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CANADA
Thousands protest Afghan war

Stuart Harrison, Toronto

4 November 2006

Thousands across Canada took to the streets on October 28 against the country’s military intervention in Afghanistan. In wind, rain and in some cases snow, people turned out in more than 30 communities to stand against the mission. Forty-three Canadians have died in Afghanistan since 2002. The country has around 2300 troops serving there.

In Toronto, around 1000 protesters rallied before the US consulate demanding that Canadian troops participation in the NATO contingent in Afghanistan be ended. At the rally, New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton spoke about his party’s policy on bringing the troops home, opposed by both the Conservative and Liberal parties.

“[The mission is] not well constructed, it’s unbalanced, we’re putting ten times as much into the military side as we are into aid, and we now have famine and real problems spreading in Afghanistan”, Layton told the crowd . “It’s time for Canada to take a new path.”

Christopher Taske, who served with US forces in Afghanistan before fleeing to Canada in October with his wife, explained to the crowd: “We refuse to participate in an illegal and immoral war under the guise of freedom.”