|
|
|
|
||
|
HARRIS TORIES "SHOULD RESIGN" AFTER WALKERTON
(This article is from the July 1-31/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
Excerpts from a statement by the Ontario Provincial Executive Committee of the Communist Party:
FOLLOWING ITS MEETING of June 16, the Provincial Executive Committee of the CPC (Ontario) issued a statement calling for the resignation of the Tory government of Mike Harris for its role in creating the tragedy in Walkerton, Ontario. The tragic events that took place in May caused the death of 11 people (and maybe up to 14), and resulted in the illness of thousands of people, many of whom are still in serious condition after drinking E-Coli contaminated water.
According to the statement "the Premier of Ontario and his government should resign not only because they implemented policies that led to this tragedy, but also because they engaged in a cover-up campaign and attempted to put the blame somewhere else to the detriment of the people of Ontario and their health.
"Mike Harris attempted to apologize to the people of Walkerton, following his statement that municipalities are to blame because they decided not to use financial assistance from the province to improve water quality, and instead decided to spend money on building arenas. Not only was this statement false (Walkerton actually applied and received some money for its water filtration plant), but it was also revealed that as a result of the Tory cuts and the lowering of standards since 1995, Walkerton Town Council had directly corresponded with the Premier's office two years ago raising specific concerns over water contaminants and the fear that this may lead to serious illnesses."
According to Hassan Husseini, CPC (Ontario) leader, "Harris not only ignored this plea for help from Walkerton, but continued to gut the Ministry of the Environment through deregulation, downloading of services, contracting-out, and privatization."
"It is a fact," said Husseini, "that since their election in 1995, the Harris Tories have cut the budget of the Ministry of the Environment by 40%, which led to the layoff of 1000 employees. It is also a fact that these layoffs were accompanied by the closure of Ministry labs and the downloading and privatization of water monitoring and testing."
According to the CPC statement it is clear that "the tragedy in Walkerton is the direct result of cuts to the Ministry, the downloading of services to municipalities and the deregulation and privatization of essential public services such as water testing."
"It is also clear," concluded the statement, that "the Premier should resign for his role in the tragedy and that the government's policy of downloading and privatization should be immediately reversed. It is becoming painfully obvious to the working people of Ontario that the neoliberal, corporate-driven agenda of the Harris government is not only bad economics, but it is also hazardous to our health and it must be stopped."
|
|
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||
