Hemmingford Locals Write For a Cause

Once a year, several Hemmingford residents meet up to write letters on behalf of Amnesty International.

On the afternoon of Saturday, December 11th, over 20 people met up at Café Hemmingford to write letters to NGO Amnesty International. For the past six years, the space has been graciously offered by up café owners Yves St-Hilaire and Lise Gravel. The writers’ mission this year? To reach out to the governments of countries who are holding prisoners unjustly with no incriminating evidence. The purpose of these letters? To put pressure on the governments responsible for these incarcerations, which can sometimes lead to the freedom of said prisoners. In attendance was David Smith, a former board member of Amnesty International Canada, who invited federal MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach to attend the event—a cause especially close to her heart, as she herself used to hold the same event for her students.

This year, the event was partially promoted by local yoga teacher Elizabeth Chanona, with letters being written in both English and French. Many locals stopped in to drop off stamps and donations towards the cause, while the café owners offered up free coffee to the writers.

In the past, the writing group has written on behalf of the No More Stolen Sisters campaign (against the disappearance of Indigenous women in Canada), with this year marking the eighth anniversary of The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “Some of the people in the cases we are supporting are tortured to confess to crimes they did not commit. They are often in poor health and are not offered health services or access to their families or friends,” said one of the writers, Catherine Stratford. Their efforts aren’t without result. Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian Al-Jazeera journalist, was recently liberated from a prison in Egypt, following a global human rights campaign that lasted almost two years.

A volunteer organisation focused on human rights, Amnesty International has researchers who investigate the circumstances of each case thoroughly before submitting them. Currently, the non-governmental organization has over seven million members and supporters around the world. Those wishing to write letters in support of human rights can do so from their homes by accessing the Amnesty International website www.amnesty.ca.