Thank you very much.
Thank you for being before the committee today. I have so many questions I'd like to ask, and so little time to ask. Actually, your latter reference to the work of Barry Stuart and alternate approaches and so on really leads directly into my first question. I'll just ask both questions, which are actually a bit unrelated.
I know that you're very aware, from your legal expertise and also from your extensive work with Rights and Democracy, that there's a world of difference between democracy-building or democratization rooted in international human rights, and democracy-building that is perhaps more accurately called “democracy promotion”, which is rooted in self-interest and the imposition of particular ideologies.
In the context of this committee's work, which is to look at Canada's approach to democracy-building and what sort of role we might take, what kinds of models we might look at, I wanted to ask whether you have particular views, from your extensive experience, about the kind of approach that Canada ought to be embracing. We've been looking at a number of different models. As you know, Rights and Democracy exists. The Parliamentary Centre exists. Both have various aspects of capacity-building and so on. Would it be your view that we should try to incorporate what they're doing, tie in with it, and so on? Or are there other models you would propose, some of them being much more political party based?
The second question is not totally unrelated, but may seem a little different. In our developing an approach to that, would it be your view that we ought to look specifically at some of the things happening within first nations within Canada? Because one of the things I've been very struck with as we venture out into developing countries--and most recently, a couple of weeks I spent in Africa--is that there's a certain element of “physician, heal thyself” that we are faced with, looking in our own mirror but also in talking with people. In northern Uganda, where there's a tremendous need and frankly a drive with Canadian leadership around truth and reconciliation with the Acholi people and the Lord's Resistance Army, you're just reminded of exactly the point you've made: that within first nations and some of the things happening here, perhaps there are things we need to understand more about and take more responsibility for if we're going to be credible on the world stage in terms of our contribution to democracy-building.