Thank you, Chair.
Welcome, Mr. Kols, and congratulations on your election to the chair position.
Your family and my family actually have something in common. You referenced relatives in Canada, and I assume they arrived here as refugees post-World War II, as did all four of my grandparents.
Canada was freedom shores, and here in Canada we have tremendous support in making sure that the freedom that has washed up onto Latvia's shores remains. We are part of the strong defence to make sure that freedom isn't lost again. It was lost at terrible human cost.
Having said that, Canada has an incredible history of bringing in refugees, your family members, our family, my family. Black slaves from the United States used to come through the Underground Railroad to find refuge. There were the Vietnamese boat people and most recently, Syrian refugees.
You also talked about the unconventional sponsored threats, especially in cyberspace. We just concluded a study that looked at the divisions that are being created in that virtual arena, that virtual world, the divisions that lead to xenophobia and nativism.
You also spoke of shared values. Part of our shared liberal democratic values here in Canada is our multiculturalism and acceptance of all people.
How do you see this rise of nativism and populism, especially among parties of the far right in Europe, and the threat they pose to the European Union? We know the Kremlin stands behind a lot of that. What is your position when it comes to those particular types of threats?