First and foremost, I appreciate the amazing work that consular services do in helping Canadians in need, often including those who are temporarily incarcerated.
I think that ultimately, in the regulations that will come into play in this and the discussions we're going to have between Parliament and government, we can find a balance there to ensure we are going after those who are prisoners of conscience. They weren't given legal process. They aren't there because of actual violations of laws that also would be violations of laws here in Canada. I think there are ways in which we can measure it off, but we want to stop things like hostage diplomacy. We want to stop those who, like Jimmy Lai, are thrown in jail because they believe in democracy and the freedom of the press. That's where I think we draw the line and say, “Okay, these people are being held because of their beliefs, their strong defence of democracy and human rights or their political views, and they shouldn't be in jail.”
We are coming up on Iranian accountability week, where we will highlight political prisoners who are being held in Iran. Often, those political prisoners have family ties here in Canada. Sometimes we're successful as parliamentarians in getting people released, and other times we're not, but I think we need to continue to hold these corrupt regimes to account for the inhumane activities they're carrying out, and this is a good way to do it.