Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to both of the witnesses for being here today and sharing your testimony with us. I think it's so important for us to hear this. I also sit on the international human rights subcommittee, so I have heard some testimony regarding the residential schools in Tibet. Thank you for being here.
I'm going to ask the same questions. I'm going to ask two questions and then I'll give you some time to respond, if that's all right.
With regard to Bill C-281, the New Democratic Party is bringing forward a number of different amendments. One amendment we'd like to see is with regard to a human rights strategy. Canada does not have a human rights strategy that we could use as a baseline for the annual report. We're pushing for having that baseline, so that the government could show what they've achieved using that as the baseline.
I'd like some information from you on whether or not you would agree that a human rights strategy would be useful in this legislation.
The other piece I'd like to ask you about very quickly.... In this legislation, we have a definition of a “prisoner of conscience”. Now, Alex Neve, who was the secretary general of Amnesty International, joined us at our last meeting. He suggested that, instead of it being a “prisoner of conscience”, we should have a definition that refers to individuals who are detained or experiencing other treatment in contravention of international human rights standards.
Would you agree that it would be useful to have that within this legislation? Perhaps you can expand on that.
Perhaps I'll start with you, Mr. Therchin.