I think if ever there is a time when this committee needs to have an extraordinary meeting and hear from our ambassador, this is one of those times. It is an extremely concerning situation. I'm hearing from my constituents about it. I know that Canadians are very concerned. I would echo the sentiment that this is not a partisan issue. I think for every one of us here, the top priority is the safety of those Canadians who are detained.
I am very pleased to hear that Ambassador McCallum is available tomorrow. My understanding is that he is available at 10 a.m. tomorrow. I believe that this should be an in camera meeting. I think for us right now, the number one issue is the safety of the Canadians. We know that this is very sensitive. The precedent on consular issues like this, particularly where there's so much implication that anything that is said could impact on the consular cases, is to have those hearings in camera. Certainly on security issues we have had those meetings in camera. I believe it is extremely important, particularly because Canadians are so concerned about this, that we be able to be open and frank with our ambassador and be able to hear honestly what we are doing and what we can do as a parliamentary committee.
Having said that, I have an amendment to the motion. My amendment would add the words “in camera” and “at 10 a.m.”, as follows, “That the committee meet in camera on January 18 at 10:00 a.m. for one hour to hear from the Canadian Ambassador to China and consular officials on the state of affairs” and then the rest of the motion would remain the same.
I would not expect that the officials would be there to answer or make statements. They would be there in case Ambassador McCallum needed support with technical questions. I think we would want to spend most of the time we have hearing from Ambassador McCallum.
I want to just reiterate that I think we are all equally concerned. It is not a partisan issue; it is a Canadian issue. I know that Canadians are extremely concerned about this, as are we.