Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not attend the Commonwealth summit in Colombo later this year unless Colombo shows improvement on issues like human rights, judicial independence and more autonomy for the Tamils, the country's envoy to the grouping has said.
Senator Hugh Segal, Canada's special envoy for Commonwealth renewal said Canada was not encouraging anybody not to participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Colombo from November 15.
"Our own Prime Minister has said that he does not intend to be in Colombo because he has not seen sufficient evidence of the Government producing results on issues like human rights, rule of law, Judicial independence, Accountability and more autonomy for the Tamils in the north in Sri Lanka."
"Canada will be in the meeting in Colombo. The level of our delegation, however - this is also the decision of the British Government - is yet to be determined. Obviously if the Government in Sri Lanka takes some constructive steps to address some of the concerns, that will have an impact on the delegation and if they take no constructive steps that will have a negative impact on the delegation.
"We are not encouraging a boycott, nor we are planning a boycott, nor are we asking others to boycott. That is not our approach to these issues," Senator Segal PTI.
