To the editor:
It is very sad to see the prime minister of Canada lecturing Venezuela about lack of democracy and human rights while Canadian police violently evict indigenous people from their unceded territories in order to prop up the Canadian petro state.
It’s not hard to see why people are confused about the coup attempt in Venezuela supported by the US and Canada all in the name of freedom, democracy and human rights. Mainstream media, including CBC and big human rights NGOs like Amnesty International, which parrots extreme right-wing propaganda, have been demonizing Venezuela for over a decade.
When Canada and the US put coercive sanctions in place in violation of international law, threaten oil embargos and even military intervention why aren’t these acts, which cause further suffering to a people undergoing economic crisis, considered “human rights violations?”
Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland can appear nice Canadian moderates compared to arch war hawks like John Bolton, convicted war criminals like Elliot Abrams or the (“democratically elected”) US president, but when it comes down to regime change in Haiti or Honduras, war in Afghanistan or Libya, arms sales to Saudi Arabia, or rights of Palestinians, Canada always lines up with the US war criminals. So if you aid and abet war criminals, what does that make you?
READ MORE: Freeland says Venezuela’s Maduro is now a dictator after illegitimate win
The way forward is clear. Canada should stop support for the coup and sanctions and back Mexico and Uruguay in calling for peaceful negotiations, negotiations which Maduro has agreed to but the Venezuelan right has rejected.
The real focus should not be on the top level “leaders” but on how to improve the lives of the poor and marginalized people of Venezuela, Canada and the world; how to strengthen true international solidarity and sustainable agriculture and move away from fossil fuel dependency and the corrupt capitalist system which is destroying the planet.
Mark Haley
William Stewart Club
Communist Party of Canada
Kelowna