It goes back to a previous question.
We obviously have to work within the legal institutional construct, which is our Government of Canada and the way that ministerial responsibilities are attributed and the space within which they operate. We have an immigration minister who deals with admissibility issues. We have a foreign minister who deals with matters under SEMA.
When we look at a situation in our bilateral relationship with a country and we are of the view that something that's going on is inconsistent with our foreign policy objectives, broadly speaking, I think it's fair to say that there are a number of cards we can play.
Sanctions would be one of them. “Sanctions“ is not necessarily a legal term. Just in general terms, sanctions can relate to limitations on travel or limitations on the import and export of goods or technical data, as under SEMA. It could involve the imposition of asset freezes, financial services being denied, or even restrictions and prohibitions in terms of transport, marine and air transport.
We have a number of things that we could be doing and that we may elect to pursue at a given time. As the situation evolves, we might decide that we want to ratchet things up or ratchet things down in terms of the types of sanctions that we can take, but also in terms of other types of activities we may want to pursue, such as diplomacy and advocacy on the international stage, if that's even programmatic. There might be something that from a technical assistance perspective we might do in a foreign country in order to buttress or promote human rights or another public policy objective. Whether it's legislative, programmatic, or just operational in terms of advocacy, there are a number of instruments that we can deploy. When looking at a bilateral relationship, our geographic desks have the lead to balance out all of these considerations in terms of where the government wants us to bring the relationship. Therefore, they have to make a calculation as to which instrument they want to deploy and when.