Layton calls for release of Canadian-Iranian reporter held in Iran since June
July 12, 2009 - 2:15pm
Layton calls for release of Canadian-Iranian reporter held in Iran since June
By THE CANADIAN PRESS - 1 hour ago TORONTO - NDP leader Jack Layton is calling on the federal Conservatives to take immediate action to secure the release of a Canadian-Iranian journalist held in Iran since June. Layton is holding a news conference this morning at the downtown Toronto home of Maziar Bahari. Bahari, who is a correspondent for Newsweek, was one of at least 24 journalists and bloggers arrested in the aftermath of Iran's disputed election. The U.S. publication has said Bahari was "detained without charge" by Iranian authorities in Tehran on June 21. Bahari was born in Iran and had studied at Montreal's Concordia University before becoming a Newsweek correspondent. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon lodged a protest with the Iranian Embassy two weeks after Bahari was detained - a delay Layton is calling "unconscionable." http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gFmqj3hgvS6TDR3r2XdkIp8RfbjA
Any word from Layton on Honduras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .?
Not necessarily Honduras but.................................
Mexico must reform labour laws, Layton says
NDP Leader Jack Layton says the best hope of having organized labour rights recognized in Mexico is for President Felipe Calderón to be swept from power.
Layton was in Mexico this week along with trade union and parliamentary leaders from 14 countries to support the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers, which he says has been under attack by the Mexican government and the Grupo Mexico mining company.
"There is real concern that the Mexican government is not allowing trade unions to operate freely here and that is why we have Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, who is now in exile in Canada," Layton said in an interview from Mexico.
The embattled leader of Mexico's largest mine union, accused of misappropriating about $61 million in union funds, lives in Vancouver. He argues he's being persecuted by the anti-labour Calderon government.
Layton said while international pressure still must be brought to bear, it is difficult to believe anything will change until Calderon and the National Action Party (PAN) are defeated.
"Hopefully the corrupt practices the government has seemed to allow to take place (with the old trade unions) will be cleaned up and the democratic unions ... won't be persecuted any more," he said.
As the leader of the delegation, Layton met with Mexico secretary of labour Javier Lozano, who reports to the president, and noted that Lozano defended the government's policies.
The delegation to Mexico was organized by the International Metalworkers' Federation, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, and the United Steelworkers.
Urrutia was removed by federal labour officials as head of the 280,000-member National Union of Miners and Metalworkers (Los Mineros) in February 2006, shortly after he demanded an investigation into the death of 65 workers in a coal mine explosion, which led to widespread industrial unrest.
"Workers around the world are outraged at Mexico's ongoing attacks on the mineworkers union," United Steel Workers president Leo Gerard said in a statement.
Ken Neumann, the National Director of the United Steelworkers of Canada, said "it is time that the international community pays attention to the disgraceful and unacceptable treatment of Mexican mineworkers."
Layton said the way union leadership is approved in Mexico is beyond comprehension.
"The system of unions here is like nothing you would believe. When a business opens up the government immediately approves the union representatives who are appointed by the company. The workers have no vote, they are unable to chose their own representative, the contract, written by the company and the government is put in place," he said.
"And the system is absolutely rife with corruption and everybody knows it ... it is something endemic in Mexico's political culture," he said.
That, he said, can only change if the labour laws are reformed.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/664375