Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will bring the issue of Sri Lanka to be discussed at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth this month, assured his office, as Canada continues to press Sri Lanka on human rights violations.
Harper's associate director of communications, Andrew MacDougall told reporters in an interview,
"We do expect a discussion at the Commonwealth on this and the prime minister will make his position clear."
See report from Montreal Gazette here.
Prime Minister Harper has already made clear that he will boycott the 2013 CHOGM, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka and encouraged other countries to do the same unless Sri Lanka makes progress in addressing allegations of war crimes.
Noting that the Commonwealth was built on "support for democratic reform and the rule of law", MacDougall said,
"We want to see progress on these fronts and the prime minister has made that clear with respect to Sri Lanka. We'll have the discussion in Australia."
"The prime minister's comments from September stand."
"That's still his view — that there has to be progress in Sri Lanka."
This call has been echoed all across the Canadian political spectrum, as Helene Laverdiere former Foreign Affairs official and current Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party reiterated.
Stating that an international investigation into war crimes was “essential”, she went on to say,
"It's (an investigation) the only way we cannot allow impunity to stand and the only way to make sure that we have durable, sustainable peace."
"The Commonwealth has played an important role, for example, in the case of South Africa. We're not talking the same situation here, but we're still talking about a very serious situation. And I think this is the kind of issue that the Commonwealth should address."
Derek Ingram, co-founder of the Commonwealth Journalists Association and widely regarded as the world's leading voice on the Commonwealth, said that whilst it was unusual for such a strong debate on the venue of the next CHOGM to arise at Perth, it won’t be unavoidable.
"They have to decide at this summit the venue of the next summit," said Ingram.
See our earlier post: 'Canadians turn up the pressure on Sri Lanka' (Sep 2011)
