The group Canadian Friends of Burma will hold rallies in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa today (May 18).

The Vancouver gathering will take place at noon at Robson Square to call for the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political protesters in Burma. She was arrested last week after an American man swam across a lake and entered her home.

On May 14, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon condemned the recent  arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship in 2008. She is one of four people to have been granted this honour. The others are Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved many  Jews during the Second World War, former South African president Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama.

Aung San Suu Kyi  is the daughter of independence hero Aung San and cofounder of the National League for Democracy.

The country has been  under  almost continuous military rule  since 1962. In 1988, a  vicious Burmese junta under Ne Win launched a coup and seized power.

In 1990,  the National League for Democracy  won the national election even though  Aung Sun Suu Kyi  was under house arrest at the time. She has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 19 years and has  not been able to see  her family.

Her husband Michael Aris died in England 10 years ago.