Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for coming to join us today. We often say “thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule”, usually out of politeness, but in your case I think it's actually true. You have been very busy for the last number of months.
I wanted to ask a question about Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. I appreciate the determination with which you stated the principle that there should never, never, never, I believe you said, be reprisals against citizens for the actions of a state, particularly a legal one like this. Do we have many friends on this point?
We have 14 nations willing to say something about it in public and supposedly others that agree with us behind the scenes. A task force was put together very quickly in the case dealing with Iran. In this particular situation, what I'm wondering is whether there is any capacity and enough of a consensus on your principle, as you've stated it, to have an international collective response or strategy in dealing with the question that we're talking about.
Have you made efforts to set up such a task force? Have you pursued the development of a coalition of ideas and strategy that might have some effect in dealing with China in this regard?