Mr. Speaker, December 7 of this year will mark 20 years since Indonesia illegally invaded East Timor and began a campaign of genocide and human rights violations. This November 12 will be the fourth anniversary of the Dili massacre.
Over the past two months repression has intensified as Indonesia tries to suppress protest in advance of these anniversaries and before the upcoming visit of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Several hundred people have been arrested and it is feared they are being tortured. Others have been killed.
Given all of this, it is totally inappropriate for the Minister for International Trade to be planning a trade visit to Indonesia for November 11 on his way to the APEC summit in Japan.
This trip by the Minister for International Trade on the very eve of the Dili massacre anniversary demonstrates once again the complete moral bankruptcy of Canada's foreign policy.
I urge members of the House to support the New Democratic Party's proposal to end Canadian aid and arms sales to the Government of Indonesia and I urge the minister to reconsider his visit.