Thank you for those questions.
In terms of Canadians in distress, Canadians who have a problem, this is our bread and butter. People would not come to us if they did not have a problem. So they will come to us via various means: e-mail, phone, or walking in the door. They will come either through the ops centre or through other means, through friends and family.
What we can provide is advice. Consular officers abroad and consular management officers here are integrators of information. Although they sometimes act almost as social workers, lawyers, doctors, etc., they are none of those things. Basically what we can do is provide the information that will help Canadian citizens deal with the situation in which they find themselves. As one case officer said to me, “What we hope to do is empower our co-citizens to help themselves in these situations.”
This doesn't mean we leave them alone to figure it out for themselves, particularly in difficult countries that have very different cultural or legal mores. What we can do is provide information on the background and legal context. We can provide lists of lawyers. We can provide lists of health services and hospitals. We can give them advice about where to turn. If they ask us—and sometimes they don't—we can be in touch with their friends or family. We can help them with their documentation. There's a long list of things we can do.
But what we prefer and what is part of our mandate is to help Canadian citizens who find themselves in distress to come to a resolution themselves within the country, and of course in those cases where it can't be resolved, to facilitate their return to Canada.
The information we provide, of course, should start before they leave. That's something I'm going to ask my colleague Lillian Thomsen to talk about—the information we give and that we try to get out to Canadians before they depart, before they find themselves in any difficulty.