A couple of news releases from the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, including our columnist Salim Mansur’s remarks. The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) will be holding a press conference on Canada’s mission in Afghanistan prior to the parliamentary debate this evening.
Monday, April 10, 2006 at 12:30 PM
Charles Lynch Press Room
Room 130-S
Centre Block
Parliament Hill, Ottawa
CCD Introductory Remarks by Alastair Gordon
April 10, 2006
I would like to thank members of the media for attending our press conference, either in person or through their broadcast cameras present in this facility.
A quick word on the group that is responsible for this event: Founded in 2003, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) is a non-partisan, multi-ethnic, multi-denominational organization of concerned Canadians dedicated to the protection and promotion of democracy at home and abroad. CCD seeks to educate and inform the Canadian political process and public opinion to achieve a more pro-democracy foreign policy. Senior members of CCD include Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Copts, Assyrians, Buddhists, secularists, and everything in between. The uniting principle is democracy, not religion or ethnicity.
[…] This evening, there will be a ‘Take Notes’ debate in the House of Commons on Canada’s commitment to Afghanistan, a commitment that CCD believes is essential if the people of Afghanistan are to enjoy the freedoms that we take for granted, and if we wish to prevent the re-establishment of the regime that existed unmolested prior to 9/11 and that used Afghanistan as a base from which to slaughter 3,000 innocent people that day in America.
That same scattered regime had identified Canada as a target for its trademark slaughter of innocents, and it is our brave men and women in uniform in Afghanistan who are denying those murderers a base from which to launch their promised attack on Canadian cities.
As we debate Canada’s commitment to Afghanistan, it is essential to remember that our soldiers are volunteers, and that they believe in their mission. These people are professionals on the front line, and they see the eyes of the Afghani people and see the progress against an enemy as barbaric as the Nazis that their grandparents fought to keep from our shores.
[…]
CCD urges all MPs to support our commitment to Afghanistan
Ottawa, Canada, Monday, 10 April 2006 – Canadian Members of Parliament will participate in an important “Take Note” debate today on our mission in Afghanistan. On behalf of Canadians, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) is urging all parties and MPs in the House to support our mission in Afghanistan as a priority for our national interests, as a demonstration of Canada’s ability to take a leadership role on the international stage, and as a sign of our commitment to help Afghanistan rebuild following years of war and brutal repression.
“Canada’s mission in Afghanistan is a test of our national commitment to help build a more secure, prosperous, and democratic post-9/11 world,” said Dr. Salim Mansur, Senior Fellow, CCD. “It is a test that we must not fail.”
With the support of Canada, the United States and members of the international community, 4.8 million Afghani students (1/3 of them girls) are now back in school, 157,000 Afghanis (78% women) are recipients of microcredit loans used to start small businesses, and over 12 million citizens have registered to participate in democratic elections. Canada’s commitment of 2,300 voluntary soldiers is helping to assure that the Taliban does regroup to wipe out these positive changes and restore a radical Islamist regime in Afghanistan from which future 9/11s can be launched.
“Today, Parliament must decide whether we are a country who will stand up in the defence of freedom, democracy and human rights or whether we will allow the Taliban regime to re-establish itself in Afghanistan,” said Mr. Alastair Gordon of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies. “We must remember that Canada has been identified as a target by the same forces that launched 9/11, and to hand them back Afghanistan as a protected incubator for their jihadi mission is to expose Canadians to terrorist atrocities in our own cities.”
“We look forward to this debate and strongly urge MPs and all parties to uphold Canadian values by supporting our soldiers, diplomats and aid workers who are risking their lives to build democracy for Afghanis and security for all Canadians,” added Dr. Mansur.
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For more information, please contact:
Alastair Gordon
Canadian Coalition for Democracies
PO Box 72602 – 345 Bloor Street East
Toronto, ON M4W 3J0 CanadaWeb: http://CanadianCoalition.com
Public Forum: http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/ccd-forum.shtml#currentMessages
Tel: 416-963-8998 / Fax: 360-294-2839
Email: [email protected]
CCD Opening Remarks of Salim Mansur on Canada’s Afghan Mission
Ottawa, 10 April 2006
On the morning of September 11, 2001 jihad, or Islamists war against the West, arrived in North America. Those who planned and executed the terrorist strikes on that fateful morning, and since then in many other cities across continents, made their strategic base of jihad in Afghanistan. Today Afghanistan is liberated from them, though the effort to restore the country to normalcy continues and much work still remains to be done by Afghanis with international support.
