Dear Prime Minister Harper,

Preamble 

The Government of Canada has pledged to boycott the 2012 Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka unless Sri Lanka takes immediate steps to remedy its human rights abuses. Although the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the centre of a decades-long international and civil war, with more than six million victims, untold numbers of child soldiers and sexual violence, the Government of Canada has decided to attend the 2012 Francophonie Summit in the Congo. 

On March 5th, 2012 Congolese refugee and resident of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fredrick Wangabo Mwenengabo, began a hunger strike in protest of the government of Canada’s decision to attend the Francophonie summit. Time is running out for the Canadian government to do the right thing.  

Petition 

We, the undersigned, ask that you help Fredrick Wangabo Mwenengabo end his hunger strike and recognize ongoing human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We call on you and the government of Canada to do the following:

1. Announce a Canadian boycott of the Francophonie summit in 2012 unless the government of Joseph Kabila pursue investigations of human rights abuses committed against the Congolese people during the country’s war.
   

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