Layton: Canadian troops must help Congo

A Cannonball Press report:

YELLOWKNIFE (CBP): Federal NDP leader Jack Layton has called for the Canadian Forces to be dispatched to the Congo to join the United Nations peacekeeping force (MONUC) there. In a podcast today Mr Layton said that "I have just read Ste Louise Arbour's profoundly moving and insightful article in the Globe and Mail. I have concluded that it is a categorical moral imperative that Canadian troops be deployed at once to the Congo so that MONUC can begin the implementation throughout that strife-torn and unhappy country of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

Mr Layton, who has earlier asked Ms Arbour to determine whether Prime Minister Harper should be investigated for war crimes, went on to say in his podcast that he had written the prime minister to "demand that honest brokers be sent from Bay Street to restore Canada's tarnished international reputation by mediating immediate resolutions to the disputes between India and Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Russia and Chechnya, and Serbia and Kosovo."

The NDP leader's podcast added that "This is the least Canada can do to contribute leadership in a meaningful way to take the lead on the international scene. The world and the Toronto Star expect no less of us; more than just memories and rhetoric are essential."

Mr Layton has previously suggested that Canada should participate in peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, Darfur, and, most recently, darfur. To make up a contingent for darfur he has demanded that the prime minister "withdraw Canadian troops from our mad support of George Bush's so-called 'War on Terrorism' in Afghanistan."

When asked where the Canadian Forces would find the troops for Congo, Darfur and Lebanon missions, Mr Layton responded "What are mere numbers when dying, wounded, and socially-disadvantaged children are crying out for Canadians to save them and end child poverty now? The Congo in particular needs a national early childhood development program and the Canadian Forces must meet that need."

National defence minister Gordon O'Connor reacted to Mr Layton's podcast by saying that no formal request had been received from the United Nations for a Canadian military commitment to the Congo. Justice minister Vic Toews added that there had been no request for a constitutional commitment either.

When asked to comment Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh replied "What are the Canadian Forces?"

Bloc Québécois defence critic Claude Bachand said "Les Congolais parlent Français, n'est-ce pas? La mission va sans dire."

Jane Taber of the Globe and Mail had this comment on Mr Layton's flurry of initiatives: "Thermonuclear!"

Mark "Cannonball" C.

Posted by markc at July 28, 2006 01:56 PM