Thank you, gentlemen, both for being here and for what you do. As somebody who has stood on the ground in Burundi and in the Congo and Rwanda, with Food for the Hungry, and who has recently been in Iraq and travelled to Pakistan on human rights missions, I love meeting people who dedicate themselves to working with people who have no voice and who have been subjected to the kind of things you talk about.
But I also want to refute the notion that there is some sort of division within our government, as you were suggesting, Mr. Matas. I'm proud of a minister, and many Canadians of all political stripes are proud of a minister, who is renowned the world over, as Minister Kenney is, for defending human rights, for going to China, and for going to Burma—at least we had our Minister of Foreign Affairs in Burma recently—and for knowing the situation of the refugees in Syria and Jordan who have tumbled over the border from Iraq. This is a minister who is a renowned human rights advocate.
So while you may disagree with aspects of the policy, I fear we may be getting the wrong answers by asking the wrong questions. I suspect that you are in favour of expediting the process for people who are legitimate refugees. So when you point out individual cases that may go the wrong way as a consequence of Bill C-31, it doesn't mean we should throw out the baby with the bathwater.
What I'm saying to you is, let's not suggest this is a dichotomy, an either/or situation.
Maybe, Dr. Rashid, you can comment on the importance of our expediting the process. We now look at over 1,000 days, on average, for a refugee claimant who is clearly a refugee, and all Canadians want that person to receive status as quickly as possible. That timeframe is going to be reduced to a small percentage of that. How do you feel about that improvement in the compassionate treatment of such an individual?