[antiwar-van] TOMORROW: Vancouver -3:30pm Urgent Picket - Canada Out of Afghanistan!

[Kira Koshelanyk]

Mobilization Against War & Occupation – MAWO
info at mawovancouver.org | http://mawovancouver.org |
ph: 604.322.1764 | fx: 604.322.1763


-NEWS ITEM-
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contacts:
Shannon Bundock - MAWO Co-Chair 778 891 1470
Kira Koshelanyk – MAWO Co-Chair 778 881 6156

URGENT Picket Action Against Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan
Tuesday July 10th, 2007
3:30pm
Canadian Armed Forces Recruiting Center (1070 W Georgia St – on Georgia near 
Thurlow)
*FEATURED SPEAKER: Luciano Sanchez, Member of the Global Justice & Peace 
Committee of the Hospital Employees Union BC

SIX MORE CANADIAN SOLDIERS DIE IN OCCUPATION OF AFGHANISTAN WITH
HUNDREDS OF AFGHANS DEAD IN NATO AIR STRIKES

VANCOUVERITES CONTINUE PROTESTS OF DEATH AND BRUTALITY OF OCCUPATION OF 
AFGHANISTAN

On Wednesday July 4th six more Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside 
bomb that ripped apart their armoured vehicle in the Panjwai district of 
Kandahar, Afghanistan. The death toll for Canada is now at 66 because of the 
occupation. At the same time, criticism from people in Canada and around the 
world is rising against the deadly NATO air strikes on Afghan villages and 
towns as more and more people call on Canada to bring the troops home. In 
Vancouver, the antiwar coalition Mobilization Against War & Occupation 
(MAWO) is calling on peace-loving people in the Lower Mainland to show their 
opposition at a picket Tuesday July 10th at the Canadian Armed Forces 
Recruiting Center.

They will be joined by Luciano Sanchez, Member of the Global Justice & Peace 
Committee of the Hospital Employees Union of BC who will speak about how the 
expanding budget for war has stripped money from social services in Canada, 
like public healthcare.

"We continue to state that these troop deaths only show that Canada's troops 
are at war with Afghan people, not there on some 'liberation mission' as 
Stephen Harper would have us believe" stated Kira Koshelanyk, MAWO Co-Chair. 
"The brutal NATO air strikes illustrate how the occupiers are dealing out 
blow after blow against the Afghan resistance in a desperate attempt to put 
down the people fighting against them. Instead it is only making Afghan 
people more angry and certain of their goal to get all foreign occupiers out 
of their country."

Since the invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001:
-       Canada has deployed a total of 15, 000 troops to Afghanistan in 
different rotations
-       Canada has spent more than $4billion tax payer dollars on the war
-       October 2001 invasion employed 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, 15 
strike aircraft from aircraft carriers and 25 bombers – all in only the 
first night
-       Five thousand Afghans died as a result of the initial invasion and 
bombing campaign.
-       Tens of thousands of Afghan people have now been killed as a result 
of the occupation
-       There are now two million war widows living in Afghanistan, 50,000 
live in the Kabul area alone
-       60,000 Afghan children are now working the streets as trash pickers, 
street vendors and beggars
-       Afghans now make up the single highest population of Internally 
Displaced Persons and refugees in the world
-       Since the occupation began, an epidemic of HIV infection has spread 
in the country with estimates of between 600-7,000 cases
-       To date, 66 Canadian soldiers and 1 Canadian diplomat have been 
killed in the occupation of Afghanistan – 16 of them since February this 
year.
-       408 US troops have also been killed, 63 British soldiers and 86 from 
other countries

Invasion, War, Bombings, Mass Murder, Kandahar, Kabul, Mazar Ssarif, Kunduz, 
Taliban, Occupation, Al Qaeda, Poverty, Cluster bombs, Hunger, Brutality, 
Detentions, Canadian Army, Torture, Prisons, Operation Enduring Freedom, 
Operation Mountain Thrust, Operation Volcano, Deaths, Hostages, Orphans, 
Widows, Executions, Disease, Misery, Shortages, Destruction, Quagmire, 
Killing, Killing, Killing… What Afghanistan has Canada created?

"With $4billion in tax-payer money spent, hundreds of Afghans dead in only 
the last month and ongoing – here in Vancouver in Canada, regular people are 
seeing holes throughout the government of Canada's story" continued 
Koshelanyk. "Freedom and liberation from anything don't come from the end of 
a gun or aerial bombs. Let's stop this brutality now and get Canada's 
military out of Afghanistan."

MAWO has collected more than 13,000 signatures from people in the Lower 
Mainland against Canada's occupation of Afghanistan since starting the 
campaign in early 2004. MAWO continues to call for an Independent Public 
Inquiry into the government of Canada's decisions to begin, extend and 
escalate the war drive in Afghanistan.

-30-

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