Posted on 08/01/2006 3:57:42 PM PDT by Clive
OTTAWA (CP) - Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay struck back at critics Tuesday, calling Hezbollah a cancer-like group of "cold-blooded killers" that provoked the chaos and carnage in the Middle East.
There can be no peace in the region until the militant group and Israel agree to uphold a lasting ceasefire with clear conditions, he told a packed special meeting of the Commons foreign affairs committee.
"This has to be a lasting peace," he said. "It cannot be simply a temporary solution to allow for the rearmament of the terrorist body and simply begin the violence again."
It was the opposition's first official chance to grill the government over its debut performance in an international crisis.
Witnesses were also invited to speak about the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon, but Arab critics and opposition MPs said the selection process was stacked in the government's favour.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has faced withering criticism since he described Israel's air strikes on Lebanon as a "measured" response for repeated Hezbollah rocket assaults and attacks on Israeli soldiers.
A new poll suggests Harper's slanted support for Israel is out of step with most voters - especially in Quebec where his minority government is counting on gains.
On the sweltering lawn of Parliament, about 150 placard-waving supporters of Lebanon yelled "Shame, shame, Harper!"
Nearby, several Montreal teenagers visiting Ottawa as part of a Jewish summer program taunted the protesters by singing the Israeli anthem in Hebrew.
Inside, MacKay repeatedly expressed dismay over the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese civilians - many of them children - in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
"Lebanon's being held hostage by Hezbollah," he said, noting the group was declared a terrorist body by a former Liberal government.
He called Hezbollah "a cancer on Lebanon" that's destroying democracy and stability in the country.
MacKay cast the situation as a no-brainer choice to support a democratic nation - Israel - as it defends itself against unprovoked attacks by Hezbollah, "a group of cold-blooded killers."
Hassan el-Akhras, 31, wasn't convinced. Twelve members of his family, including eight Canadians, died in an Israeli attack last month in the south Lebanon village where they were visiting relatives.
Israeli officials apologized, but said they had warned civilians to leave that area near the Israel border.
"I came by myself. We didn't get invited," el-Akhras said of his attempt to speak at the committee before being led away from the table.
"He defended the act of Israel," el-Akhras said of MacKay's comments. "We want justice."
Others said witnesses chosen to speak to MPs about the evacuation were hand-picked by the Conservatives who head the committee.
Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, called the process "a charade."
He and other national Arab representatives were excluded in favour of witnesses more likely to be favourable to the Conservatives, he suggested.
"To me this is dirty politics. It's something that troubles me a great deal in a Canadian democracy that we have . . . such tricks being played just to show that the prime minister has support."
In the end, witnesses of neither stripe were actually heard. They were bumped out of their allotted speaking times as procedural wrangling led by Conservative MPs overtook the one-day meeting.
The drawn-out debate was over an opposition motion that ultimately passed without Tory support. It calls on the government to urge an immediate ceasefire by all parties across the Lebanese-Israeli border as defined by the UN or so-called "blue line."
Still, those left out of the process said the Tories should be taken to task for cherry-picking witnesses. An aide to NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough confirmed there was little input.
"At the direction of the (Tory) chairman, the clerk confirmed this narrow, select group of witnesses and proceeded to inform every other applicant that there was no more room," said Anthony Salloum.
"This is not acceptable."
NDP and Liberal critics accused MacKay of abandoning what they called Canada's traditional role as a more even-handed mediator in such disputes.
They also lambasted the Tory refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire even as helpless civilians remain trapped.
The United Nations says up to 750 people have died in Lebanon while about 800,000 have been forced from their homes.
McDonough said Canada has been cut loose from its moral footing so the Conservatives can walk "in lock-step" with U.S. President George W. Bush.
"We're not living in splendid isolation in North America," MacKay shot back.
He called for both sides to end attacks and for an international peacekeeping force to be sent to southern Lebanon where innocent civilians are "caught in the crossfire."
The Conservative government also supports U.S. demands that Hezbollah disarm and Iran and Syria end their financial and logistical support for the group.
Ottawa's priorities have been to protect Canadians in the region, provide humanitarian aid, and promote stability and peace, MacKay said.
Opposition detractors homed in on the minister for initially chaotic evacuation efforts.
"Why were you missing in action?" asked Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who assailed the Tories in the first days of the three-week-old crisis for being slow to help citizens.
MacKay declared the evacuation a remarkable success that has so far removed more than 13,000 Canadian citizens from Lebanon.
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Thank God for Stephen Harper, one of the few world leaders left with any balls whatsoever. It's nice to know there are still a few Thatchers left in the world.
While I love Harper, this is going to hurt Harper at the polls. I'm not even so sure his support was crutial. I now know why politicians act the way they do. A man of integrity has a lot of difficulties being in politics.
The right conditions: All of Hezbullah dead.
Harris was attacked almost hysterically from the moment the election returns became known.
The "Embarrass Harris" movement started before he even met the Lieutenant Governor to take office.
He was under enormous pressure from within and without his party and from all the media and most of the elites of Ontario to modify his "Common Sense Revolution" to tone it down.
He stuck to his guns, did exactly what he said that he would do during the campaign even while being told by pundits, including Tory sherpas, that it was suicide so to do.
He won a second term.
The Tories only lost after Harper resigned during his second term and the party then started playing to the polls and the media pundits and taking advice from pusillanimous sherpas.
I can understand Quebec's opposition to Harper's position. Afterall, they are of French heritage and surrender is in their blood.
PING!
Lots of problems can be avoided by action that forecloses on trials. Saddam, for instance, could have been killed on sight and thousands of lives would have been spared. due process is a nice and necessary thing for civilized society, but releasing a habitual offender into any society soon proves to have been wrong headed.
All of my life's experience has led me to conclude that Israel is the only rational power on earth.
Canada ping.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
;-)
I have been so used to typing Harper lately that I wrote it when I meant Harris.
Thank you for the correction.
:-)
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