Conservatives Demand Martin Stop Giving Foreign Aid to Zimbabwe’s Mugabe
Date: Wednesday, August 03 @ 08:16:39 CDT
Topic: Conservative Party
28 July 2005
OTTAWA – Helena Guergis, Official Opposition Critic for International Cooperation, today demanded that Paul Martin immediately stop giving foreign aid to the brutal Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is currently on a 6-day visit to Beijing for large Chinese foreign aid deals to prop up his oppressive regime.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe are now homeless and hungry while Robert Mugabe builds another palace,” said Guergis. “It’s time for our Prime Minister to ensure that not another dollar of Canadian foreign aid ends up in the hands of Robert Mugabe, directly or indirectly.”
CIDA records indicate it gave $16.42 million to Zimbabwe last year (2003-2004) and almost half of that was bilateral, government to government aid.
“Canada has a responsibility to make sure the foreign aid it sends abroad ends up going to the people who need it,” said Guergis. “I am hearing from countless former Zimbabweans now living in Canada. They are furious with Liberal inaction and doubly furious to learn that Canadian foreign aid is ending up in the hands of Robert Mugabe.”
A Conservative government would reverse the growing Liberal trend of handing over more of our foreign aid dollars to other governments.
“Canadian NGO’s are working in countries like Zimbabwe and have an excellent record of getting past the corruption and ensuring our foreign aid dollars help the people who need it,” said Guergis. “Right now there isn’t a Liberal Member of Parliament who can look a Zimbabwean ex-pat in the eye and tell them their tax dollars are not ending up in the hand of the very man who is destroying their homeland.”
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