On April 25, the federal government tabled legislation, Bill S-10, that will make Canada complicit in the use of cluster bombs.
The senior Canadian coordinator responsible for negotiating an international cluster munitions ban, Earl Turcotte, is so appalled by this newly drafted legislation he has resigned from his post at the Department of Foreign Affairs so that he can speak out
against the bill.
Thousands die each year and 98 per cent of the recorded victims of cluster bombs are civilians - the majority of them are children. Cluster bombs have anywhere from a 10 to 40 per cent dud rate and have the potential to cause many more injuries and deaths of civilians than land mines. Canadians are proud to be known as international peacekeepers. Peacekeepers don't
commit untold billions to fighter jets that will serve foreign war interests or aid and abet in the manufacture, stockpile and deployment of weapons that maim and kill children in war-ravaged countries.
I am ashamed of Canada's failure to commit to the abolition of this
inhumane weapon.
Laurie Friskie
Prince George
