At the end of her lecture, Bushra Gohar, central vice president of the Awami National Party in Pakistan, asserted her belief that Pakistan isn’t necessarily in a bad way; it’s just misunderstood. Terrorism, religious extremism and volatile tribal areas contribute to its reputation as a perpetual war ground. Gohar shares her unique experience as a woman politician in Pakistan to try to brighten the dark clouds that hang over her country.
Courtesy: Chautauqua Institution
MQM terrorists kill Karachi organizer of National Party
By: Ahmar Mustikhan, Baltimore Foreign Policy Examiner
Terrorists allegedly belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement gunned down a Baloch political organizer in Karachi Monday afternoon.
The victim was identified as Yaqoob Baloch, 45, Karachi Divisional organizer of the National Party. The deceased was an employee of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation and a resident of Old Golimar.
“He was at his office at Nazimabad No. 1 when the killers came there and asked him if he was Yaqoob. When he replied ‘yes’ they shot and killed him,” Hameed Baloch, Sindh organizer of the National Party said.
He said identity of the killers are not known, but suspected that they belonged to the militant M.Q.M. as the area is the party’s stronghold.
In his statement Dr. Taimur Rahman, General Secretary of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party Pakistan (CMKP) opposes the recent judicial coup against the elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. This decision by the SC, which is completely outside of the power of the Supreme Court, is simply one more coup in a series of coups that have been organized time and time again in the history of Pakistan against elected governments. These successive coups have destroyed the democratic process in Pakistan, destroyed any chance of the development of a mature political leadership. And finally contribute to nothing except to further fragment politics along reactionary right wing lines.
We would have been the first to support a change in government if it was the product of a mass movement of workers and peasants fighting for their rights. But nothing of the sort is taking place. In fact, the elected government and the right wing judiciary have been trading punches only within the framework of their own narrow class interests for the last four years.
When little over a week ago the moral authority of the judiciary was questioned in a fundamental manner over serious charges of corruption, the judiciary decided to act immediately before its own corruption was completely exposed to the public. Today all those allegations of corruption of the judiciary have been buried in an avalanche of right wing propaganda hailing the decision of the Supreme Court as a great step against corruption. Nothing of the sort has been achieved. In fact, a new PM will be elected very soon. The same case of writing a letter to the Swiss authorities to open cases against the President will be opened against the new Prime Minister. And the musical chairs will continue.
ISLAMABAD: Differences in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) party cadres have reportedly led chairman Imran Khan to indefinitely delay intra-party elections, according to some sources.
To justify his decision, the PTI chairman has extended the party’s ongoing membership campaign, without setting a clear deadline for its conclusion.
“Imran assented to the point of view of two party leaders, who had asked the PTI chief to first prepare for the general elections,” said a party leader while talking to The Express Tribune.
According to sources, party president Javed Hashmi and Additional Secretary General Saifullah Niazi, as well as some influential members of the steering committee, had recommended ‘putting off party elections’ for now.
Earlier, Imran had dissolved all regional bodies by constituting regional steering committees in all the provinces, a move that aimed to pave way for holding party elections.
However, the party’s top leadership held many meetings to resolve all outstanding issues but failed to generate an agreement to hold intra-party polls before the next general elections. …
Courtesy: The Express Tribune
Condolence meeting in London for Ghazala Siddiqui Shaheed of Mohabat-e-Sindh
A condolence meeting of Workers Party Pakistan UK was convened in London to condole the sad demise of Ghazala Sadiqqi at the hands of fascist mafia’s attack on peaceful rally in Karachi, Sindh. The meeting was presided by Ahmad Nawaz Wattoo, convener WPP UK and attended by Dr. Iftikhar Mehmood, Dr. Tuheed Ahmed Khan, Rizwan Kayani, Mian Rashid Aslam, Munib Anwar, Yahya Hashmi, Mian Imran Latif, Atif Jamal and Rehan Khushi.
