This past Sunday I attended a small but inspiring rally at the Olympic Plaza in Calgary.  It was a send off for a courageous group of 20 students from Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton walking by foot to Edmonton in an 8 day trek to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur.  The event in Calgary was an emotional one for a many in attendance.  Ric McIver, the deputy mayor gave a few words and you could hear his voice crack as people were overwhelmed by the Darfur tragedy.

Global Day for Darfur organized by my office once again was a call for action in Darfur.  In the last four years the crisis has:

• Spread to two other countries (Chad and the Central African Republic)
• Led to 16 un-enforced UN resolutions
• Provoked 60 statements of concern from the EU but zero action
• Killed over 200,000 people
• Forced 230,000 people to flee the country
• Cut off an estimated 900,000 from aid; made two million people homeless
• and ruined the lives of over four million people.

This year we will be presenting a letter to Prime Minister Harper.  There will be a few speeches and then the group will walk to the Chinese Consulate to demand that the Chinese Communist Party stop blocking the UN Security Council.  On an earlier blog I list many articles that show the destructive relationship between the Sudanese and Chinese governments.  China has vast oil interests in the region and want to protect those.  According to the Darfur Community here in Calgary, their relatives tell of how English is no longer being taught in universities and how Cantonese has become more popular in order to get jobs in the oil patch.  China wants the resources that they need to fuel their economic growth and huge population.  In my mind, it’s imperialism and because of China’s terrible track record on human rights I fear that China will continue to extend the suffering of the Darfuri people.

I am personally calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.  Enough is enough!  The world can no longer sit back and watch as innocent lives are ruined due to oil greed.  Please join me in taking this important message to the Canadian and Chinese governments. PLEASE WRITE YOUR MP AND THE PM – MR. HARPER. WHERE IS CANADA’S LEADERSHIP ON DARFUR??