Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will keep my remarks very short, and I would hope that all members do, because we have important work to do on this committee.
I'll remind the committee that we are very close to finishing an interim statement on Ukraine, which I would like to get finished. We're also in a very important study on Canada's response with respect to vaccine equity and advice for the government on both what happened most recently and for future pandemics. Those are two very important pieces of work, and we had one meeting on Taiwan, which I think we will have to deal with.
I will keep my remarks short and simply say that I am supportive of the subamendment by Mr. Bergeron from the Bloc Québécois. I think it adds some clarity to the amendment. That doesn't mean we would support the amendment; however, we will support the subamendment.
It is clarifying to ensure that we are recognizing that the study proposed by Dr. Fry, following up her request in December to do a similar study on women's reproductive rights globally, is a study that we think is important; however, we are not attempting to jump the queue of our current work. It will go into the regular process of planning work. We would like to finish our work quickly and get it done before the end of this session.
Again, I would just remind members that we are not suggesting that this study takes primacy. It is simply putting it into our work plan to ensure that we will cover a very important issue, which I think has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. We have heard testimony, both at this committee and in another committee, with respect to the violation of women and the egregious crimes against humanity, war crimes, committed against women in Ukraine in the current illegal invasion by Russia into Ukraine. God forbid, some of those women may end up pregnant, and they may end up outside of Ukraine in a country that does not provide for legal abortions. They may end up having abortions that are dangerous. We would say this is timely and important, given the war in Ukraine.
I will close by simply saying that we would like to finish our statement on Ukraine, come to a conclusion on vaccine equity and either deal with the Taiwan study or perhaps send it to the new subcommittee that the Conservatives have suggested, now that the House has agreed to have a special committee on Canada-China relations.
Mr. Chair, I hope that brief comments will follow and that we can get to that work.