The meeting condemned the fascist mafia’s attack on the peaceful protestors in Karachi during Muhabat Sindh rally on 22 May 2012. Due to the firing of the fascist terrorist mafia a bullet hit Ghazala Siddiqquie, a brave progressive woman, mother of three children, a loving wife and niece of comrade Usman Balouch, member Central Committee Workers Party Pakistan. The participants of the meeting offered their condolence and solidarity with Comrade Usman Balouch and bereaved family and friends of Ghazala. The participants demanded the arrests of the culprits of fascist mafia immediately. The meeting also opposed the division of Sindh.
Continue reading Workers Party Pakistan UK opposed the division of Sindh
Lahore: Labour Party of Pakistan announced a joint protest demonstration tomorrow on Wednesday May 23, 2012 in Lahore against the killings of political activists of Mohabat-e-Sindh rally. The demonstration is jointly organised by Workers Party, Labour Party and Awami Party in close associations with social movements and organisations and trade unions at 4.30pm at Shimla Pehari Lahore.
In a press statement, Younas Rahu general secretary Labour Party Pakistan condemned the attack of the MQM gangsters on a peaceful rally of Awami Tehreek killing over 12 and dozens were injured. Labour Party is in complete solidarity with people of Sindh and Awami Tehreek and calls on its activists to demonstrate every where in PAKISTAN, he said. LPP in cooperation with its sister organisations is also organising demonstrations in Hyderabad, and Faisalabad.
Labour Party Pakistan, 25 A Davis Road Lahore, Pakistan
By Sameer Mandhro / Z Ali
KARACHI / HYDERABAD: Supporters of the leftist coalition group, the Sindh Progressive Committee, had a run-in with the Barelvi religious-political party Sunni Tehreek at the Hyderabad Press Club on Tuesday, resulting in the police hauling in almost two dozen activists.
The Sunni Tehreek had been protesting the recent spate of violence in Karachi and had wrapped up the event. The Sindh Progressive Committee (SPC), which comprises the Workers Party, Labour Party, Communist Party, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, National Party, Awami Party and Watan Dost Inquilaabi Party, held a protest outside the press club against forced conversions and religious extremism.
The fight reportedly started as the Sunni Tehreek supporters alleged that attendees at the SPC’s event had beaten up a man who had stopped them from chanting slogans that they alleged were against religion.
Sunni Tehreek’s protestors went back to the press club and the fight forced SPC event attendees to hide inside the club as the Sunni Tehreek men threw stones and chanted slogans against them. While some female SPC leaders including Professor Arfana Mallah and Sindh University lecturer and activist Amar Sindhu managed to escape, the police cordoned off the area around the press club and rescued the rest. While they had assumed the police would release them, they were sent to the Cantonment Police Station.
The Sunni Tehreek’s Abid Qadri alleged that the SPC had “attacked our man first” and “used abusive language”. Arfana Mallah said their protest was peaceful but they had been attacked by the Sunni Tehreek, who brought “weapons, stones and sticks” and “forced us not to chant slogans”.
According to the police, 23 men from the Sindh Progressive Committee were arrested. The Sunni Tehreek’s Hyderabad General Secretary Muhammad Yaseen Qadri registered a First Information Report (FIR) under sections 148, 147 and 149. Even though the FIR mentions 60 people, only three are mentioned by name – Comrade Iqbal, Allah Bux and Bakhshal Thallo. The Sunni Tehreek and SPC have both claimed their supporters were injured.
At the SPC’s protest in Karachi, activists demanded that Rinkle Kumari and Asha Kumari, the two women who have drawn attention to the rise of Hindu conversions in Sindh, be handed over to their parents. They chanted slogans against landlords, clerics, army generals and extremists and asked that the government separate religion from matters of the state.
Speakers included Yousuf Masti Khan, Nasir Mansoor, Jan Muhammad Buledi, Usman Baloch, Mehnaz Rehman, Comrade Iqbal and Abdul Khaliq Junejo. “We don’t support a state that promotes religious extremism and stifles the environment for other religions. Every man is free in this country and has the right to move freely and perform his religious rituals,” said Usman Baloch.
Courtesy: The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2012.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/366193/forced-conversions-as-leftists-protest-st-takes-offence/
Balochistan National Party (Mengal) leader Akhtar Mengal has inquired that religious parties have made announcement against America in case of intervention in Balochistan but these elements why didn’t announce Jihad against Baloch youth abduction and aftermath their mutilated bodies throwing series, why they are muzzled about these atrocities. He inquired in his statement.
