Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Nankivell, you won't be surprised to see me continuing in exactly the same vein as a few moments ago.
Among the western democracies, apart from the Federal Republic of Germany, as I mentioned earlier, the United Kingdom has suggested that it has set up some kind of migration mechanism for Hong Kong residents. However, as far as we understand it, this would mainly be aimed at people born before the 1997 handover. This means that most of the protesters, who are young people under 23 years of age, would not be eligible for refuge in the U.K.
Contrary to the very audible discourse against the Chinese regime, we saw the United States announcing from the outset that all asylum applications had to be made on American territory. It is therefore not possible—Mr. Chong alluded to this—to proceed through the consulate in Hong Kong.
Given the very close ties Canada and Hong Kong have had for many years, at least since World War II when Canadian soldiers defended Hong Kong's territorial integrity, should Canada not effectively consider, like other western democracies such as the Federal Republic of Germany, providing safe haven for human rights protesters in Hong Kong?