You are absolutely right. We're constantly looking for ways to improve efficiencies using new technology, lessons learned, as you mentioned, from the Lebanon crisis. There's a Senate committee tasked entirely with the role of examining that evacuation as to how we might go forward in the uncertain times we live in. I hope we'll not face something of that nature again. There are 40,000 Canadians inside Lebanon, 15,000 of whom we evacuated in just one month with no significant resources there. I think we had nine people on full-time staff at the Beirut embassy when the crisis began.
Let's never forget this is risky work, as I alluded to in my earlier remarks. We lost Glyn Berry in Afghanistan. The work our consular officials do is life-threatening at times, and it's invaluable work.
I was in Poland a week ago, and just as we were about to enter the embassy, a few Canadians arrived. They had been robbed. I was taken with the professionalism and the personal attention afforded these Canadians, who found themselves in a foreign land and were in real trouble, concerned about missing their flight and getting back to Canada. Within a few hours, our officials there had sorted through this problem and given them the assurance and the assistance they needed. That has been one of the real joys to see the incredible effort that's expended every day by officials working abroad.