Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for his speech.
The Liberal foreign affairs critic mentioned that he thought Canada should be engaging the Syrian opposition in a more comprehensive way. The minister spoke a bit about the Syrian opposition in his speech.
When the foreign affairs committee did a study on Syria late last year, we were told by a very well-placed individual who was very well-informed about the Syrian opposition, that the Syrian opposition could be described as having almost 100 identifiable groups that fell into three broad categories: those who were fighting for democracy, human rights, freedom and rule of law, the kind of people we would want to support; terrorists; and the criminal element, taking advantage of the chaos in the country.
I understand that recently the Syrian rebel group, Jabhat al-Nusra, led by Chief Abu Mohammad al-Golani, pledge allegiance to al Qaeda. Given that situation with the Syrian opposition, perhaps the minister could tell us how Canada is dealing with who to support in the Syrian opposition?