Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to the witnesses for coming in again this morning.
You're right, Mr. Chair, maybe they should get an office close to Parliament Hill.
We seem to ask you to come here a lot. I appreciate it very much.
Mr. Chairman, I had questions in two specific areas. Perhaps I'll put all the questions and then either Ms. Martin or Madame Gervais-Vidricaire could perhaps answer.
I appreciate your comments in terms of our chargé having met with Egyptian officials to convey the resolution passed by Parliament and the concerns of the government with respect to a very worrying level of violence and the persecution of the Copts in Egypt. I also appreciate that our chargé met with the head of the church there. I'd be curious to hear what the head of the Coptic Church said to Canadian officials when they met.
My real question, though, is with respect to the persecution of the Coptic community: what has Canada done at the United Nations? It seems to me that the United Nations is essential in providing some investigation and some sanctions--not traditional sanctions, but some ability to draw the international community together, our allies in the region--and expressing in a concerted way the concern of the international community.
I am interested in whether the minister or the Prime Minister or somebody has conveyed, for example, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, or senior officials there, our concern. What can the UN do with Canada to hopefully bring attention to this very unacceptable circumstance? That's a question with respect to the Coptic community.
The second part is more a general question with respect to our relationship with Egypt. I appreciate that the ongoing governmental relations at the foreign ministry level, with officials of the Egyptian government, have continued through the last number of months, and probably at a reasonably fulsome level. But have we had very high-level discussions with members of the Supreme Military Council? Has the minister or have senior officials from the department who have been travelling in that region had discussions with the very senior people on the ruling military council? That's apart from the normal channels through the foreign affairs ministry.
If so, in those channels--to follow up on Mr. Dechert's question--I'd be curious to know if we've expressed as well our concern about the persecution of the Coptic community, and also this rather bizarre idea that there should be no international observers at an election. That doesn't ring very encouraging; they're supposedly making the transition towards a more democratic system.