Montreal- The growing problem of poor countries with their national debts and the conditions imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are exacerbating the plight of one billion people around the world who live in poverty, says the Montreal-based Social Justice Committee (SJC) which has has joined Jubilee 2000 initiative- an international movement in over 70 countries that is trying to cancel the debts of Third World countries to help poor countries out of poverty. According to a story written by Wayne Hiltz (Debt-free Jubilee, The Mirror, March 25, 1999) the organizers of Jubilee 2000 are presently mobilizing public opinion aimed at trying to achieve the largest petition ever (22 million signatures) urging rich countries to cancel the backlog of "unpayable" debt owed by the world’s poorest countries. "Most of these countries have repaid much more than they ever initially borrowed. It’s all the crazy interest that pushed things up," says Father Ernie Schibli of the SJC which is organizing the campaign in Montreal.

Hiltz states that opponents to the Jubilee 2000 movement contend that debt cancellation would disrupt the global economy. Not so, says Schibli. Schibli says that with many countries paying four times more on debt repayment than health care, the tragic consecuences on the poor is devastating, especially to children. In fact, supporters of the movement argue that Western relief organizations estimate that tens of thousands of children around the world die each year for lack of health resources.

Canada has already forgiven most of the debt owed to it by poor countries, according to Hiltz. But in the latest federal budget, Finance Minister Paul Martin, refused to cancel the remaining $1.2 billion, Hiltz said in his article.

In Quebec, the campaign’s major supporters include the three big unions (FTQ,CSN, CEQ) the United, Catholic and Anglican churches, and the Quebec Women Federation. For more information, call the Social Justice Committee at 933-6797.