Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, colleagues, for your patience while we conducted committee business.
I'm going to ask you to wait a bit longer, because I have a notice of motion I want to give verbally to the committee. Then, I'll have a few questions to ask.
I'm providing a verbal notice of the following:
That, the committee report the following to the House: that Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza is facing political persecution in the Russian Federation including a show trial with high treason charges following his public condemnation of the unjustified and illegal war by Russia against Ukraine. That Vladimir Kara-Murza has survived two assassination attempts by poisoning including in 2015 and 2017, and that he is currently imprisoned in Russia and his health is failing. That Vladimir Kara-Murza is the recipient of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and is a Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Therefore, the committee calls on the Government of Canada to grant honorary Canadian citizenship to Vladimir Kara-Murza and demand that the Russian Federation set him free.
I have it in French and English, for the clerk's convenience.
Colleagues, that is the last bit of administration I want to cover off.
Senator Martin, perhaps I could ask you first.
This is the second time this bill is coming through here. Can you talk about the sense of urgency in having this bill pass? We are so close to completely closing this legislative hole created by Parliament inadvertently. This is an issue that's now lasted several decades, so perhaps I could start with that.
How close are we to completing this bill? If amendments are considered, it will get sent back to the Senate and cause further delay. I'll start with that.