Canada's involvement in the sanctions that have murdered over 1.5 million Iraqis.

Like many others, I grew up being told repeatedly that Canada was the best country in the world to live in because of our wonderful human rights record, our education system, etc. It wasn't until I left the confines of public schooling, and chose to educate myself that I was able to discover the shameful side of Canada, the side that everyone seems content to ignore, and to keep silent about.

Since 1991 sanctions have denied Iraqi civilians food, medical supplies, chlorine for the sanitization of water, elementary school books, and other things that have been judged too dangerous to allow by the sanctions comity in New York. These sanctions have been the direct cause of the deaths of over 1,500,000 Iraqi civilians. And in addition to the sanctions, bombings are conducted under the "no fly zones" that have been created by the US and Britain, without any basis in international law. In one 5 month period of bombing 41% of the victims were civilians in civilian targets including villages, fishing jetties, farmland, and vast treeless valleys where sheep graze, according to a UN security sector report. Several months ago, the US, with the help of Britain, decided to increase the bombing of Iraq. However they still leave the air space of the Kurdish people who they are supposed to be protecting when Turkish forces cross over into Iraq to attack the Kurdish population. Only two countries of the world came out in support of the recent increase in bombing, Poland and Canada.

We are led to believe though that these bombings are somehow necessary due to the threat that Iraq poses to the international community. Perhaps the best way to measure that threat would be by the words of Scott Ritter, a chief UN weapons inspector for five years. He said "By 1998, the chemical weapons infrastructure had been completely dismantled or destroyed by UNSCOM (the UN inspections body) or by Iraq in compliance with our mandate. The biological weapons program was gone, all the major facilities eliminated. The nuclear weapons program was completely eliminated. The long range ballistic missile program was completely eliminated. If I had to quantify Iraq's threat, I would say [it is] zero."

The greatest crime that is being carried out against the people of Iraq is not the bombing though, it is the sanctions. 3 high placed officials at the UN have already resigned, including two consecutive coordinators of the "humanitarian relief" to Iraq. The first of the resignations came from Denis Halliday, formerly an Assistant Secretary-General of the UN. He said "I had been instructed, to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that has effectively killed well over a million individuals, children and adults. We all know that the regime, Saddam Hussein, is not paying the price for economic sanctions; on the contrary, he has been strengthened by them. It is the little people who are losing their children or their parents for lack of untreated water. What is clear is that the Security Council is now out of control, for its actions here undermine its own Charter, and the Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention."

According to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, the death rate of children under five has now risen to 5,000-6,000 a month - that is 5,000-6000 more than would have died before sanctions. The total estimated death toll of Iraqi children is now over 600,000. This translates into over 200 children murdered each day.

According to Lloyd Axworthy "Last November, a Canadian fact-finding mission traveled to Iraq to assess the political and humanitarian situation... Canada hopes to bring an end to a situation that has gone on for too long. Too long for regional and international security. Too long for the Iraqi people." The Canadian government is well aware of the situation in Iraq. They have been told very clearly and directly that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq can not be exaggerated, and that we must immediately pursue the de-linking on economic and military sanctions. This was all known and stated openly before we stated that we support the recent increase in bombings. Actions speak much louder than words. That is why I am ashamed to be Canadian, our silent complicity makes me want to vomit, and it is time for that silence to be broken.