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You are cordially invited to a protest 5:00-7:00 on April 20 at the Westinn Hotel(beside the train station): Protest Announcement For Release: April 20 Ogoni Solidarity Network to Protest Shell Canada Reception On Monday, April 20, 1998, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., members and supporters of the Ogoni Solidarity Network of Nova Scotia (OSN-NS) will protest the reception and dinner of the RDeveloping East Coast GasS conference at the Westin Hotel. The dinner is co-sponsored by Shell Canada, and will feature the Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Natural Resources, as keynote speaker. The Ogoni Solidarity Network of Nova Scotia condemns Shell CanadaUs international parent company for its role in Nigeria, and urges the Canadian Government to take stronger action against the repressive Nigerian dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. The OSN-NS supports the international boycott of Shell, which has been called by Nigerians opposed to ShellUs record in their country. Shell has inflicted severe environmental devastation on Ogoniland, in the Delta region of Nigeria, in the course of their oil drilling. Local residents who complain are brutally suppressed, and many have been killed by the Nigerian military dictatorship. Shell has supplied money and weapons to this dictatorship, and is a partner in their human rights violations. Shell Canada is 78% owned by their international parent companies, Shell Transport and Trading Company and Royal Dutch Shell. As such, they share the responsibility for ShellUs atrocities in Nigeria. Perhaps the best known victim of Shell and the Nigerian dictatorship is Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed along with eight others on November 10, 1995. Less well known are the twenty others currently in Nigerian detention possibly facing the same fate, or the hundreds of Ogonis certified as political refugees by the UNHCR. While Shell Canada entertains the federal Minister of Natural Resources, the Ogoni continue to suffer. Colette Poirier, of OSN-NS, praises CanadaUs strongly worded condemnation of Nigerian human rights abuses, and this countryUs international role in calling for sanctions against Nigeria, but laments Canada's lack of concrete action at home. She calls on the Canadian government to implement an immediate embargo on Nigerian crude oil entering Canada and to take action to discourage Canadian investment in that country. Since the Nigerian government is 80% financed by oil revenues, this would have an immediate impact on the regime. The weakness of CanadaUs position has recently been highlighted with the announcement that CanadaUs largest overseas oil producer, Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd., is negotiating to begin oil production in Nigeria. A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy admitted, ROttawa hasnUt put up obstacles so far to prevent Canadian companies from negotiating West African [Nigerian] deals.S (Globe and Mail, April 2, 1998) For further information contact: Colette Poirier, Ogoni Solidarity Network-Nova Scotia 425-7877 Barineka Gbarazia,Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People 443-9792 Mark Butler, Ecology Action Centre 429-2202 Youth for Social Justice
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