Magic Statistics

A cri de coeur from a Zimbabwean exile in Canada appears in today's Globe and Mail.  Innocent Madawo wants Canada to stand up to the evil dictator Robert Mugabe.

Last week, The Globe and Mail carried a story about Zimbabwean human-rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, who was tortured and forced to drink his own blood and urine by President Robert Mugabe's notoriously brutal security agents.

Mr. Shumba, executive director of the Pretoria-based Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, is in Canada, for the second time, lobbying Ottawa to indict the Zimbabwean dictator under federal crimes-against-humanity legislation. His first attempt, in 2004, received what I can only describe as a snub of the highest order. Mr. Shumba was told by a then-Liberal government spokesperson that there must be a Canadian victim or a Canadian connection for a case to proceed under the existing legislation.

This is disheartening to me and to the thousands of other Zimbabweans exiled in Canada who look to the leaders of this country to spearhead a worldwide campaign to force Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party to allow democratic reform and respect for human rights in Zimbabwe.

And yet, despite all the killing, the jailing, the torturing and the exiling of millions of Zimbabweans since 2000, there has been no action by Canada.

Last month, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay issued a statement denouncing Zimbabwe’s arresting and beating trade union leaders at a peaceful demonstration and urging respect for human rights.  But that’s not enough for Mr Madawo.

Frankly, Canada does not need to urge anything. It needs to demand that Robert Mugabe and his government stop victimizing people.

As regular readers of this blog know, I detest Robert Mugabe's reign of terror as much as any Canadian.  I’m afraid, however, that Canada can do nothing on its own to convince him to change his ways.  Canada’s “demanding” anything will cause him no pain.  Even an indictment under Canadian law wouldn’t faze him.

The only sure way to remove him from office is to send in a military force to bring him down.  Canada will not do so alone, and I don’t see a ground-swell of support for assembling an international force to accomplish that.

It hurts me to say this, but there is little Canada can do against Mugabe, except offer safe haven to those who manage to escape his hell-on-earth.

Previous related posts:

• Mugabe approves vicious police beatings
• Mugabe postpones election, extends dictatorship term
• Zimbabwe effectively under martial law

It has recently been reported that Kyoto signatories Canada and EU members have increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, instead of diminishing them toward Kyoto target levels.  The latest to disclose emissions trending in the wrong direction is Japan.

Japan's Environment Ministry said preliminary data showed emission of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), were 1.364 billion tonnes in the fiscal year, reversing a slight decline in 2004-2005 and 14.1 percent above its Kyoto target.

The increase may be a further blow to the global pact to cut emissions of greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming, as most European countries are lagging Kyoto targets, and may be an embarrassment to Japan, where the pact was signed.
. . .
The emission volumes were up 8.1 percent from the benchmark year of 1990 for Kyoto, under which Japan has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by the 2008-2012 period.

Japanese industry did much better than the residential sector in limiting GHG emissions.  Industrial emissions rose by only 0.2% while emissions from residences jumped 4.5%.  Even better was the transport sector, which saw a reduction of 1.8% in fiscal year 2005-2006, compared to the year before.

h/t: Greenie Watch

Previous related posts:

• Ambrose’s environment plan is a Rottweiler
• Europe’s GHG emissions increase again
• CO2 emissions up in Europe, stable in US
• Germany upsets environmentalists over industrial emissions target