Mr. Chair, according to some people, the world is dividing in half: those who are Irish and those who wish they were. Unfortunately, Ireland is part of two countries. Perhaps that's the problem. One of those countries is England, a democratic country. It's a state of law, a state we have an excellent relationship with. Northern Ireland, one of the provinces of England, isn't necessarily a good place to live if you are Catholic in a Protestant area and vice versa.
We're basically saying that there are very specific problems in that area. We consider England a democratic country, but is it completely free of violence? That's something that needs to be considered.
Some Latin American countries are democratic, but a unionist there has an extremely short life expectancy. That's something we should perhaps consider if we are unionists. If someone is a unionist in those countries, the life expectancy is 25 years lower than the national average. It's true; it's not something we made up.
There are very democratic countries where small communities face extreme persecution. For religious or historical reasons, the Duncan clan in Scotland was demonized for centuries, under the pretext that they were a clan of thieves. This type of tradition repeated to the extreme leads to unacceptable shunning. That doesn't mean that England and Scotland aren't democratic countries.
We are simply asking you to take it into account. The minister still makes the decision; we aren't changing that power. We would like to, but it's not the purpose of the amendment. With this amendment, we're asking you to recognize something as simple as the fact that some careers, like that of a human rights lawyer, may be at risk in some countries. That's all we're asking for.