN HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS IN GAZA
CANADA MUST SUPPORT UN HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS IN GAZA
July 25, 2014
CANADA MUST SUPPORT UN HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS IN GAZA
OTTAWA – As Canadians continue to be shocked by the mounting casualties and severe humanitarian need in the Gaza Strip, the NDP is calling on the Conservative government to support United Nations humanitarian efforts.
“The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is critical,” NDP Foreign Affairs critic Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre) wrote today in a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. “Canada has an opportunity and a responsibility to help.”
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) recently declared an emergency in the Gaza Strip, and is asking the international community to provide urgent support. Over the last six years, the Conservatives have cut Canada’s overall annual contribution to UNRWA from $28 million to zero.
“In light of the current humanitarian crisis, I urge the Government to make an immediate contribution to the UNRWA emergency appeal for the Gaza Strip,” added Dewar in the letter.
*Paul Dewar’s letter to the Foreign Affairs Minister can be downloaded at: http://www.ndp.ca/node/78477
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Letter to Minister on Safety Code 6: Updating Canada's regulations on radiation-emitting wireless devices
HARMFUL CONSERVATIVE CUTS TO REFUGEE CARE OVERTURNED
HARMFUL CONSERVATIVE CUTS TO REFUGEE CARE OVERTURNED
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 4, 2014
HARMFUL CONSERVATIVE CUTS TO REFUGEE CARE OVERTURNED
OTTAWA – Confirming what the NDP has been saying for months, the Federal Court ruled today that the government cannot continue to blatantly disregard basic human rights and that Conservative changes to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) constituted cruel and unusual treatment of refugees and therefore violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Conservatives have repeatedly played politics with the lives of vulnerable people,” said Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe (Pierrefonds-Dollard), NDP critic for Citizenship and Immigration. “Today, the Court has told them in no uncertain terms that they have to stop.”
The Federal Court decision found that the government’s changes to the Interim Federal Health Program put the lives of some of Canada’s most vulnerable residents at risk. “The 2012 modifications to the IFHP potentially jeopardize the health, and indeed the very lives, of these innocent and vulnerable children in a manner that shocks the conscience and outrages Canadian standards of decency,” wrote Justice Anne Mactavish.
“Our country was built on the idea that we have a responsibility to look after one another,” added NDP Multiculturalism critic Andrew Cash (Davenport). “Conservatives cannot continue to trample on core Canadian values like equality and generosity. Canadians will always have their say in the end.”
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