I think there may be some misunderstanding. What was removed from my report was not actually recommendations for policy. That sort of stuff was never going to be allowed to be put in, because my report touched on areas that are classified. I read a great deal of material; a lot of it is classified. My personal view is that I do not understand why this material is not allowed to be openly known, but the tendency of government is to classify, so materials that seemed to be suggesting things that are secrets of Canada would not be put in the public report.
Also, a lot of my detailed discussion of the process regarding the prisoners lists that we submit to China was removed. There were requests to remove other aspects because the department felt it might endanger people in China if somehow it could be known who had told me what. Seeing that these meetings were with government people with the full knowledge of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I didn't really see that. I think largely there was a concern about the way I expressed things or about whether information I put in this report could interfere with our bilateral relations on human rights. I think that's really the bottom line: there was concern about the response of the Chinese government to this.
I'm largely speculating as to the motivations. I was simply given copies of the report with red marks and so on. I would say they did some good editing too, and improved some of my language; there were some aspects of changing emphasis.
I wouldn't want to get too hung up on this point. I really feel that the report is what it is. I have never heard of anybody in China or Canada saying they disagreed with any of the information in the report, that any of the information is somehow biased or inaccurate, and I think from reading the text you basically get the main idea about what's going on.
I think the more interesting aspect is what Canada could be doing to be more effective in this area, and that question you would direct to Mr. Neve. I'd be happy to discourse on it at length, but I don't think you want to give me all day.