Media Release
Wednesday September 11, 2007 7:30am WST
For Immediate Release
No Embargoes

"On this anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the USA, the Canadian PM Stephen Harper, who has on a previous visit to Australia declared that John Howard is his Hero and his Guru, is nothing more than a mouthpiece of the Prime Minister's political self-interest, especially in terms of the undermining of the Canadian Government of the United Nations Treaty for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," WA Rights group Project SafeCom said this morning.

"While a leader from the American continent addressing both Houses of Parliament would be a fitting tribute to the 9/11 anniversary, the Australian Parliament should hang its head in shame during the presence of Stephen Harper, who, shortly after Mr Howard' visit to Canada declared that his government, regardless of Canada's previous 23-year commitment to the UN Treaty for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, had abandoned its support for this international covenant," spokesman Jack H Smit said.

"This year media outlets, including the Australian ABC, have reported that Canada's abandonment of the UN Treaty was clearly and overtly sought by John Howard during his visit to the country last year, because 'it was not in Australia's interests', and since the take-over of Indigenous Communities in the Northern Territory we know exactly how and in which way Howard sought to prepare 'his world' for this take-over of Aboriginal lands."

"John Howard is a known underminer of International Conventions and Treaties. From the days of TAMPA onwards we have seen in Australia a growing list of Conventions undermined by John Howard: the Convention of the Laws of the Seas, the UN Refugee Convention, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention for Social and Political Rights, and of Treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, the International Declaration of Human Rights, while Australia's International Press Freedom has plummeted sharply as a result of his political meddling in the courts and his political interference in the public service: the arrest of ABC Reporter Natalie Larkins working at a detention centre protest, and of the Herald-Sun reporters Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus have directly influenced the decline of Australia's Press Freedom rankings," Mr Smit said.

"John Howard, on this occasion, wants to steal Aboriginal lands and give them away to the Mining Industry, and Stephen Harper's address to Parliament is to assist the PM in his ideological push," Mr Smit concluded.

Jack H Smit
Project SafeCom Inc.
[phone number posted]