Thank you very much for that question. I think it's an important one.
It's important to distinguish the action of an individual from making collective statements. In this instance, these were two Canadian citizens who engaged in reprehensible actions that are reflective of them and only them. I think we have to be very careful, when we're talking about scientists or any individual, not to ascribe anything to anyone other than the people who were responsible for taking those actions.
In this geopolitical environment, with tensions being where they are with China, it's very difficult to separate out the actions of the Government of China from those of the citizens of Canada who happen to have Chinese ancestry or, for that matter, people living within China. There are unbelievable numbers of wonderful Chinese scientists doing incredible work for the betterment of humanity in China now. We cannot allow the actions of the Chinese government to colour our view and create the kinds of distortions that you're talking about. We have to root that out.
I would suggest that we need to step back and consider very carefully how we address these issues. I always think of first principles. The first principle, as everybody in this room agrees, is that protecting our nation from foreign interference is our top priority. We have to protect this country. Beyond that, we have to protect democracy.
We would secondarily agree that any attack on the scientific community or on the domestic affairs of this country is an attack upon all of us. Every member of Parliament is equally affected by that.
Thirdly, the actors engaging in this are separate and apart from any community. They are either a government actor or individuals making these decisions. We have to not view them in the context of a community.
We have to think very carefully because we've seen, historically, that when broad characterizations are made and we are not careful with the brush we paint with, we hurt a lot of very innocent people. I think we have to be very careful about that.