Welcome, Madame Éthier. I'm pleased that you're here today.
Your initial comments certainly sound very discouraging, and I agree with you; the policies that we have been trying to institute have not been bearing the democratic fruit, I guess you could say, that was expected of them.
Haiti in particular was one country. Yes, they had a peaceful election, but there doesn't seem to be very much substance underneath the election.
You talked about some of the British countries. I was in Guyana this summer, where they held their elections. This is one country that hasn't benefited from independence. They seem to have been stuck in a political time warp since their independence in 1962.
Another country that's in the news today is, of course, Fiji. I think this is the tenth overthrow of government they've had in approximately ten years.
So there seem to be many exceptions. That very level of difference is why what I think we're trying to do in this committee is to analyze what can be done—not one system to do all, but a system that would allow an approach to each individual country on its individual peculiarities and merits.
One of the things I read for this meeting today is a brochure by Rights and Democracy. This is an article by Hau Sing Tse, from the Asia branch of the Canadian International Development Agency. I'd like your comments. I'll just read a paragraph from this:
At CIDA, we believe firmly that good governance – meaning freedom, democracy, rule of law and human rights – is necessary to foster equitable economic growth—