Business of Supply  We have seen the incident with the governor of Kandahar. We have had NAFTA-gate and the debacles of Burma. We have Canada's reputation on capital punishment being sullied around the world. That was before the minister dropped his briefs in an appropriate place and forget to pick them up. That was before the Prime Minister misquoted the prime minister of Italy.

Business of Supply  Recently, Canadians have witnessed our government's quick response to the natural disasters in both Burma and China, but we did not believe that funnelling millions of dollars to a military regime halfway around the world would truly help hundreds of thousands of people who were suffering.

Business of Supply  According to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Canada pension plan is in full compliance with SEMA measures, with no investments in Burma that we are aware of.

Business of Supply  Chair, I think the member should probably talk to the fund managers at the CPP because they certainly phoned me when I suggested we should have tougher sanctions with Burma. They have a longer list than he has, so he might want to check with them. I will turn now to the UN. I would like to ask a very straightforward question of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Business of Supply  For us to set up a very expensive bureaucracy simply to ask companies to register direct investments in a sanctioned country like Burma would be, to me, a total waste of money. If a company wanted to wilfully evade the rules, and I do not sense there are those companies out there, it would be very easy to find a way of channelling the money which would not be caught by any tracking of direct investment.

Business of Supply  Chair, the truth of the matter is that Canada has taken perhaps the strongest measures in terms of sanctions against Burma. Those sanctions cover a host of issues from exports and imports to investment and personal assets. It is a whole range of very comprehensive sanctions. On some of the matters in terms of how one tracks the data, it is very difficult, as the member knows, to track indirect investment flows.

Foreign Affairs  We could be leading the fight to ban cluster munitions. We could be helping out in China and Burma. But instead, what are we doing? The Conservative government has been interfering in American elections. It has been losing classified documents for weeks on end and betraying the confidence of our allies.

Foreign Affairs  Speaker, this is what the government has accomplished: embarrassment in Bali, retreat at the Security Council, and complete disappearance during the crises in Burma and China. The Prime Minister chose a foreign affairs minister who was not up to the job. The government is making us an international laughingstock. What is he going to do now to restore Canada’s reputation on the international scene?

International Aid  Speaker, during question period on Monday, the hon. member for Sudbury raised a question on the government's announcement to match Canadian contributions to the victims of the May 2 cyclone in Burma. The government's initial announcement only covered donations made between May 15 and June 6, just three weeks, and would not be retroactive to the date of the cyclone, yet the Minister of International Cooperation had said that the program would cover six weeks.

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day Act  Canada and Canadians have the ability to shine a light into the dark corners of the globe into countries such as Sudan, Burma and Zimbabwe, where tribal and blood hatreds lead to ethnic cleansings. We have the capacity to be a shield for the defenceless and the innocent who today echo little Zina's plea, “Please, I'm still young and I want so much to live a while”.

Foreign Affairs committee  More recently, China has been increasingly willing, though, to subject some cases of human rights violations to international pressure and has gradually shifted position on North Korea, Darfur, and Burma. However, China continues to regard economic sanctions and security-led humanitarian intervention as unacceptable violations of sovereignty of the country in question, except in cases of the most severe internal conflict or where there may be spillover effects that threaten international stability.

Foreign Affairs  Canada will continue to provide that kind of leadership, as we are right now with regard to aid to Burma and with regard to China.

Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999  Western Canada has gone through years of drought. There have been storms, and we only need to look at China and Burma lately. There are many factors. I would like to give the hon. member a few more minutes to state his case because he has done it very well so far.

Points of Order  Speaker, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency said in this House a few moments ago that the government's matching of private donations for Burma would be retroactive to the date of the disaster, May 2, but in fact CIDA's website says right at this moment that the start date is May 15, not May 2. Obviously the government got caught making up policy as the minister goes along.

Minister of Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, our priority is to deliver aid to the people of Burma. I remember that the opposition never wanted us to purchase C-17s, which we are using to bring badly needed aid to the suffering Burmese people.