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... port, the UN said South Africa "uprooted thousands of families from their homes, and expelled thousands of Africans to distant reserves. It has arrested and convicted hundreds of thousands of persons under pass laws and other racially discriminatory measures. It has ex-cluded non-whites from new categories of employment. It has instituted a reign of terror against opponents of Apartheid... " South Africa thumbed its nose at the United Nations protests for years. In a 1963 speech, Prime Minister Verwoerd said, "We want to keep South Africa White...
keeping it White can only mean one thing, namely White domination, not 'leadership', not 'guidance' but 'control', 'su-privacy'... ." COULD WORLD PUBLIC OPINION HAVE ENDED APARTHEID? A December 1998 Reuter news agency report says the City of Los Angeles added itself to a growing list of American cities, taking direct action against another country accused of human rights abuse. The action of the US cities adds economic muscle to American public opposition to foreign governments' human rights abuses. December 16, 1998 Web posted at: 12: 02 a. m. EST (0502 GMT) LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday banned the city from contracting with companies doing business with Myanmar, the former Burma, whose government has been accused of human rights violations.
In unanimously approving the ordinance despite opposition from oil giant Unocal, Los Angeles joined 22 other U. S. cities, including New York, which have passed similar measures. "We are saying that the fruit of oppression is unfit for our consumption, " said City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Under the ordinance, America's second largest city will be prohibited from buying goods and services from those companies doing business with In a statement, Unocal, which has a natural gas pipeline in Myanmar, said the council had no right to pass such a law. "Under the U. S. Constitution, foreign policy is the province of the federal government, not dozens of U.
S. cities and municipalities, " the statement said. "By this action, the city council has moved beyond its legal authority. " The unhappy response of the American company, to the loss of business from major cities, shows public opinion can have real-world benefits, for powerless citizens of foreign countries with oppressive governments. Canadians opposed to the racism and civil rights abuses of the apartheid government of South Africa could have helped, by pressuring our politicians to cut off profitable business dealings with South Africa, many years ago. THE OLD REALITY: APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA Under South African law, people of African descent, 85 % of the popula-tion was crowded into about 13 % of the country's land.
White people owned 87 % of the land - although whites were only 15 % of the popula-tion. Even South Africa admitted there were twice as many people on the reserves, as could possibly earn a bare living there. South African law cleared the non-whites from so- called 'Black Spots' - parts of the country where blacks owned land. It is estimated that more than three million people of African, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and mixed race were forced off land where they had lived for generations. To Canada's shame, South African officials came to Canada to learn how our reserve system was operated... and Canada taught them.
South African reserves, or 'townships' were tiny areas, surrounded and separated by white South African territory, a policy of 'divide and con-quer', setting people of one racial group against the others. Canada guarantees every citizen the right to vote. Canada guarantees "Equality before and under law and the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination, and in particular with-out discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, re-login, sex, age or mental or physical disability" The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also specifically adds a guarantee that these rules cannot be used to reduce the existing rights of our Aboriginal people, . including Indian, Meets and Inuit Canadians. The laws meant that people of African race were arrested, jailed, fined, even whipped, (as many as 24, 595 people in one year) for violating Pass Laws, which controlled where they could live or work. Canada promises we have the right to "move to and take up residence in any province" and the right to "pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province." Black people in South Africa could 'legally' be arrested and jailed for at least three months, without being charged with anything, or having a trial.
In Canada, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees: - Anyone who is arrested must be promptly told the reason for the arrest, Guarantees availability of a lawyer without delay, Guarantees an arrested person is innocent until proven guilty, Guarantees a fair, public hearing, and Guarantees release on fair, reasonable bail, unless a court says other-wise. Those guarantees are stronger than any other law in Canada, and are backed up with the right to the process of Habeus Corpus, which means a prisoner must be brought into a court and set free, if the arrest was not justified. Habeus Corpus is a basic British legal right - but not for non-whites in apartheid South Africa. The University of Capetown Institute of Criminology surveyed 176 peo-ple arrested by the South African authorities. 83 per cent said they were physically abused, 75 % reported they were beaten, or assaulted with im-payments, and 25 % said they were tortured with electric shocks, while in government custody. Canada says no-one can be subjected to "any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment." That means, punishment must not be "so excessive as to outrage standards of decency and surpass all rational bounds of treat-ment or punishment." It means that an accused Canadian who is "not a menace to society" can't be locked up for an indefinite time, which did happen in South Africa. The South African government said many professions and skilled jobs...
were for whites only. Africans could not be truck drivers or bar-tenders or construction workers. In fact, Africans could not even join a labour union, or attend a protest rally. Canada law guarantees both "freedom of peaceful assembly" and "free-dom of association." Education was a weapon of racism... separate Black schools trained stu-dents for only the low-income jobs they were allowed to have. Earnings showed the difference: White people earned about 10 times as much as Africans. 25 African children died for each white child that died, a fact blamed on poverty, malnutrition and outright starvation.
There was a grim difference in medical care... under apartheid in South Africa, there was one doctor available for every 400 white people... black people had the services of one doctor for every 40, 000 people. The death rate for African children was among the highest in the world... the death rate of white children was among the lowest anywhere. THE NEW REALITY: NON-DISCRIMINATORY SOUTH AFRICA After the 1994 election, the new government announced free medical care for all people.
The plan was to chop spending on the South African armed forces which had been grinding down non-whites, and to collect a new "wealth tax" on wealthy (usually white) South Africans. South Africa must still make many changes, to make equality a reality. Finding the money to pay for needed change is still a major problem. Finding the skilled professionals and building new facilities are essen-tial. The worst shortage of all, is time.
Making things right takes time - longer than many South African non-whites are willing to wait. The changes should have begun centuries earlier, but were barred by racism. South Africans aren't content to be patient, waiting to eliminate start-tion, poor public health, inadequate education and a lack of decent jobs. The new government is working hard, to deliver on its promises. There are fears that unavoidable delays could mean renewed problems in this still - troubled land. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Snow's Annotated Criminal Code (of Canada) Canada in action - Canada Against Apartheid External Affairs and International Trade Canada Report of the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa Bibliography:
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