UFCW Canada calls on Official Opposition to stand up for human rights in Colombia

UFCW Canada is calling on Canada’s Official Opposition to stand up for human rights by stopping Stephen Harper from doing business with the Uribe regime in Colombia. UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley is asking Michael Ignatieff and other Liberal MPs to demonstrate they care about democracy and human rights by taking a strong stance against a proposed trade agreement between Canada and Colombia that is expected to top the Conservative government’s priority list once Parliament reconvenes. “Under the government of President Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian people live in a constant state of poverty and fear. In fact, the Uribe government has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Since Uribe took power, an estimated five million Colombians have been forcibly displaced through land seizures,” wrote National President Hanley in a letter to Liberal members of the House of Commons. Over 2,500 civil society activists and trade unionists have been killed or disappeared since Uribe assumed power as Colombia’s president in 2002.