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 LCCC
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Rick
Dykstra, M.P.For St. Catharines, ON, Requesting Explanation Regarding Motion
Passed By Foreign Affairs Committee
From: "Dykstra, Rick - M.P."
<Dykstra.R@parl.gc.ca>
To: McDonoughA@parl.gc.ca
August 3, 2006
Dear Ms. McDonough;
I wish to register my strenuous objection to an August 1st motion passed by
opposition members of the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Foreign
Affairs and International Development. The motion to which I refer and which you
spearheaded, prevented Mr. Elias Bejjani, chairman of the Canadian Lebanese
Coordinating Council (LCCC) and the Canadian Lebanese Human Right Federation (CLHRF),
from speaking during the Committee's Hearing Session on the government's Middle
East policy and the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon. Mr. Bejjani
represents the interests and viewpoints of thousands of Lebanese-Canadians and
his input at this hearing would have been informative to committee members. As
Mr. Bejjani was accepted as a speaker by the Clerk of the Committee, I would
like an explanation as to why he and others of similar viewpoints were prevented
from delivering testimony.
I look forward to your response.
Regards, Rick Dykstra, M.P. St. Catharines, ON
.
نداء من المنسقية العامة للمؤسسات اللبنانية
الكندية للبنانيين في كافة بلاد العالم
لقد علمنا السيد يسوع المسيح أن نشهد للحق
وهو يحررنا. اليوم ووطننا الأم لبنان يواجه أخطر هجمة إرهابية أصولية على شعبه
وكيانه علينا أن نسمي الأشياء بأسمائها دون مواربة وإن أردنا التظاهر في بلاد
الانتشار، فلنتظاهر أمام سفارتي إيران وسوريا ونطالبهما بوقف تدخلهما في شؤون وشجون
لبناننا، والأهم التوقف عن دعم جماعة حزب الله وباقي منظمات الإرهاب التي تعمل على
قتل شعبنا ومصادرة قراره والهيمنة على حكمه وحكامه
LCCC Press
Release
Wednesday, 2 August, 2006
Toronto-Ontario:
The LCCC, an umbrella organization for six non-profit Lebanese Canadian groups,
strongly condemns the undemocratic political tactics that the Opposition
Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois parties executed yesterday during a hearing
session for the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International
Development. The session was initiated by the Opposition parties to
challenge the Conservative government’s Middle East policy and the evacuation of
Canadians from Lebanon.
Several groups
and individuals applied to be witnesses and were accepted by the Clerk of the
Committee. These witnesses traveled to Ottawa from across the country, but were
unjustly prevented from delivering their statements. Among them was Mr. Elias
Bejjani, LCCC Chairman and the Canadian Lebanese Human Right Federation (CLHRF)
Spokesman, (a member in the LCCC coalition). It is astounding that although the
hearing pertained to Lebanon, Opposition MPs deemed it appropriate to silence
Lebanese witnesses.
Below is the statement (in Arabic, French and English) that CLHRF Spokesman
Elias Bejjani had prepared but was prevented from delivering
Click here to read the Arabic version of the statement
Click here to read the French Version of the statement
Click here to read the English version of the Statement
Background
The committee met on August 1. In the morning, the committee MPs had an
opportunity to question the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade,
Peter MacKay. In the afternoon, the Opposition MPs, mainly led by Alexa
McDonough of the NDP, put forward a procedural motion calling for committee
business to be dealt with before the witnesses were heard. The government MPs
responded that concluding the committee business before hearing from the
witnesses was like passing a verdict in a trial before calling witnesses. Ms
McDonough went further, stating that the witnesses were identified with a single
well-defined, narrow position, and challenged their credibility. It should be
noted that Ms. McDonough made these damaging allegations against witnesses
approved by the Clerk of the Committee, while knowing neither the witnesses nor
the content of their testimony.
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