St. Basil's Darfur message reaches the prime minister

NEWS RELEASE

TONY MARTIN, MP

************************* Martin brings Darfur message from St. Basil students to Prime Minister and Parliament

OTTAWA – The "hands" of some 500 students of St. Basil Secondary students reaching out to Darfur have now reached the Prime Minister's office.

As promised to them, Sault MP Tony Martin (pictured) made the delivery this week of a petition, poster and the cut-out, signed hands with a message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that Canada increase its support for the war-torn region of Sudan.

"These people of Darfur are not going to be able to turn this around for themselves," Martin told the class last week.

"Canada needs to be in Darfur in a big way," the MP said.

A religion class initiative had urged students to sign their names to a paper cut out of one of their hands.

The hands symbolize both an effort to reach out to Darfur, and to stop the evil being done in Darfur.

It is estimated that at least 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region and about 2.5 million people have fled their homes in the past three years of fighting.

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