Madam Speaker, in reply to the first part of the member's comments and question in terms of my visit to Indonesia and Thailand, I raised that because it is important for us to understand what it was that the students and a very diverse part of the community in Vancouver and across Canada were protesting and voicing their concern about in terms of the APEC gathering.
Having just come back from those countries I can tell the hon. member it is simply untrue that there are millions of people who were lifted out of poverty as a result of trade liberalization. Quite the contrary is true. Those economies are now in complete shatters. There are people who are facing unemployment, hunger and devastation.
I believe these issues are related. We have to understand that there was huge concern in Canada about Canada's role in promoting this kind of unfettered market force and movement of capital that are basically put ahead of what are urgent and human needs.
On the point about there being some people who did something wrong and that maybe some of the students were protesting in a way that was acceptable but others were not and broke the law, I am not aware of instances where there were any protesters who broke the law or in any way threatened the security of the visiting leaders.
One of the disgusting things about the APEC summit is that the word security was used as a cover to basically deny people the right to protest in a democratic and open society. Whether it is the socialist workers party or students at UBC or anti-poverty activists in my own riding of Vancouver East, people were exercising their democratic rights.
Frankly I am surprised to hear the member from the Reform Party raise that as though somehow those actions were not in order. They in no way threatened the security of the leaders or the summit itself. To state that is simply false.