Email back from Mr. Prentice's Office

Dear Mr. Maher,

Thank you for your message regarding Darfur.

Please be assured that Minister Prentice is aware of this sad and dreadful situation and will be continuing discussions with his caucus colleagues.

Sincerely,

Yvonne Hazeldene
Constituency Assistant
Office of Hon. Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., MP
Calgary Centre-North
Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

(Message I sent:

Dear Mr. Prentice

Today, the Calgary Herald contained an article mentioning a "take note"
Parliamentary debate to be held tomorrow on the genocide in Darfur. As one
of the Canadian citizens you are tasked to represent, I have a formal
request to make of you, sir.

Surely, your job obligates you to have some knowledge of world affairs. I
don't think I need to try and tell you that what is happening in Darfur
offends not only every Canadian value, but every human one. As my
representative, I encourage you attend this debate. Speak up if you can
about the need for your party, as government, to act.

The article I read this morning contained a very reasonable way for us to do
so. An all-party motion was described. It called simply for our government
to recognize the genocide for what it is, and for our ambassador to the UN
to join the many calling for an intervention. Signing on to this motion
simply asks us to ask, and can't possibly have a cost to Canada as a
country.

The "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine is a Canadian invention, and to
ignore it will destroy any claim (on our part) to being better than the
Janjaweid and their backers in Khartoum.

Thank you for having taken the time to read this.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Maher)