At 10:30 p.m. on March 13, Obert Madondo ate his last meal before embarking on a hunger strike against the Harper government’s omnibus crime bill. The Zimbabwean refugee chose lasagna in honour of the Italian family that first welcomed him to Canada many years ago.
“I don’t want to call it my last supper, but it was the last thing I ate,” he said. “I hope to achieve a return to sanity, especially in our parliament. I’ll fight for a Canada I believe in, an inclusive, just, fair and compassionate Canada (that) embraced me.”
Madondo originally hoped his hunger strike would persuade Governor General David Johnston to withhold royal assent on Bill C-10, but the omnibus bill was passed on March 13. Now he’s hoping his protest will encourage popular opposition to the bill, possibly leading to its repeal.
He has a list of five social justice demands that include the resignation of former Ottawa Police chief and newly appointed Conservative Senator Vern White, a national inquiry into the case of missing and murdered indigenous women, and improved accountability and transparency in the House of Commons.
Madondo said he will be staging most of the hunger strike in his Byward market apartment and will blog about the experience. He said he hopes to eventually move some of the protest to Parliament Hill.
Madondo said he’s been preparing psychologically for months and cut back his regular meals a week ago.
“I am as prepared as (a) boxer who gets in the ring to fight the last fight of his life.”
Madondo took part in the Occupy Ottawa protest and was one of the eight members arrested in late November. He says he experienced “cruel and unusual” treatment at the hands of the Ottawa Police.
“Senator Vern White was in charge of the Ottawa police that morning and that’s why I’m demanding his resignation. I’ve nothing personal against the senator as a fellow human being but that morning, a failure of judgment and Canadian leadership occurred,” he wrote in an email.
He said he’s been involved in different kinds of activism, from protests, to marches, to a previous failed hunger strike.
“This is my last stand that I am making as an individual. I hope other Canadians will want to engage.”
He says he doesn’t want to die, since he can’t protest from the grave, but he’s “willing to fight to the last breath to get this bill to be repealed.”
So far he’s had no response from the governing Conservatives.