Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to both of our witnesses for being with us today. It's a very important discussion for us. I don't know whether you had the opportunity to read the transcripts of the minister's testimony last week, but obviously Canada finds these munitions reprehensible. We are going to do everything in our power to work toward seeing the world rid of these horrible things.
Mr. Drolet, you've got experience in the field and you know what you have to contend with when you're dealing with people who have been injured. The lives of people in some of these countries are already difficult, to say the least, and are compounded by the problems of children who have inadvertently picked up something they thought was a play toy but which then resulted in horrible handicaps. It is terrible that any child should have to go through that.
As you know, the minister has already spoken about the money Canada is contributing, particularly in Laos right now, to ensure that we help that country with the demining process. We want to do everything that we can. We are working toward those things.
First of all, I want to say thank you to Handicap International. I had the opportunity to meet with a number of stakeholders a year ago and to discuss the issues of people who are suffering from disabilities in other countries, and how they have to work within the context of their own country, so often stigmatized—that word is being used. It was an opportunity to discuss and find a way for Canada to move forward in helping to put in place some of the policies that will look first of all at development, with disabilities as part of the lens, and how we can work our development dollars so that we are inclusive of people who have disabilities. It was a very fruitful discussion, and I am pleased to say that we had some of those stakeholders meet with Minister Fantino after that discussion. Minister Fantino was putting those into place during his time in the ministry. I expect that we will move forward with those things.
I just have a comment. We heard from the general last Thursday about the responsibility we have to our military right now when we are working with our closest neighbour, the United States. I respectfully submit to our witness from Switzerland that even though the countries of Norway and Austria and the Holy See have made these comments, they don't have the same relationship that Canada has with the United States. We have a far different connection here.
We work with our closest ally in many ways that these other countries do not have to. We are in a rather unique position, being not only on the same continent but connected as we are to the United States in the relationship that we have.
My question would be to both of you, since you both are undertaking initiatives to speak to countries that have not signed on to the treaty. Obviously we would like to see everybody sign on to the treaty; that would be our objective in the long term. Can you tell us what negotiations you have had with and what representations you have made to countries that are not signatories to the treaty? How can Canada then come in and have those discussions, recognizing that we do have this very close relationship with the United States? How can we have discussions with the others that are not signatories to the treaty? What negotiations are you having?