The personalities, who are providing ground to prolong the series of Baloch genocide, they are darkening the future of nation, and they will be accountable in front of history. Each conscious Baloch has desire that he mustn’t be used for enemy against his nation. Mr. Mengal said.
Baloch Nationalist leader said that there is no doubt that in ongoing atrocities on Balochs parliamentarian and present government is involved and they are responsible as equal establishment, they haven’t only debilitated Balochistan National interest but they have harmed Baloch, too. Now conscious Baloch wouldn’t want this that their future to be made dark and they to be used for succor of enemy. Those who are working for state should join National Movement and give up rival’s supporting onward, because she is committing genocide of brethren Baloch. Akhtar Mengal said. ….
Read more » Baloch Voice
Turkish security forces have killed 15 female rebel Kurds in the southeast of the country on Saturday, AFP cites the country’s interior ministry as saying. One member of a local group fighting alongside Turkish security forces was killed in the clashes, while three more were wounded. The female rebels belonged to a women-only unit of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The operation follows a large-scale offensive against PKK militants near the Iraqi border that left seven police officers and six rebels dead.
Attitudes are hardening in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province against the government, but the state is now belatedly reaching out to the Baloch separatists. Writer Ahmed Rashid considers whether after years of civil war, talks could end the bloodshed.
It took an obscure United States congressman holding a controversial hearing in Washington on the civil war in Balochistan to awaken the conscience of the Pakistani government, military and public.
For years the civil war in Balochistan has either been forgotten by most Pakistanis or depicted as the forces of law and order battling Baloch tribesmen, who are described as “Indian agents”.
Just a few weeks ago, Interior Minister Rehman Malik even hinted that Israel and the US were supporting the Baloch separatists, while the army had totally ”Indianised” the Baloch problem.
On 23 February, Mr Malik did an about-face, saying that the government was withdrawing all cases against Baloch leaders living in exile and asking them to return home for talks. ”I will receive them in person,” he told journalists.
Don’t expect Baloch leaders to turn the other cheek at Mr Malik’s sudden shift – the Baloch have seen too many such U-turns before.
Brahamdagh Bugti, head of the separatist Baloch Republican Party and living in exile in Geneva, remains sceptical.
His grandfather Sardar Akbar Bugti, the head of the Bugti tribe, was killed in 2006 on the orders of former President Pervez Musharraf in a massive aerial bombardment, while his sister Zamur Domki and her 12-year old daughter were gunned down in Karachi in broad daylight just in late January – allegedly by government agents.
He told journalists last week: ”I have seen this all before… I am not an optimist.” Nevertheless, for the first time in years his face appeared on every Pakistani TV channel as he and other Baloch leaders gave interviews.
Broken promises
By Wichaar Desk
Continue reading Balochistan unrest created by Pakistan, not India: Bugti
Baloch Republican Party chief Brahamdagh Bugti living in exile claimed Wednesday Baloch movement did not enjoy any foreign support, saying but they would welcome it, be it from the US, NATO or the India.
‘We know foreign powers have their own interests; we think of our own greater interests”, he said in a telephonic press conference at Quetta Press Club.
Mr. Bugti said Baloch women, leaders, activists, students, writers, poets, and intellectuals were being picked up and eventually being disappeared and eventually turning up dead. Under such circumstances, we would welcome the support of foreign countries for independence, he said.
Bugti backed the US resolution on Balochistan and justified it was not against the sovereignty of Pakistan as every country possessed right to intervene in another country’s affairs if that state was involved in human rights violations ….
Read more » The Point
More details » BBC urdu
LONDON: Baloch nationalist leader Nawabzada Hyrbyair Marri has called on the leader of Balochistan Republican Party (BRP) Nawabzada Brahamdagh Bugti in Switzerland to express his condolences on the murder of his sister and niece in Karachi.
According to details, on February 11, Hyrbyair Marri along with Dr Mostafa Baloch visited Brahamdagh Bugti in Geneva to condole the death of his sister and niece who were shot dead in Karachi on January 31. It must be noted that several Baloch women and children have been killed during military operations.
