December 13, 2002

Ottawa – Bill Casey, Member of Parliament for Cumberland Colchester, asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Honourable Bill Graham, if he would assist in providing documents and visas to officials from Iraq to enable them to come and testify to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The Iraqi officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz and Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon have agreed to come to Canada and make a presentation to the Committee and answer questions to the Parliamentarians. The problem is in arranging for visas in a timely fashion considering the difficult relations between Canada and Iraq. Canada has closed down the Embassy in Iraq and services the Iraqi community from Jordan.

In the House of Commons, Casey said, “If Canada is prepared to send our military into a potential conflict in Iraq, we have an obligation to explore every possible diplomatic opportunity and we have not done that.” Casey sees this offer by Iraqi officials to come to Canada as an opportunity to question them about weapons of mass destruction, human rights abuses and the lack of democracy.

The Minister replied with an answer that was not positive, but Casey will keep exploring the issue to see if there is some way we can hear from the Iraqi officials.

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For more information:

Bill Casey, MP

Cumberland Colchester

(613) 992-3366

(902) 667-8679

(902) 893-2455

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