Dear editor,
How cynical!
I think one must be absolutely cynical or completely daft to take as partners in helping the poor people of the third world the large Canadian corporations and mining companies exploiting their resources.
Yet this is again the approach taken by the Harper government by recently amalgamating CIDA under the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.
Whether cynical or daft, the Harper government is diverting Canadian development assistance for the poor countries to companies whose interests are opposite — in principle and practice — to the well-being of these poor people. There are numerous well-known evidences and testimonies with this regard.
Mr. Harper knows the role played by multinationals in the impoverishment of several third-world countries. He is thus making another dangerous right turn in favour of the very rich, whose first victims, in the truest sense, will be the poorest of the world.
I hope pressures from the public, from opposition parties and from members of their own party, will force Harper Conservatives to change their mind towards CIDA and to adopt a much more human approach towards the poorest. Assistance to the underprivileged is fragile and must go to the them, not to large corporations.
Bruno Marquis
Gatineau, QC