How Canada is supporting Myanmar as it transitions from dictatorship to democracy

YANGON, Myanmar — For decades, Canada had no diplomatic ties with the brutal military dictatorship in Myanmar.

In fact, Canada had some of the toughest sanctions against the country.

But in 2010 the dictatorship slowly began to loosen its iron grip on the country and, when it became clear that Myanmar was moving towards a new era of openness, Canada began to consider ties.

The Canadian government opened an embassy a little more than a year ago.

“We were a little bit late here,” says Canadian Ambassador Mark McDowell. “Our licence plate is number 43 which indicates we are the 43rd embassy to set up shop here.

“We are relatively small, but now we’ve grown to 10 staff and we are able to deal with a lot of different types of issues now.”

The issues he’s referring to really run the gamut and ranges from consular services to provide assistance to the growing number of Canadian tourists heading to the country, to the many Canadians already based in the country working for NGO’s and jumping into the new economic opportunities in the country. (Courtesy of Global News)

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