Opposition Urges Ottawa to Send Mubarak a Message

The Egyptian president must be told his concessions are insufficient, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said.

Are you listening, Hosni Mubarak? Bob Rae doesn’t like you. At an emergency debate in the House of Commons Wednesday night, the Liberal MP said that the world was waiting for Canada’s response to the crisis in Egypt and that the Conservative government should make clear that Mubarak’s promise to step down in September isn’t enough. The opposition charges that the Conservative’s condemnations of the Mubarak regime have been too weak, but Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the priority is to put an end to violence that has erupted in Egypt in recent days rather than urging Mubarak to leave. Cannon said he has contacted the Egyptian foreign minister and repeated Canada’s demands for an orderly transition to democracy.