Muslim Canadian Congress
endorses New Democratic Party:
Urges Muslim Canadians to support Jack Layton

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has endorsed the NDP as its party of choice in the coming federal elections and has appealed to Muslim Canadians to not only vote for the NDP candidate in their ridings, but also to come out and volunteer their time and money in supporting Canada's New Democrats.

"For too long the Liberal Party has taken our communities for granted; it is time for the traditional leadership of Canada's Muslim communities to cut their ties with the tainted record of the Federal Liberal Party and demonstrate solidarity with Jack Layton and his New Democrats," said Niaz Salimi President of the MCC.

The Muslim Canadian Congress said it is impressed with the positive role played by Jack Layton and the New Democrats in the outgoing parliament. With only a handful of members, they were able to accomplish a lot for the people of Canada. While other politicians look for their own interests, the NDP has clearly demonstrated that it is the only party that has the interest of ordinary Canadians in mind, the statement said.

In the statement, the Muslim Canadian Congress said that in dealing with racial minorities, the Liberal Party while promising one thing delivers the exact opposite in practice. Paul Martin and the Liberals have trampled on the rights and aspirations of Muslim Canadians and other racial minorities by curtailing their civic rights, imprisoning Muslims without charging them, and permitting racial profiling as a law enforcement tool.

The MCC statement said the Liberal Party has hastened the privatization of Canada's cherished healthcare system; fuelled Quebec separatism by its corrupt practices in that province; saddled students with huge debts and abandoned hundreds of thousands of new immigrants to an underclass status while paying platitudes to multiculturalism and using the communities as convenient vote banks. Principled Canadians with a clear conscience should not look the other way and reward Paul Martin and his cohorts with another term in office.

UN Resolutions on Middle East

"Paul Martin's recent decision to vote alongside the US on UN General Assembly resolutions on Palestine, demonstrates the fact that he is turning Canada into a satellite of the US," said Tarek Fatah, communications director of the MCC.

For decades Canada had been voting alongside the rest of the world in asking Israel to withdraw from the Arab lands it has occupied since 1967. This month, in a slap to face of Muslim Canadians, the Liberal government of Paul Martin abandoned Canada's principled historic stand, and abstained from voting on a resolution urging Israeli withdrawal from territory it has occupied illegally since the 1967 war.

The Liberals also reversed Canada on two more resolutions of routine support for U.N. organs working on behalf of Palestinian rights. On both, only eight countries were opposed - Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the United States.

"This shameful abandoning of Canada's historic role in the Middle East and the arrogant disregard of the interests of Canada's Muslims, should serve a notice to all those who cherish our country's sovereignty and independence: Paul Martin should not be rewarded for mimicking George Bush's foreign policy," said Tarek Fatah. "Muslim Canadians should think twice before offering their traditional unconditional support to the Liberal Party. They should instead consider voting for the NDP that has stood in solidarity with them in their hour of need," he added.

Canada's trade disputes with US

The MCC statement supported Jack Layton and the NDP's demand that Ottawa slap penalties on energy exports to the United States to force Washington to back down in the softwood lumber dispute, an issue that has Canada especially hard with mill shutdowns and layoffs.

The Muslim Canadian Congress endorsed the NDP position that that unless the United States refunds the $5 billion it has forcibly collected in softwood duties then Canada should issue a neighbourly warning that it will impose matching export duties on oil and gas exports.

Gary Dale, a board member of the MCC and a candidate in Pickering Scarborough East said, "We believe Jack Layton is right when he says Canada as self-respecting nation can't simply roll over and say, as Paul Martin has been saying, `I will continue to chatter at you if don't give us some fairness.'"

Immigrant Head Tax

The MCC statement said it is sad that Paul Martin and the Liberals plan to give away billions of dollars to the richest Canadians as tax breaks, while still charging a head tax on all immigrants coming to Canada. "Asking people from the developing world to pay down Canada's debt is perhaps the most immoral and unethical tax on earth. Isn't it enough that Canada takes away the brightest and the best educated people from Africa, Asia and Latin America, that it wants their money too?," asked Ali Naqvi, a member of the MCC and a candidate in Etobicoke North. "Only the NDP has promised to abolish the hated Immigrant Head Tax, which the Liberals disingenuously refer to as the "Landing Fee," he added.

"Muslim Canadians and other marginalized racial groups must reject the tokenism offered by the Liberal Party to a handful of traditional community leaders and vote with their conscience," said El-Farouk Khaki, General Secretary of the MCC. "We are no longer willing to be treated like cattle and fed false promises on the altar of multiculturalism. The economic, civil and human rights of our communities have been compromised. To reward those guilty of this transgression, by voting for them is unconscionable. Muslims and other racial minority Canadians must vote for the NDP in the 2006 election," El-Farouk Khaki added.

Michael Ignatieff

The MCC statement said if Muslim Canadians have any doubt over the true intentions of Paul Martin and the Liberal Party, they should look no further than the parachuting of Michael Ignatieff into the riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore.

The MCC considers Mr. Ignatieff, who celebrated the illegal invasion of Iraq, as George Bush's Trojan Horse into Canada. The statement said Mr. Ignatieff may try to masquerade as a progressive intellectual, but he cannot fool Muslim Canadians who are familiar with his endorsement of the Bush Agenda and his support of "indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war."

The MCC statement said, "Mr. Ignatieff brings to Canada the greed and corporate agenda of the current US administration and we consider him to be a threat to Canadian values. The fact that Paul Martin's Liberal Party machinery would manipulate his candidacy and allow him to bully his way into Canadian politics, should be a clear message to all Canadians, particularly Muslim Canadians. Paul Martin and the Liberals are pushing Canada towards the integration with the USA while deceiving Canadians that they are doing the opposite."

The MCC feels that if Canadians want to ensure their country's continued sovereignty; maintain its independent foreign policy; protect its threatened healthcare system; and put a stop to the privatization of its cherished public institutions, then they should work hard to elect as many New Democrats as possible on January 23, 2006.

Two members of the MCC are seeking a seat in the House of Commons, running on the NDP ticket; Gary Dale from Pickering - Scarborough East and Ali Naqvi from Etobicoke North.

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