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Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Soccer Association.


Paul James

September 5, 2017

It is with profound disappointment but without reservation that I request/demand the Canadian government take the necessary steps to now renounce my Canadian citizenship and the Canadian Soccer Association to annul my individual inductee status as a member of the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame with immediate effect, without impediment, rebuttal or argument.

As of 12:01am today, September 5, 2017, I began my fifth and final hunger strike. I will be ingesting just broth soup, a couple of candies and a piece of bread per day as a means to eliminate excessive pain and to sustain my protest for a while longer than a total starvation would permit. From previous experiences it will be a heart attack which will bring an end to the protest as the muscle around the heart gives way.

I will not make the decision to stop this final hunger strike protest for any reason other than justice being served and/or resolution being ratified for the harm which York University the Canadian Soccer Association and the Liberal government of Canada have willfully contributed to myself and those closest to me as a result of the discrimination and prejudice I have faced since 2008 and the coverup of its reality.

On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated. Not for his efforts on eliminating racism and the oppression of all minority groups but because of the unbridled greed of the elite. He threatened the economic well being of power in the United States. At its core it is the reason why Paul James has repeatedly been delivered social injustice in Canada.

Today I am destitute living in a $30 a night rooming house or on a park field in the city of Toronto. My circumstances are not because of mental illness, mental disease, substance addiction, criminal activity, a lack of effort in resurrecting a career or any other stereotyped reason which specific segments of Canadian society conjure up to avoid accepting truth and reality. I am destitute because of the discrimination and prejudice I have received, a failed system of mental health care support, an avoidance of responsibility from those persons and organizations who have erred in my regard, a non-existent social safety net for persons in need of employment and because I trusted in the Canadian Judicial system in 2012 to swiftly and fairly correct the injustice I experienced from York University in 2008/09 and beyond.

The Paul James matter as it stands now is a profound example of how the inadequacies and lack of integrity of the Canadian system exacerbate the real world disadvantages that people with exposed substance disabilities face. It also illuminates and reinforces many other disadvantages of oppressed persons such as inequality in wealth and bargaining power and the perpetual infringement of a persons human rights as a consequence.

Faced with overwhelming evidence and common sense rationale to the discrimination, prejudice, and harassment I received at York University and elsewhere the resulting commitment of institutions, persons and organizations to avoid, deceive, manipulate, and collude against the truth is now beyond counter argument. I have submitted to the Canadian government the relevant public record documents and other information which unequivocally establishes the 8 years of injustice which has been deliberately delivered to me. No amount of rebuttal to the contrary can avoid this reality.

No human being nor alone Canadian citizen should be treated in such a way as a consequence of their exposed poor mental health. Sadly however, my story, while perhaps more extreme than most others, represents hundreds of thousands of other Canadians who endure similar experiences of shame, indignity, and disgrace because their mental health disabilities are exposed and their human rights perpetually infringed upon as a result.

The difference in my instance is that I have the willingness and ability to risk my health and life further in order to confront the injustice along with hall of fame status from a lost soccer career to have annulled as a symbolic reminder of the absurdity and inhumanity of the Paul James story and by association many other Canadian citizens.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, your non-response to the June 26, 2017 letter which I sent to you during my fourth hunger strike cements the awful stigmatization of my life as a consequence of my mental health disabilities being exposed since 2008.

The implication that the Canadian government, York University and the Canadian Soccer Association would permit my deterioration and ultimate death rather than face the truth of the matter - which would benefit millions of other Canadian citizens - is ultimately why today I request my Canadian citizenship be renounced; my soccer hall of fame status be annulled and why I begin my fifth and final hunger strike.

I trust you can appreciate why I have to see my commitment through to the end.

Respectfully,

Paul James

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