Jim Hnatiuk - CHP Leader
In this world of much unrest, with riots in Iran, Honduras and now China, Canada must choose wisely when to speak out and to whom we give our support. Recently our Canadian Government decided to throw its support behind the reinstatement of the Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
Canwest News reported that applause erupted in the General Assembly when officials announced Canada and the U.S. had joined the leftist, and often anti-western, Latin American resolution sponsors, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez announced his country was ready to support a “rebellion of the Honduran people.” Rarely, if ever, has Canada been in step with these countries. That should have been a clue that something is wrong!
On July 5, the Honduras National Congress communicated to the national and international public that the democratic state of law was repeatedly breached by the citizen José Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Rosales, according to the Honduras National Congress, time and again violated the Constitution of the republic, disavowing expressly and publicly the jurisdiction of the other branches of government.
Our Conservative Government should have maintained a firm position calling for the resumption of the democratic process in Honduras.
As former CHP leader Ron Gray stated, “Canada should take the position that the Honduran courts should be supported and protected — and closely observed to ensure that they are not sliding into corruption and unconstitutional usurpation of power (like Canada’s courts!). But Ottawa should not have leapt to ally us with three communist dictatorships and the naiveté of the American ‘narcissist-in-chief’.
The Honduran courts authorized the military to depose Zelaya, which they did; and to install an interim president to finish his term, after which there would be new elections… which they also did. That’s not a “coup”! When the courts order a military action, the civilian government is still in control of the military, not the other way around.”
Prime Minister Harper appears to be playing “Follow the Leader” — What’s important and what he should be doing is watching closely to ensure that the Honduran courts are acting constitutionally. His advisors, instead of flipping hamburgers this summer should be giving him this good counsel. But then again, if Mr. Harper doesn’t recognize, or act, when Canada’s courts usurp power unconstitutionally, what authority would he have to speak into another country’s judicial crisis?
Category: CHP Communiqués
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