OTTAWA - Canada has called on Myanmar immediately release all political prisoners, including 14 given 65-year sentences Tuesday for their involvement in demonstrations last year against the ruling regime.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Canada was "deeply concerned" about the imprisonment and called on the regime in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to begin a dialogue with the democratic opposition in the country.

"Freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law are values fundamental to Canada's foreign policy. We call upon the Burmese regime to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all the people of Burma," said Cannon, in a statement released late Tuesday. "We continue to urge the regime to begin a genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition and ethnic minorities in order to foster a political process leading to the full restoration of democracy."

Foreign Affairs said the jailed were members of the 88 Generation Students group.

"Canada has shown its solidarity with the people of Burma by imposing the toughest sanctions in the world on its regime and by conferring honorary Canadian citizenship on Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in recognition of her struggle to promote freedom and democracy in that country," said Cannon, in the statement.

Cannon also said that Canada was one of the first countries to respond to Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in May 2008, and has contributed more than $25 million to relief efforts there.

A total of 23 people arrested after last year's anti-junta demonstrations were handed prison sentences Tuesday and most were sent to Yangon's notorious Insein Prison, according to family friends and a lawyer, Agence France-Presse reported.

New York-based Human Rights Watch called the trials "unfair," and said the detainees should not be punished for taking part in the peaceful protests in August and September of 2007, which were suppressed by the military.

The sentences came a day after a court handed a 20-year prison term to a prominent blogger arrested after the demonstrations, which snowballed into the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.

There are more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to Amnesty International.

With files from AFP