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Event Reports
August 28 2007 Picket Action |
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Canadian Armed Forces Recruitment Center CLICK ON PHOTO FOR LARGER VERSION  Picket Action at the Canadian Armed Forces Recruitment Center  Nita Palmer, MAWO's acting secretary, reads the August 28th Picket's statement to the press    Mike Larson, Kwantlen College student and MAWO organizer, speaks on the impact of the occupation on students and youth   Veteran antiwar activist David Wittlesee speaks  |
MAWO Press Release for the August 28th Picket Action FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 28, 2007 Vancouver Activists Demand: Canada Out of Afghanistan NOW! Two more Canadian soldiers die in occupation of Afghanistan Eighteen Afghans killed in deadly NATO air strike PICKET ACTION: Tuesday, August 28 12pm-1pm Canadian Forces Recruitment Office 1070 W. Georgia St. On August 23, two Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb exploded under their vehicle in the Zhari district of Kandahar, bringing the death toll of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan to 69. With these latest deaths and continued reports of deaths of Afghan civilians at the hands of NATO forces, opposition to Canada’s occupation of Afghanistan is on the rise. On August 28, Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) is calling on peace-loving people in the Lower Mainland to join them to protest Canada’s ongoing criminal occupation of Afghanistan. The action will take place at the Canadian Forces Recruitment Centre in downtown Vancouver. The death toll for Afghans is rapidly increasing. On August 26, eighteen civilians attending a wedding party were killed when NATO planes bombed a house in Helmand province. The continued deaths of Afghan civilians and Canadian soldiers are proof that the occupation brings no benefit to the people of Afghanistan, says MAWO Acting Secretary Nita Palmer. "NATO bombing a wedding celebration? That isn’t helping Afghans ‘rebuild’ their country. It is only making Afghans fight harder each day to kick the foreign occupiers out of their country." Today, unemployment in Afghanistan sits at 78%, and Afghans now make up the highest population of Internally Displaced Persons in the world. Since the 2001 invasion, both life expectancy and under-5 survival rates have also plummeted. "With over $4 Billion in taxpayer dollars spent on this war drive, what Afghanistan has Canada created?" Palmer continues. "Bombs and destruction have not, cannot, and will not bring democracy and prosperity to Afghanistan, as officials like Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier have claimed. That is why MAWO is calling for Canada out of Afghanistan now." MAWO has collected more than 13,000 signatures from people in the Lower Mainland against Canada's occupation of Afghanistan since starting the campaign in early 2004. MAWO continues to call for an Independent Public Inquiry into the government of Canada's decisions to begin, extend and escalate the war drive in Afghanistan. -30- |