"In any criminal act one needs to look at who benefited. Surely it wasn’t we the people. We have pretty much lost our entire Bill of Rights, and The Constitution under a regime of fear and the catch all phrase “terrorism."

"President Bush has suggested anti-democratic practices and human rights abuses promote instability and create the conditions that can breed terrorism. Democratic reformers and human rights activists used to look to the U.S. as an exemplar, the city on a hill. Now they are dismissed by their countrymen when they point to the American experience."

"Only those Americans who stand up and denounce these practices can claim to be true patriots who are defending the essence of American morality from the disease of political expediency and racist hatred."

"...there are strong indications that the Bush administration is ramping up preparations for some kind of military attack on Iran. The assault could include a sustained series of missile strikes -- but even a single day of bombing would have a wide range of grim effects, including severe damage to Iran’s fledgling human rights movement. Activists in the United States should work to avert such a catastrophe."

"Even without the microphone, C-SPAN television continued to carry the proceedings live (and repeated it three more times during the day), providing American viewers evidence of the strong-arm tactics being used to push forward the renewal of the Patriot Act."

"While in Washington there are fervent dreams of a military assault on Iran, many people in Iran have boundless dreams of creating a society that embraces human rights. Americans who want to help them should challenge the dominant rhetoric of American media and politics that is now setting an agenda for war on Iran."

"Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of disgraceful discrimination are alive and well not only in the OSCE countries. An honest and respectful dialogue among nations and self-criticism within nations is needed to root out these diseases whenever they exist, in the West and elsewhere. Horrific acts of terrorism against Shi'a in Iraq and Pakistan and other countries is condemnable, as is the continuing nightmare in Sudan and the often deadly clashes between Hindus and Muslims in India, and Muslims and Christians in Indonesia, as well as persistent and wrongheaded discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities that exists in some Arab countries."

“In the past Canada has taken clear and diplomatically sound steps when dealing with countries which are in contravention of international law…. The South African Apartheid regime was dealt with in Canada with economic bans and with strained diplomatic ties. Why, then, is the Apartheid regime of Israel rewarded with invitations?”

-- Colleen Baumier, MP