Immigration and Refugee Protection Act  Indeed, the government welcomed over 32,000 refugees last year, including, recently, over 750 Karen refugees from Myanmar, with hundreds more to come in the next two years. We also raised by 500 people the target for privately sponsored refugees, bringing it up to 4,500 for 2007. I am proud to say that we are living up to our reputation when it comes to providing refugee protection to those in need.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The basic principles of our policy were the same with other countries, and I'll mention Belarus or Myanmar in particular. The Czechoslovakian experience with a totalitarian regime, particularly with the transformation of the society from a totalitarian regime to a democracy, is something we bring as our contribution to international discussions on human rights.

Business of Supply  Building on my family's experience, I will note that the minister recently announced that Canada will be accepting an additional 2,000 Karen refugees who have been living in horrible conditions for many years near the border or Thailand and Myanmar. This is an excellent example of how our government continues to deliver on our commitments. It also shows that we welcome newcomers to Canada and encourage them to contribute their skills to Canada's talent pool.

International Trade committee  We already have an agreement with the Philippines and Thailand. I don't think it's a priority for us to negotiate with Cambodia or Laos, certainly not Myanmar, and Brunei is too small a market to consider.

International Trade committee  If there's resistance to doing it in a bloc...the United States hasn't done it in a bloc, which may well have something to do with their relations with Myanmar. But the United States is doing it country by country. They're dealing with Thailand and with others within ASEAN.

International Trade committee  Canadian firms should be able to partner with ASEAN educational institutions, particularly in the more advanced country of Singapore, and offer quality accepted training, technical and language training, especially to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar, Brunei, and Thailand, where quality English instruction is very much needed. In the field of dental and medical tourism, Vietnam is flourishing, as does the Philippines. During my most recent trip to Manila a month ago, I saw the great potential of trade in the medical tourism sector.

Committees of the House  Suicide in refugee camps is four times higher than the local Nepalese population. Refugees are the Muslims from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar who have been in limbo for the past 14 years. Some 28,000 of these refugees, known as Rohingyas, are stuck in two temporary camps in Bangladesh, which were set up in the first place to respond to the emergency back in 1992.

Burma  Mr. Speaker, Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a small country nestled among Thailand, China and India. It is ruled by one of the most brutal military juntas in the world, with forced labour, sexual violence, child soldiering and numerous political imprisonments, including its own democratically elected leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Chee.

Status of Women committee  I noted in your presentation that you talked about prevention and the question of decriminalization, but there's also a piece in which you talk about international and national economic policies, globalization, of various countries, like Cameroon, Cambodia, and Myanmar--Burma--which we know has the worst human rights record in the world. I wonder if you can draw a correlation between the kinds of global and trade treaties that places like Canada has with these countries and prevention.

Status of Women committee  As many of you know, our organization started doing its work overseas. We've led on-the-ground fieldwork projects with victims in Cambodia, Myanmar, Romania, Moldova, and, most recently, this summer in Ecuador and in Cameroon. Our attention focused back on Canada, on Calgary--I'm from Calgary originally--when the police raided a massage parlour and found, lo and behold, women from Southeast Asia.

Status of Women committee  These are the cases we know. If we say this year it's Korea, guess what? The guys will move from Myanmar. If we say it's Jamaica, the next thing you know it will be Honduras. If we say it's Honduras, it will be somewhere else. Why is this? Because the criminals out there are organized, by definition, and one of their main objectives is to avoid detection.

Status of Women committee  If you look at the rest of the planet, there's a whole range. There are documented cases of victims returning to Myanmar who were given cyanide at the border because they had contracted HIV/AIDS. There are victims returning to Canada from other countries who receive all kinds of assistance and help and protection.

Status of Women committee  We also work internationally, again on human trafficking, with colleagues from Central America and with UNICEF in Vietnam and in Myanmar. So we have gathered a fairly good appreciation of the complexity of the problem and would like to volunteer some comments today on how much progress we have made in Canada and what's still ahead of us in terms of actions to counter the problem.

Committees of the House  That is the preferred approach of many. The United States and Europe, for instance, imposed sanctions on Myanmar, or Burma. They have imposed sanctions and are threatening not to participate in a scheduled series of ASEAN meetings, precisely to drive the point across that this dictatorship must not be encouraged by the other Far East countries.

Committees of the House  I hope they will repeat that same message. No one can remain unmoved by the extreme suffering and repression being imposed by the Myanmar junta. We must fully support those in Burma and elsewhere, including of course Quebec and Canada, who are working to ensure that country rejoins the ranks of democracy.