As the Government of Canada, we seek to assist all Canadians. Dual citizens can find themselves at particular risk when they travel to their countries of origin, in light of the fact that not all countries, as you mentioned, necessarily recognize Canadian citizenship and provide us with the consular access that we continue to seek. We advocate equally on behalf of all Canadians, and we use all means at our disposal to do so, but in cases where Canadian citizenship is not recognized and the dual citizen is treated as a citizen of the local nationality, sometimes consular access is blocked.
For example, in the case of China, where we have many dual citizens travelling and there have been issues in the past, we concluded an agreement—a memorandum of understanding—with the government in regard to the treatment of citizens with dual nationality. In cases where Chinese Canadians travel to China on their Canadian passport, the Government of China has undertaken to afford us full consular access, as we would expect under the Vienna convention. That has assisted in some cases with getting the access we need.
This is part of the travel advice we offer to Canadians proactively as well. We tell them to keep in mind that when travelling to their countries of origin where they have dual citizenship, while we will continue to make best efforts and to intervene at all appropriate levels and through all means when issues arise, in some cases our ability to access Canadian citizens is difficult as we are not afforded the access we would like to have.