Thank you, Mr. Dewar.
I have a couple of questions, and then we'll go back to Mr. Abbott.
People put different tags on the situation in Darfur to describe it, but it is certainly one of the worst humanitarian crises ever. The international community has been criticized for being slow in responding. Measures they've put in place have not worked. I know when you're in opposition you like to point at the government and say, “You aren't doing enough.” When you're in government, you like to say, “This is what we're doing. We're doing this bilaterally, we're doing this multilaterally, we're working with the UN.”
I had a group of students come into my office about a year ago, and I was very impressed with them. It was a group of university students here in Ottawa, and again, back in Alberta, that came to mind. The group was called STAND, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. Back then, the issue was about helicopters. But where do these helicopters go now? Back then, there was a larger contingency of NGOs. You say they've been mostly expelled. Even some of the UN has been expelled. There is no security there. This was a big issue back then with the students, that we just needed to get helicopters in. Even if you send helicopters, there's really no strategy, no plan--or is there? That's the first thing.
The other thing I recall from a year ago is that they talked about disinvestment. We did a little study on that last year, I think, before the election, and we found out that there wasn't much investment at all in Sudan, and in the Darfur area specifically. Yet students and politicians from opposition and from governments all wanted to really do something.
You talked about the elections. You said the question is, what will bring peace to Sudan? Obama had some ideas.
I guess my question is, what can a government do bilaterally, not just send money to the UN but what can our country do bilaterally, Canada-Sudan? What do you think? Are there any ideas you have specifically on some of those things?