Mr. Chair, honourable members, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today.
Let me be clear: The immense suffering of Ethiopians can be laid at the feet of the TPLF. For 27 years it ruled the country through terror, committed atrocities throughout the country and never held a free and fair election. It is a deposed and aggrieved former political party that launched terrorist attacks on the state and has been engaged in a well-resourced and long-planned insurgency and disinformation war.
We'd like to offer some recommendations for your consideration. One, redesignate the TPLF as a terrorist group. Before this conflict, the U.S. and Canada rightly considered it a terrorist organization. There are numerous pieces of evidence that the TPLF is committing such terrorist acts as torture, sexual violence and the murder of civilians as well as soldiers. A TPLF spokesperson even admitted on regional television that its forces attacked federal military outposts and thousands of national troops on November 3 and 4, 2020.
Two, send a delegation to Ethiopia to assess the issues of the ongoing conflict with first-hand evidence. If you check news articles before 2020, you will find credible reports of how the TPLF embezzled millions of dollars in aid from the Ethiopian people. They have used some of these stolen funds to run their propaganda campaign and bribe members of Congress, of which there is proof. For a proper evidence-based account, we recommend that the committee refer to the articles of Professor Ann Fitz-Gerald of the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
Three, Canadian constitutional experts should support the review of Ethiopia's constitution to help ameliorate ethnic tensions. The TPLF ratified a constitution in 1994 that has been compared by some to apartheid in South Africa. It has sowed the seeds of discontent and inspired horrible ethnic divisions. Canada could help enormously by supporting a new draft of a constitution that recognizes individual rights, regardless of tribe or ethnicity.
Thank you. I will stop here and allow Jeff Pearce to speak.