Canadian Sanctions Update

On Wednesday November 14 Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier announced that the Canadian government would use the Special Economic Measures Act to impose stronger sanctions on the Military Government in Burma. Canadian policy towards Burma now includes new measures which go beyond the ‘selective economic measures’ of the past, a step that has been lobbied for by Canadian activists for a long time.

The government of Canada will use its Special Economic Measures Act to:
· ban all goods exported from Canada to Burma, excepting only the export of humanitarian goods;
· ban all goods imported from Burma into Canada;
· freeze assets in Canada of any designated Burmese nationals connected with the Burmese State;
· prohibit the provision of Canadian financial services to and from Burma;
· prohibit the export of any technical data to Burma;
· ban new investment in Burma by Canadian persons and companies;
· prohibit Canadian-registered ships or aircraft from docking or landing in Burma; and
· prohibit Burmese-registered ships or aircraft from docking or landing in Canada and passing through Canada.

In a private meeting with Burmese Buddhist monks and dissident leaders at Toronto’s Burmese Buddhist Temple Minister Bernier stated that "sanctions are the means by which we, not just Canada, but the international community, can best exert pressures against the military junta."

In a press release Rights & Democracy applauded the new measures, noting that “the goal of the sanctions is to pressure the military junta to engage in a meaningful tripartite dialogue with the National League for Democracy, and Burma’s ethnic leaders as stated in 28 resolutions of the United Nations.” In addition, Rights & Democracy requested the Canadian government to continue implementing the 2005 Burma Motion by providing "tangible support to the legitimate authorities in Burma, specifically the government in exile (the National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma), the Members of Parliament Union (MPU), and the Committee Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP), or other democratic institutions such as the only independent radio and television media institution, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB)".