The lesson of Afghanistan is simple for the post-9/11 world into which we were collectively awoken by jetliners turned into flying bombs striking with impunity at the heart of our civilization. This lesson is when the world turns its back on a failed state the problem festers into monstrosity with unimaginable consequences. In this instance, Afghanistan as a failed state — in quoting UN Security Council Resolution 1378 of 14 November 2001 — was “used as a base for the export of terrorism by the Al-Qaida network and other terrorist groups and for providing safe haven to Usama Bin Laden, Al-Qaida and others associated with them.”
Canada’s Afghan mission is within the UN mandate of helping Afghanis move ahead into a relatively secure environment as they build their country in keeping with their democratic wishes reflected in the constitution they adopted in January 2004. But Canada’s Afghan mission is also in keeping with our tradition tested through several wars of the last century when our best and bravest put themselves in harm’s way for the cause of freedom and democracy now enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
The recent history of Afghanistan is well documented. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, and became the last battleground of the Cold War between the former communist power, the Soviet Union, and the free world. Then as the world looked away leaving a terribly abused people with little resource to tend to their basic needs, local warlords turned the country once again into a hellish nightmare to be plucked later as a prize by the Taliban with their primitive mindset for an experiment in building an authoritarian Islamic state with no reference to the past of Afghan history, no understanding of the present world situation, no clue about the future for its people.
Afghanistan deserves better, and has a moral claim on the rest of the world for the blood it shed to drive the nail into the coffin of the former Soviet Union. Since 9/11 the world has responded, including Canada. Since the need is immense, the contributions and the efforts have to be commensurate. Canada is a generous country, and Canadians have always stood in the front ranks of member states of the UN in devising policies and providing resources to make for a better and more prosperous world.
Peacekeeping was a Canadian idea and effort following the Suez War of 1956 adopted by the UN, and since then Canadian troops have gone to distant lands to monitor ceasefire, to separate warring armies and to give peace a chance in troubled countries. It was a Canadian thinker, Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase “global village” when the notion of global interdependence was non-existent, and a Canadian prime minister, Lester Pearson, who devised the objectives and provided the rationale for “partnership in development.” Again, since the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic wars in the Balkans Canadian efforts and resources were invested in preparing the report, The Responsibility to Protect, submitted to the UN Secretary-General by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty which seeks to establish the following basic principles as guide to UN action: “(A) State sovereignty implies responsibility, and the primary responsibility for the protection of its people lies with the state itself. (B) Where a population is suffering serious harm, as a result of internal war, insurgency, repression or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, the principle of non-intervention yields to the international responsibility to protect.”
These are requirements of the post-9/11 world and these ideas are being tested in Afghanistan. We have been through similar situations in the past. We entered a new world at the end of World War II with atomic bombs, the division of Europe, the Berlin blockade of 1948 by the Soviet army, the former Soviet Union acquiring atomic weapons in 1949, the end of European colonialism and the Korean war of 1950-53. The responses to these challenges to peace and development were met by the creation of NATO, and by the efforts launched in the Colombo Plan of 1950 with Canadian participation to provide technical assistance for the newly independent countries of the British Commonwealth. Now we are faced with the challenge of broadening the concept of peacekeeping into peacemaking and protection in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and Canadian soldiers are once again beckoned by their government to serve the cause of peace by placing themselves at risk.
Given this history, and Canada’s contribution as a founding member of the UN, of NATO and of sister organizations dedicated to peace and human development, our role in the present Afghan mission remains consistent with our tradition of defending and promoting liberty as the surest guarantee of keeping secure our rights and freedoms enshrined in the Canadian Charter. Canada’s best and bravest as volunteer soldiers in Canadian Defense Forces are in Afghanistan representing all Canadians on a mission that calls for unconditional support as they face danger from an implacable enemy who has been defeated, but not entirely eliminated. We want them to succeed to enable Afghanis to become strong and confident in their own cause of freedom and democracy. We pray for our soldiers in harms way, and for their safe return, as they make us proud and deeply indebted as a nation and as a people secure in our own democracy and freedom.
For more information, please contact:
Salim Mansur, Senior Fellow
Canadian Coalition for Democracies
[email protected]
[email protected]
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