Thank you for the question.
I think what's clear is that there is very little political will on certain consular files. The government essentially wants to simply manage the file and not actually solve it. Where there is no political will on the part of this government to repatriate Canadians with suspected ISIS ties, especially the men, that message has trickled down to every layer of Global Affairs.
To Ms. Carvin's point, you have a very junior consular officer who was tasked with this very complex counterterrorism file, which involves Canadians who are in conditions that the UN has said amount to torture and inhumane and degrading treatment. It would of course require a much more complex set of skills.
Essentially, for a file that is tricky, you see a very slow response by Global Affairs, very little in the way of consular support and very little in the way of support to family members.
I spoke to a family member yesterday who lives in Ottawa and who has been desperate to even meet with her consular caseworker for years now. It's simply because the message given to Global Affairs and to the consular team is clearly that this is not a high-priority issue and that the Prime Minister is not keen to repatriate these Canadian nationals.
They're treated very differently from other cases, such as cases of evacuations. These same family members who have loved ones who have been detained in northeast Syria for seven years have seen this government put forward a global declaration on arbitrary detention. They have seen this government evacuate hundreds of nationals from many war zones around the world, yet their families are left behind. Their loved ones are left behind very intentionally.