South Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan Friends of Burma

When the Buddhist clergy began publicly praying for peace and democracy in August 2007, SFB members worked to ensure that the local news media understood that Saskatchewan people care about and are affected by events in Burma. The involvement of Bikkhu Sandawara, a monk who arrived in Regina as a refugee that September, contributed greatly to this activity.

In 2007, the rest of the world took notice of Burma when 10,000 Buddhist monks marched in protest. But a small group of people in Saskatchewan have been watching and supporting the quiet struggle of Burmese people for years.

Saskatchewan Friends of Burma started in the fall of 2002, when Regina activist Victor Lau approached Trish Elliott with the idea of forming a local group to support the people’s struggles in Burma, modeled after the work of Regina’s East Timor support group. That same year the newly independent Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste joined the UN, proof that when local democratic struggles receive grassroots international support, people can realize their dream of freedom. The group started with an informal supper gathering of interested people. The first members included Victor, Trish, John Murney, Jim and Mavis Olesen, Susan Risk, BJ Wadee, and Susan and Dallas McQuarrie. They decided to form a local chapter to support the campaigns of Canadian Friends of Burma, hence the name Saskatchewan Friends of Burma (SFB).

Early activities centred on writing letters to protest Canadian investment in Burma, as well as letters to local retailers who carried goods from Burma. This was because Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democratically elected leader, had called very strongly for international sanctions. Forced labour was a big issue around Canada’s mining activities at the time, thus the group also worked to raise awareness and funds among Saskatchewan trade unions. The funds supported training in community organizing for refugee youth in Thailand.

Through Jim and Mavis’s connection with refugee camps, the group helped organize a joint art exhibition between teenagers in the camps and teenagers at Thom Collegiate in Regina. This activity was supported by SCIC’s Small Projects Fund. The public launch of the art show in January 2003, along with a film night that included a film Mavis produced about education in refugee camps, coincided with the arrival in Regina of the first small group of refugees from the border. Several attended the launch and films, and were deeply touched that Canadians were learning about human rights in Burma.  Films were the centre of several other public education events, including the screening of a film created with the help of SFB member Nichole Huck.

In the past few years, Nichole and fellow SFB members Susan McQuarry, Jim and Mavis Olesen and BJ Wadee have been busy helping settle new arrivals from Burma. Due to the sponsorship support of Regina citizens, Regina has become a major destination for families arriving from the border camps.

Saskatchewan Friends of Burma is a small group that has been working in small ways to keep Burma’s people from being forgotten. The global network of little groups just like SFB has so far resulted in hundreds of foreign companies voluntarily ending their support for Burma’s military regime, including PetroCanada, the Bank of Nova Scotia, Seagrams, the Bay and Sears Canada. In 2007, the Canadian government introduced tough new sanctions for the remaining hold-outs, and named Aung San Suu Kyi an honourary Canadian citizen. The days of Canadian support for the brutal military leaders of Burma are waning, while the days of support for democracy are dawning—and Saskatchewan Friends of Burma has played, and continues to play, a vital role in making this shift possible.