Mr. Speaker, on October 4, 1995 I rose in the House to request the Minister of Foreign Affairs to use his good offices for the Government of Vietnam on behalf of nine religious, academic and cultural leaders under imprisonment in Vietnam and waiting retrial.
I had this matter brought to my attention by members of our Vietnamese Canadian community in Vancouver and also in Ottawa and elsewhere. I had followed up with meetings with the Vietnamese ambassador in Ottawa, with communications with our Canadian ambassador in Hanoi and with written representations through our government and others.
I was happy to be able to inform the House in a statement made on November 22, 1995 that the Vietnamese government had acted to release two of the religious and cultural leaders and that they had already left Vietnam and were now in North America.
Canadian foreign policy in its golden era in the immediate post-war period developed and applied the skills of quiet diplomacy, involving patient but firm negotiations and never resorted to gunboat diplomacy 19th century style, which would have been beyond our military logistical capacities anyway.
In the contemporary post-cold war era, when trade and commerce have replaced political military power as the basis of the world public order system, I would ask the minister how he can best continue to promote the development of democratic constitutionalism and the advancement of basic constitutional rights in our new neighbour countries of the Pacific rim.