Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself with the concern of the hon. member about the tragic and unacceptable developments taking place in Nigeria.
The matter was first brought forward by the Prime Minister at the Commonwealth meetings over a year ago when he asked that Nigeria be suspended from the Commonwealth. Since then we have held a meeting of CMAG, the Commonwealth ministers advisory group, at which a decision was taken on a number of sanctions that could be applied. Those are now being presented to various Commonwealth members. We are also undertaking to talk to the Europeans and the Americans to see if they would share in applying a series of economic sanctions.
I am hoping we will be able to get the full concurrence of the Commonwealth and these other partners so that we can make a very strong international statement that we will not accept the violations going on in Nigeria.