Mr. Speaker, four years ago today Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island in South Africa after spending more than 27 years in prison. South Africans, Canadians and people around the world are celebrating the anniversary of his release and the road to democracy which has been followed in South Africa.
I would like to pass on greetings to those who gather in Toronto tonight as part of a fundraising effort for voter education in South Africa. We wish our friends in South Africa well as they prepare and educate themselves about their democratic right to vote, a right which has until now been denied to 80 per cent of the people of South Africa.
All South Africans will have the opportunity to exercise this right for the first time on April 27, 1994.