Can anyone tell us why Canada and the rest of the civilized world haven't threatened to boycott the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing? We should not be giving China respect it does not deserve. The country has the worst human rights record in the world, verified by many, including Amnesty International.

China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined. Currently, China is involved in the repression, imprisonment and torture of thousands of its own peaceful citizens whose only "crime" is to be members of the seemingly peaceful Falun Gong spiritual movement.

As bad as this, if not worse, China supports the horrific dictatorship of the generals in Burma and supplies arms and money to the genocidal regime in Sudan which is behind the terrible crimes against humanity in Darfur.

For years we have been told that the way to improve China's human rights record is to continue to trade with it, but by now it is abundantly clear that this just does not work, as the Chinese government's human rights record has only worsened.

We should also be gradually severing our trading relationship with China. To continue to trade with this cruel dictatorship puts the lie to Canada's claim of respecting international human rights and casts us as hypocrites before the entire world. Are cheaper goods for us worth all the pain and suffering of others?