Mann Be Du, an ethnic Karen, told Narinjara that the meeting was held to build unity among the ethnic people from Burma living in Canada and to work together for helping people from war-torn, ethnic areas in Burma.

"We held the meeting with the aim to build friendship and unity among out different ethnic people from Burma who are now living in Canada, and we hope we will be able to do something with our unity for our people suffering from the continual offensives by the Burmese regime in our ethnic areas in Burma," said Mann Be Du.

He added that more than 300 ethnic people from Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Chin, Shan, Mon, and Rakhine nationalities attended the seminar and they formed an organization name the Burma Ethnic Nationalities Culture, or BENC, with 27 elected youth from different ethnic backgrounds during the seminar.

He said the organization would work for strengthening unity among the ethnic nationalities as well as for raising cooperation to help each other and for uplifting their particular culture and literature inside and outside of Burma.

According to the source, Han Su Mon, an ethnic Chin, gave the opening speech and Sein Aung Than, an ethnic Rakhine, gave the closing speech at the meeting.

The meeting was successfully held from 12 pm to 5 pm and included entertainment with a cultural event.