Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. I think Canada is overly generous compared to any other country, with acceptance rates that are double or triple the average of western countries. Many European countries have acceptance rates for refugees in the single digits; Canada's has varied between 40% and 60% over the last 30 years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think I'm out of time and I'm happy to take questions, and even answer them, if I am able.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right. Thank you very much for inviting me to address the committee today from Washington, D.C.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. I recognize the extreme time limits. I will be brief. I would like to address two aspects of the proposed legislation. Specifically, I'll make a general comment on how Canada's vulnerability to illegitimate refugee claims undermines the purposes of the 1951 convention.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry for the people who have to see my picture.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I hope so too.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  His father was a close intimate, from what I understand--

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Again, I'm not a Canadian-trained lawyer; I can't speak to the Canadian law. I didn't testify that he couldn't be tried in Canada. I think it would be inappropriate to try him in a civilian court; he's a military detainee. I wish I could speak to it. I really am not familiar enough with Canadian law.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think it would require a poll to determine whether the Canadian public would think it had been served. I've no doubt the Canadian courts meet the requirements of the Geneva convention. I'm certainly not going to debate you on that point. I think it would be inappropriate, as I said, given the way battlefield detainees are captured and the lack of evidence taken at that time, to then try to obtain a conviction based on the sort of evidence naturally obtained when one captures someone on a battlefield, as opposed to at a crime scene, with careful documentation and witness statements and evidence.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I have no idea. I really don't. I postulate, but it's purely a guess, that his intimacy with the bin Laden family in particular and with high-ranking members of al-Qaeda may have made him a very information-rich intelligence target that some other children might not be. That, to me, seems plausible, but I don't know.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  He was a dutiful son following his father, I'm sure. Around the campfire, many stories were shared that could be useful to Canadian and U.S. intelligence.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Over 15, yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The Geneva conventions, whether you like it or not, do not provide access for a lawyer upon capture. That's international law. I agree with you that the law must be applied—not what some people wish the law said, but what the law says. The fact is that Canadian law does not apply to an enemy combatant detained by a foreign party.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It is my understanding. You're clearly better informed of some of the specifics of the Uighurs, for example, but it would not surprise me that the United States would have trouble finding somebody to take the Uighurs back. We all see the persecution they are undergoing in China and in bordering states.