Thank you, Ms. Triggs and Ms. Hicks, for your testimony, but more importantly for the important work that you do.
I am particularly concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on people facing arbitrary mass detention, the impact that the virus could have in those circumstances, especially, as we've talked about before at this committee, the Uighur Muslim community and what they're facing in China.
My first round of questions will focus on Ms. Hicks and on that particular issue.
Ms. Hicks, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations has proposed a UN investigation into whether or not the treatment of Uighurs constitutes genocide. In your view, are the acts being committed against Uighurs by the Chinese government constitutive of genocide?
Second, is the forcible confinement of people in close quarters, in concentration camps, during a pandemic, without the ability to socially distance and without proper access to health care...? Would that confinement and the associated circumstances be constitutive of genocide or of other definable international crimes?