By Joe Lofaro, Metro News
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said the city is not supporting communism with its plans to raise the Vietnamese flag at City Hall Tuesday to mark the Asian country’s national holiday, Vietnam Independence Day.
Protesters display a banner at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin St. outside Ottawa City Hall Tuesday. (Joe Lofaro/Metro)
An online petition that opposes the city from flying the flag has more than 2,700 signatures.
The office of Thanh Hai Ngo, a Conservative Senator who lives in Ottawa, sent Metro a news release written by a group that identifies itself as Canadian Youth for Human Rights in Vietnam (CYHRV).
The group said flying the Vietnamese flag in Ottawa “would be akin to flying the Nazi flag” and urges the city to call off the flag raising.
“This regime is a dictatorship that brutally violates its citizens’ fundamental human rights on a daily basis and deprives them of the freedom to live as human beings,” reads part of the CYHRV news release.
The statement said a demonstration will be held at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street at 12 p.m. Tuesday and at the Vietnamese embassy on MacKay Street.
Read the full story HERE.
