Protestors question minister’s absence

About 20 demonstrators gathered outside the Fredericton headquarters of MP Keith Ashfield Friday afternoon to draw attention to what they say has been “dead silence” from the minister’s office.

The protestors – many of them members of the Fredericton Peace Coalition – say that Ashfield, Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, has been “completely inaccessible” since his election in 2008.

Julie Michaud, a peace coalition member, said since the election, she and others have tried to schedule meetings with Ashfield to discuss policy issues, including the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan.

Despite leaving messages, she said, her calls, and calls from others, were never returned by Ashfield.

“That’s not what an elected representative should be,” Michaud said. “An elected representative should go out of his or her way to be accessible to constituents, and to be interested and engaged with what they have to say to him.  In minister Ashfield’s case, that’s just not happening. We think it’s outrageous.”

The demonstration – timed to coincide with the eighth anniversary of Canadian troops in Afghanistan – was also planned to bring awareness about Canada’s role in an “unwinnable war,” Michaud said.

It’s been eight years since U.S. and British forces launched a war on the Taliban, with Canada committing its troops four months later.  The Canadian government has set an end date of 2011 to pull its troops out, but has remained cagey on whether it would extend the troop presence.

In a March interview with CNN, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Afghani insurgents could never be defeated by foreign troops.

Speaking through a bullhorn, Faiz Ahmed, a UNB graduate student, called the war “illegal,” and condemned the recent U.S. airstrikes on Pakistan.

“There’s no way for citizens to access the people who are deciding these issues,” Ahmed said, referring to the difficulty in meeting with Ashfield.

Carrying a large, red, Fredericton Peace Coalition banner, the protestors filed into the minister’s office with the hope of finally talking with Ashfield.

Ashfield’s assistant Kevin, who refused to give his last name, said the minister wasn’t in the office.

After arguing unsuccessfully with Kevin to meet with some kind of representative, the protestors eventually left contact information before pulling out of the office.

“We’ve been told we can leave our names, and they’ll get back to us, but from the time Ashfield was elected, that hasn’t happened,” said St. Thomas University student Ella Henry.

Still, despite not being able to meet with the minister, Ahmed thinks the demonstration went well.

“We drew attention to the fact that some government officials are inaccessible on issues like peace,” he said.

Short URL: http://www.newbrunswickbeacon.ca/?p=1541

Posted by Matt McCann on Oct 14, 2009. Filed under Features, This Week's Edition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.