December
1, 2011, Ottawa, Ont —The saga of potato exporter Hendrik (Henk) Tepper has
grown stranger.
December
1, 2011, Ottawa, Ont —The saga of potato exporter Hendrik (Henk) Tepper has
grown stranger.
The
federal Conservative government appeared to scold a Liberal MP for raising the
case of Tepper, currently jailed in Lebanon over an allegedly low-grade
shipment of potatoes to Algeria in 2007, and suggested the high-profile Commons
attention is unhelpful to his cause.
Liberal
MP Dominic Leblanc called the government to account for why the owner of New
Brunswick’s largest potato growing operation is still in jail with no end in
sight.
Junior
foreign affairs minister Diane Ablonczy bridled and said the government is
working to help him “through quiet, diplomatic channels,” adding extra emphasis
to the words quiet and diplomatic. Liberals say quiet diplomacy has done little
so far to help Tepper.
Print this page
