Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to stress here that even within a country that we or the minister may consider to be designated safe.... We know of democratic countries where it is very difficult for the LGBTQ community, and we've heard testimony to that effect.
So it is very critical that even though we may think the whole country.... I find it hard that any country could ever be considered totally safe and nobody is ever going to be persecuted. Secondly, we have to allow the minister, now that he is going to have this power, to be able to look within the country and say, “Okay, this whole country is not being designated, but within it there is this group that we really want to protect.”
We have signed on to the UN convention for this area, and I'm hoping you will agree to this amendment.