Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Prof. Martel, my NDP colleague asked a good question: how should we interpret the actions and attitude of the government in Beijing toward Hong Kong?
We saw that the Sino-British Joint Declaration was flouted by the Beijing government. Then we saw the violations of human rights and democratic rights of the people of Hong Kong. This isn't just theory. Our relationship with Hong Kong has lasted for decades. More than 300,000 Canadian citizens and their families live in Hong Kong, so we have very close ties, and it's in our national interest to make sure that our citizens are treated well when they're in other countries.
I'll repeat my NDP colleague's question: how should we interpret the actions of the communist government in Beijing when it violates the human, civil and democratic rights of our own citizens and then does the same thing by sending its intelligence officers to our country to continue the intimidation of these same people?