Hyrbyair and Dr Mostafa once again met Brahamdagh Bugti on February 12 to present him the Balochistan Freedom Charter, which is under making. Both leaders exchanged views about the deteriorating security situation of Balochistan and other political issues. They also discussed the Freedom Charter, and Marri informed Brahamdagh about the work done so far on the charter and sought his comments and suggestions.
The Baloch leaders, while talking about the importance of the Freedom Charter, said that it would help unite Baloch people and further organise the Baloch freedom movement. Both the leaders emphasised and agreed that unity was crucial for Baloch people. They further said that the enemy is indiscriminately killing Baloch activists and doing anti-Baloch propaganda at all levels. Hence, it is important that Balochs must also unite and strengthen Baloch freedom struggle on scientific basis.
Hyrbyair and Brahamdagh said, “We need to galvanise the struggle and explain the purpose of Baloch freedom movement to international community and convince the international powers that independent Balochistan will guarantee stability in the region and peace in world. “We will have friendly relations and mutual understanding with all civilised nations,” they said.
The statement further said that Hyrbyair would soon meet other important Baloch leaders to discuss the issue of Baloch unity and freedom of Balochistan. He will also present the Freedom Charter to other Baloch leaders for their suggestions and comments. pr
Courtesy: Daily Times
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20122\14\story_14-2-2012_pg7_17
By CPP
The Pakistan’s current political crises, is the most horrific tussle among its top institutions, has morphed grievous consequent deadlocks for the running of the affairs of the state. In order to understand its fundamental reasons, here, we would need to analyze its background circumstances.
1). The Pakistani military is no more a mere security agency , but an industrial and business corporation, in real terms. The economic and business positions of the army Generals, has over taken in many folds, the volume of the civilian business enterprises on the basis of these economic interests, being a class in stalk ,the political privileges, advantages and access to power or supremacy over the political dispensation is for now realized to be an oxygen for them . Therefore , military, as a class no way can afford any civilian government to deliver things independently without their prior approval .
2). Among ,the many businesses of the army, apart from industries and import -exports , “JEHAD” is adapted to be the most credible business corporation ,which has been for long greatly flourishing in leaps and bounds , under US imperialist’s patronage for the last 40 or so many years ,as a result almost all 5 stars Generals and Major Generals have turned billionaires and down to the rank of Majors ,have become Millionaires ,in quite short span of life.
3). The Obama’s administration ( democrats ), seems interested to work out some settlement for the Afghan issue, in order to cut down its colossal expenditures , there . They earnestly aspire for to have been successful in installing a US amicable government in Kabul, which would mean for the Pakistani Generals to wash off hands from the Jihad dividends . Consequently, the Generals have to resort, applying every means to keep up the past madcap policy on Afghanistan intact, so as to let the Jihad business go on . The present elected government, has opted, greatly, a US harmonious policy on this issue.
4). There is also, exists a profound contradiction between the army and the civilian government over the establishment of relations viz a vis, India concerned . The Pakistani government desires to normalize relations with India, which is a total opposite perspective to the basic policy stand of the Generals. Keeping the Kashmir issue alive at all costs to legitimate the false security apprehension from India, so as to justify the persistent un-auditable increase in military budget and its personnel strength . This is subject to keep intact the security state, status of Pakistan, through enhanced empowerment and role granted to play by the military institution.
Continue reading The current Political crises in Pakistan – CPP’s analysis
Faryal mobilises Punjab PPP to counter ‘hard times’
LAHORE – The Pakistan People’s party (PPP) Punjab has activated itself against what it called conspiracies against democracy and the democratic government and reposed complete confidence in President Asif Zardari.
In this regard, President Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur held a party meeting at the Punjab Governor’s House on Saturday. The party meeting passed a resolution against undemocratic elements. Addressing the parliamentary party meeting, she asked the PPP leaders to prepare themselves for hard times and urged them to increase mass contact …
Read more » Pakistan Today
– Norwegian mass killer ruled insane, likely to avoid jail
By Gwladys Fouche and Victoria Klesty, Reuters
(Additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by David Stamp)
OSLO (Reuters) – Court-appointed psychiatrists have concluded that Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is criminally insane, prosecutors said on Tuesday, meaning he is likely to be sent to a psychiatric institution indefinitely rather than to jail.
