Sudan still in trouble: Candian MP

By Irwin Loy, The 24 hours

VANCOUVER, July 18, 2005 — It’s been three months since David Kilgour left the federal Liberal party over what he called its inaction in Darfur. Now, one G8 summit and a narrowly-passed budget vote later, the Alberta MP says little has changed.

“People think it’s getting better, but it’s not. It’s just as bad,” Kilgour told 24 hours in an interview yesterday. “The government hasn’t done nearly enough.”

Kilgour, who now sits as an independent MP in Edmonton, questioned why the government sent troops for the NATO mission to Bosnia in the ’90s, yet now drags its heels over the crisis in the Darfur region of Western Sudan.

It’s a double standard the government continues today with China, a country with which Canada enjoys a flourishing trade relationship despite its questionable human rights practices, Kilgour said.

Speaking at the International Justice Day conference yesterday at SFU Harbour Centre, Kilgour urged the government not to put profit before people.

“Human rights have been getting worse in China, not better,” Kilgour said.