Burma  Mr. Speaker, death tolls in Burma from Saturday's tragic cyclone may now exceed 10,000. Those left homeless probably number in the hundreds of thousands. Getting assistance to the Burmese people is made more challenging by the repressive military dictatorship.

Budget Implementation Act, 2009  The second is she mentioned hope for people around the world. I hope the people who are near death in the Congo, Darfur and Burma, as well as the Baha'is in Iran, who are being persecuted and murdered, are not forgotten.

Situation in Sri Lanka  Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from the Bloc for so eloquently and passionately explaining what is happening in Sri Lanka. A couple of months ago, we saw what happened in Burma. There was a cyclone that devastated the whole country and the generals were not allowing international aid to go in. Canadian teams were stuck in Bangkok and while they were trying to get visas to get into Myanmar, they were told no.

Canada-EFTA Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, my father-in-law was on the Murmansk run. He was in Burma with the Navy. At that time, Canada, a country of 11 million, as poor as we were coming out of the depression, ended up with the fourth largest navy in the world. It showed the will of this nation, not only of our air force, our massive armed presence in Europe, but our navy.

Elio Rosati  Elio joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and flew submarine patrols over the Atlantic before engaging Canada's enemies in the skies above Burma. For nearly half a century Elio Rosati was a fixture in Toronto's Italian community. In 1976 he and his wife, Jackie, helped to build and open the beautiful Columbus Centre and Villa Columbo, a community centre and seniors complex.

Foreign Affairs committee  Another country on China's borders that China supports quite strongly and that also has a very ugly regime would be Burma. I think it's a similar sort of logic: other countries aren't prepared to do things with Burma because of our repugnance over the nature of the system there, and China is able to go into a vacuum.

Foreign Affairs and International Development  Speaker, at the April 8 meeting of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, witnesses provided a long list of Canadian companies operating in Burma and making money for the military junta. These companies get a lot of support from the Canada Pension Plan. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested in these companies. The Bloc Québécois is against that.

Foreign Affairs committee  They will be put on the record and we would appreciate that. Your experience and expertise dealing with Asia and Burma is very obvious, so we would look forward to any further response you may have. We will suspend for one minute and then we will welcome our next guests. Mr. Waldman from Oxfam International will be coming in.

Foreign Affairs committee  I asked you that question because everyone says the people must not suffer because of the sanctions imposed on Burma. Now, if we were to lift the sanctions, wouldn't China be inclined to help Burma again and to support the regime?

Business of Supply  Speaker, in answer to the member's question on women, yes, it is pretty stark to have our government on the one hand advocating for more rights for women abroad and yet at home undermining their rights seemingly through lack of support. On the question of Burma and the pipeline and the points I made, we have not debated the whole issue of the pipeline that is proposed through Afghanistan in this debate. No one has been talking about it. We have been bringing it forward from our side, but no one else has vis-à-vis how it relates to Burma.

Foreign Affairs committee  But when we're talking about a major study and are now going to include all the NGOs, include all the civil society groups, include the parliamentary groups, when do we want to do it? There's another motion coming up on Burma. The timelines on Burma.... The event is happening now. We've been remarkably good at doing studies after the fact, in so many cases. Burma is rather important, Afghanistan is very important, and Sudan is, unquestionably.

Foreign Affairs committee  In fact, Burma was one of the first times we did that without that...call it cover or whatever you want to call it; we did it differently. So the way you can use SEMA is dependent upon, I guess, the way the government wishes to use SEMA.

Burma  If protests are violently suppressed, anarchy or civil war will follow. There are brave people in Burma and I salute those who accept the dangers of challenging the gun-toting goons of the dictatorship to claim their democratic rights. The people's voice cannot be silenced, it will eventually be heard.

Burma  However, Canada believes that an authentic dialogue with members of the democratic movement must occur if there is to be democratic reform in Burma. We urge the Burmese regime to include all concerned parties in both the constitutional and electoral processes.

Foreign Affairs  Speaker, the government recently used the Special Economic Measures Act. This is an act of cabinet. The act was invoked against Burma. There are other tools the government has at its disposition, whether with regard to Sudan, Iran or, for instance, Burma. Let me list some of them, if I may. The Canadian government can invoke the United Nations act to issue all orders and regulations necessary to limit or curtail trade, financial transactions, air links or any other ties between Canada and a targeted country.