Eritrea: African Government

Winnipeg Dept: Winnipeg's Eritrean community on Thursday took the opportunity to exercise this freedom in front of the Free Press building. In fact, two opposing groups made themselves heard. The organizers of the event were protesting an article in the newspaper that reported Eritreans in Winnipeg were being coerced into remitting a percentage of their salaries to support the government in Eritrea. The demonstrators say this is not true, any remittances are voluntary and they demand an apology, according to Winnipeg Free Press. The authoritarian nature of Eritrea's government, its support for insurgent groups in the Horn of Africa and its continuing friction with Ethiopia are well-known in the international community, but this is not the time to argue the details of African politics and most immigrant communities in Canada do not speak or think but a single thought. Like all Canadians, they have divisions of opinion on many or even most issues, differences they brought with them from their homelands or acquired since their arrival. The fact they can freely express those differences is one of the main reasons they come to Canada from lands less liberal in their approach to freedom of speech. The counter-demonstration -- a smaller turnout -- stated the article was true and the long arm of an authoritarian African government extends even into the streets of Winnipeg. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.