Our view is that the decision was made to get the uncomfortable topic of human rights out of the Canada-China relationship. While there may well have been well-intentioned and maybe even well-formed views that there could be something effective done with the dialogue process, the unfortunate thing has been that the dialogue process that was designed and delivered was simply not going to be the kind of dialogue that would end up being more effective than past processes.
On October 31st, 2006. See this statement in context.