| David Kilgour's Letter to Minister Cannon Not to take anything away from Peace Prize nominee David Kilgour, the letter to the Honourable Lawrence Cannon was Haiyan’s idea. Haiyan Zhang works closely with David on the many humanitarian causes they both champion. Until Haiyan brought him to my house, I had not seen David since that fateful day when I met with him in his Parliament Hill office where he volunteered to inform the Right Honourable Joe Clark then Minister of External Affairs (Foreign Affairs) of what was going on and which elicited that ill-fated reply from the former Prime Minister. David sat on the couch, Haiyan on a comfortable chair next to a table where I had left a copy of Shooting the Messenger. She picked it up, flip to the chapter containing the Appraisal from Hell and waved it in front of him and asked “How can people do something like this?” She might also have added “and get away with it.” David again agreed to deliver a letter bearing his signature in which he would plead my case with the Honourable Lawrence Cannon. Notice the conciliatory tone of the letter. It would make no difference.
To give me the brush-off is one thing, to these people I am a nobody, but to dismiss out-of hand a heart-felt request from a respected former colleague known for his integrity and his interest in justice for all speaks volume for the character and ethics of the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, if not of his staff. David does not believe Cannon had anything to do with the response he got, he’s a gracious man. In an email to me he writes: Bonjour Bernard, I got the same empty letter yesterday. No doubt, the only input Minister Cannon had in it was his signature. It bears the earmarks of a far too common Foreign Affairs Dept. attitude: 'Appear to know everything even when you understand little'... Perhaps you, Haiyan and I can meet over the next couple of days? David The empty reply I got was in French. Following is a translation (one has to assume the “we” in “I regret to inform you we can not agree to your request” is not the Royal “We” but simply that his staff agrees with his decision or he agrees with theirs. April 27, 2009 Dear Sir, Thank you for your letter of March 20, 2009 and your book Shooting the Messenger. I have been informed that you benefited from every possible avenue of redress at the time the events took place. I regret to inform you we can not agree to your request. Sincerely Lawrence Cannon For a more comprehensive reply from the Honourable Lawrence Cannon read When the Truth is a Lie.
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