Canada Confers Honorary Citizenship On Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. She was under house arrest from July 1989 until her recent release in November of 2010.

She is featured above speaking to a group of Carleton University students about democracy in Burma.
In a CBC article, published March 8, 2012: Baird learns of possible Burma vote rigging; the Canadian government announced that it will be monitoring Burma's elections next month.

Aung San Suu Kyi, democratic icon and Nobel Peace laureate, greeted Minister Baird at her home in Rangoon where she has been under house arrest for the last 23 years for opposing the ruling military junta.
Baird came bearing the gift of honorary Canadian citizenship for Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi used the meeting to express concerns about vote rigging in Burma.

Suu Kyi requested that Canadian monitors pay close attention to the elections to ensure more legitimacy for the electoral process. Baird said that he would be "thrilled to lift the Canadian sanctions against the current government."

Baird said of the Burmese elections that "they won't be perfect elections, but they will be fair, open and transparent ... The whole world will be watching, as will Canada."

"In a way, Baird is making history," reported the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault. "He's the first Canadian foreign affairs minister to ever set foot in Burma. However, in terms of global politicians, he joins a parade of people who have recently come through Burma over the last several months. Many are asking, is this reform for real, or reform for the sake of attracting the attention of international investment?"