Thank you, Mr. Ambassador.
It's good to have the ambassador here. I certainly enjoyed the meeting we had a number of weeks ago.
As well as Mr. Broadbent.... Welcome back.
I have about four questions, and I realize now, because of the time, that I'm going to ask them all together, and then maybe you can reflect on them. Then I want to go back to something Mr. Broadbent said.
This is to our two guests here.
I commend you for being here. To be quite honest, there are a few memories I have as a child—and I'm not that old. One of the things I was always brought up with in my home was to fear communism. They had been through the war--my father--and they were always very afraid of communism. They were very afraid when the conflict in the sixties...with Cuba playing a role in it, and I remember a fear in my home of that. It's something that's very profound and it's had a lasting memory. I have that memory.
My question to you is this. Do you know of any one thing that Canada is doing in Cuba? You mentioned that it was because of Canada that you were able to be brought here. On the different programs that are going on, do you understand any one being Canadian, with a Canadian role there? Yes, this is a United Nations initiative. Are you aware of any initiative that is specific to Canada? Is there one key initiative that Canada could do?
Mr. Broadbent has come with this idea now of some type of symposium or conference, where we could bring these people together. I think that may be a positive thing, although our friend over here, Mr. Aguilera, had a few opinions, and then all of a sudden he found himself in jail for eight years. Is there going to be this hold-back from anyone participating in such a symposium or in such a conference? Would it make us feel good, but would it have little impact in Cuba? What impact do you think that would have?