Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There are a few questions I would like to ask. I'm sure my colleagues will have others as well. I have tremendous amount of respect for Rights and Democracy, because I worked with your predecessor on Haiti. As far as I am concerned, Rights and Democracy is a sort of neutral beacon that tells us exactly what is going on on the ground. I know you will not be complacent.
I would like to know exactly what is going on and when the government was informed. In an article in Le Devoir, we read that Rights and Democracy had somehow informed the government that legislation of this nature was going to be passed.
Apparently, you spoke to a government representative or to the embassy. I would just like some light shed on this issue once and for all. Our impression is that a governance support group was established under the direction of National Defence. Later on, CIDA did this. We always boasted that we had very close ties with the Ministry of Justice and with President Karzaï. Now it looks like we found out about something at the last minute, that we were unaware of what had happened and that everyone was caught quite off-guard.
The article that appeared in Le Devoir is somewhat confusing. It conveys the impression that you informed the government ahead of time. We are a little like a bus driver asking people to move to the back: we could have done something to prevent the situation, rather than simply managing the crisis. I would like you to clarify things for us, Mr. Beauregard.
In addition, I did not think we did enough in the case of Malalai Joya, when she was expelled from the Afghan Parliament. We are talking about women's rights. We could do some specific things to demonstrate our support for women's rights.
I would like you to tell us whether you think we did enough as a country and as a government to protect the rights of Ms. Joya, a member of the Afghan Parliament. We talk theoretically a lot of the time, but this is a specific case. When it comes down to universal values, I don't think we should use the pretext that some issues relate solely to Parliament, or that this is a question of sovereignty. A right is a right, and we should get involved when women's rights are violated, whatever the situation may be.
Those are my two questions. My colleagues will have others for you as well.