Mr. Speaker, I have a second petition. Many Canadians have joined the call to release Ms. Birtukan Mideksa from arbitrary imprisonment in Ethiopia.
The petitioners call on Parliament to pass private member's Motion No. 334, which requests that the government make use of every means at its disposal, in addition to working with its allies in the international community and at the United Nations, to exert maximum pressure on the Government of Ethiopia to immediately unconditionally release Ms. Mideksa and allow her to participate fully in her position as leader of a political party.
Ms. Mideksa is the president of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party of Ethiopia. She has been held in prison by the Government of Ethiopia since December 2008 without charge for a politically motivated life sentence. Ms. Mideksa is a confirmed prisoner of conscience according to international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. She was pardoned of all charges against her before being re-arrested for no reason.
It is time that this Parliament stepped in to help free this woman, who has done nothing wrong.