Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The focus of my first few questions will be on the different ethnic and faith-based groups in Syria, such as Alawites, Druze, Kurds and Christians.
We can appreciate coordinated assaults involving state forces with affiliated ISIS extremist groups against civilians, with gravity of scales of crimes, including killing and raping, and the capturing of women and children in public squares, homes, hospitals and schools. There have been hundreds identified as dead and thousands injured or captured. Villages have been burned.
My first question is, what exactly is the position of the Canadian government, and why was the government silent on this?