Breivik killed 77 people in July by bombing central Oslo and then gunning down dozens of mostly teenagers at a summer camp of the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing, in Norway’s worst attacks since World War Two.
Prosecutors said Breivik, a self-declared anti-immigration militant, believed he had staged what he called “the executions” out of his love for his people.
“The conclusion … is that he is insane,” prosecutor Svein Holden told a news conference on Breivik’s psychiatric evaluation. “He lives in his own delusional universe and his thoughts and acts are governed by this universe.”
If the court accepts the psychiatrists’ conclusions, Breivik
would be held in a psychiatric institution rather than in a prison. Norwegian courts can challenge psychiatric evaluations or order new tests but rarely reject them. ….
Read more » YahooNews
ALL OUT TO DEFEND OCCUPY TORONTO! NO POLICE VIOLENCE! STOP THE EVICTIONS!
The Toronto Police have served eviction notices to Occupy Toronto protesters at St. James Park (Jarvis St. and King St.), ordering them to vacate the park between 12 midnight tonight and 5 a.m. tomorrow and threatening to remove them. Removal in the wee hours of the night means the police want to act without witnesses, increasing the threat of violence against peaceful protestors at Occupy Toronto.
The message of the Occupy Toronto protesters, representing the views of the majority of people in Canada, is a sharp critique of the inequalities, suffering and corruption of the capitalist system and advocates a more just society.
The camp is an expression of the right to free assembly and free speech.
We call on all those who care for democracy, civil rights, and the right to dissent, to go to the Occupy Toronto site at St. James park (Jarvis and King) and to stand in solidarity with the camp and its ideals, and to prevent a government attack on peaceful protesters.
The OFL is mobilizing a mass picket, linking arms around the site, at 11 pm tonight. President Sid Ryan notes that in London last night, the cops waited until supporters went home and then moved against the Occupy site around 1 am.
Comrades and friends should start going to the park whenever they can, and those who can, should also go to the 11 pm rally ..
If you cannot go to the site, phone your city councillor and the Mayor to demand they stop the eviction, and stop security officials from forcibly removing peaceful protestors from the site. Call your MP and MPP, call the talk shows, make your voice heard.
CP24 is running a poll asking the public if they support the eviction or not. Go to http://www.cp24.com to vote.
Unity and Solidarity Can Win!
Toronto Committee and Provincial Executive, Communist Party of Canada (Ontario)
By: Dr. Rajab Ali Memon, Secretary General, Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party – STP
We condemn the brutal murder of 4 Sindhi Hindu doctors in Shikarpur district by the criminals. The STP, being a strong advocate of secular politics, rejects the intolerance towards all religious minorities and the Sindhi Hindus in particular; since they are being continuously and systematically targeted & extorted by various agencies, dacoits, religious fanatics, and feudal/ tribal/ spiritual lords all over Sindh. We appeal all progressive elements in Pakistan to join us in condemning the rule of jungle, especially in the northern districts of Sindh; and the systematic genocide of Sindhi Hindus to compel them to leave Sindh and settle in India. We believe that the Sindhi Hindus are an integral part of Sindhi nation and equal citizens of Sindh & Pakistan. Hence, it is the foremost responsibility of the State as well as the Government (s) of Sindh & Pakistan to provide them guarantees of Life, Liberty and Property.
Courtesy » Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, November 8, 2011.
– Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD: Inspired by worldwide protest demonstrations against capitalism, a group of political workers and representatives of trade and student unions has announced that they will launch an ‘occupy Islamabad movement’ and hold a rally on Wednesday.
Coordinator of the recently-formed Anti-Capitalist Committee and secretary general of the Labour Party Pakistan Nisar Shah told Dawn on Monday that the march would start from Aabpara Chowk and culminate at the World Bank building, situated near the Constitution Avenue.
He said activists of Labour Party Pakistan, Workers Party Pakistan, Awami Party Pakistan and Socialist Movement Pakistan, representatives of the Pakistan Postal Union, PTCL Union, National Trade Union Federation, National Students Federation, Progressive Youth Organisation and a large number of civil society members, intellectuals and citizens would participate in the march in line with the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ campaign in the US and other such protests going on in more than 900 cities around the world. ….
Read more » DAWN.COM
– We Promise Democratic Culture, Elected Leadership & Progressive Pakistan. A new political party emerging from Pakistan Tehrik Insaf (PTI) – Awami Tehrik Insaf, Imran Khan.
Read more » Awami Tehrik Insaf
via – Twitter.
– Killing the messengers
by Ardeshir Cowasjee
WE Pakistanis are determined never to learn from history. Our leaders deem ignorance to be bliss and choose to pay no attention to what the world thinks of them or of our country.
Pakistan is more isolated internationally than at any time since 1971. That year, for those of us who care to remember, the country lost its erstwhile eastern wing after a civil war and a humiliating military defeat.
Any other nation would teach its young the lessons of its greatest tragedy in the hope of avoiding it. We, on the other hand, are insistent upon re-enacting every mistake we made then as if to prove Einstein’s definition of insanity. “Insanity,” said the great scientist, is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
My Life as a Daughter in the Christian Patriarchy Movement — How I Was Taught to Obey Men, Birth 8 Kids and Do Battle Against Secular America
We were raised to fight the enemy, be it Satan or environmentalists and feminists; to come against them in spiritual warfare and at the polls.
By Libby Anne
Deep within America, beyond your typical evangelicals and run of the mill fundamentalists, nurtured within the homeschool movement and growing by the day, are the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements. This is where I grew up.
I learned that women are to be homemakers while men are to be protectors and providers. I was taught that a woman should not have a career, but should rather keep the home and raise the children and submit to her husband, who was her god-given head and authority. I learned that homeschooling is the only godly way to raise children, because to send them to public school is to turn a child over to the government and the secular humanists. I was taught that children must be trained up in the way they should go every minute of every day. I learned that a woman is always under male authority, first her father, then her husband, and perhaps, someday, her son. I was told that children are always a blessing, and that it was imperative to raise up quivers full of warriors for Christ, equipped to take back the culture and restore it to its Christian foundations. …
Read more → butterfliesandwheels
via → AlterNet
– JSQM chief Bashir Qureshi arrested
SINDH – KARACHI: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) Chairman Bashir Khan Qureshi along with his four accomplices has been arrested from Gulshan-e-Hadeed area by the Rangers and shifted to some unknown place, correspondent Khurshid Abbasi reported.
Courtesy: → The News
by Saibal Dasgupta
BEIJING: A jihadist group has released a video on the recent violence in western Xinjiang province while providing China new evidence that terrorists involved in the bloodbath were trained in Pakistan. The violence in two towns in Xinjiang bordering Pakistan left 40 dead.
But the Chinese foreign ministry refrained from naming Pakistan in its closely calibrated response to a question about the 10-minute video showing Turkestan Islamic Party leader Abdul Shakoor Damla claiming responsibility for the violence.
“I haven’t seen the video you mentioned. Our principled position is that at present, a small handful of terrorist forces..,out of motives of splitting China, are conducting rampant violent terrorist activities within China’s border [to] seriously undermine China’s national unity, and regional peace and stability,” Liu Weimin, the spokesperson, said. ….
Read more → TOI
by Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent
The Scotland Yard investigation into the murder in London of the leading Pakistani politician Dr Imran Farooq has been told that rows within his own party may have led to his assassination.
Read more → guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/26/pakistan-imran-farooq-murder-mqm
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
The language of the news report is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: → Geo News Tv (Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Sath, 25th august 2011 part 4)
→ YouTube
Courtesy: → Aaj Tv News with Absaar Alam → YouTube
→ YouTube
The language of the speech is urdu (Hindi).
→ YouTube
– Jack Layton dead of cancer at 61
By Meagan Fitzpatrick
Toronto: NDP Leader Jack Layton, who led Canada’s Official Opposition, has died at his Toronto home at age 61 after a battle with cancer.
Layton died peacefully early Monday, surrounded by family and loved ones, according to a statement from his wife, Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael Layton.
“We deeply regret to inform you that the Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday August 22. He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones,” the statement read.
Read more → CBC News
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