Thank you very much.
I want to thank all the witnesses who are before this committee. I just want to let you know that, first of all, even though the time is quite brief that you're before the committee, everything you're saying is also being recorded and registered, so we've taken note. In addition to that, the documents before us are quite comprehensive.
Professor Alston is somebody I have great admiration for. He is a world-known professor on human rights, a great academic, and somebody who has been with the UN also for a very long time as a rapporteur, so the fact that he's been assigned this is because there's an urgent need to gather information, do a fact-finding, and also do a proper report. He is the ideal candidate because of his world knowledge in terms of human rights.
It's very shocking what we read in the report, both Professor Alston's report and also Judge Jose Melo's report, on the military intervention and the military violations that are taking place in that country. We as a country, I think, have to speak out and say that this is outrageous, that a country that purports to be democratic has to also respect its democratic institutions, freedom of association, and labour rights. Right now what we've been hearing from these major reports of two very respectable people is very disturbing.
So I think you're right that it needs to come before our committee. We need to give it due attention, and we as a committee certainly will take forward your recommendations specifically about Canada, because we have involvement through CIDA, through our military training, through our partners, and also through our mining companies because we have interests there too.
Given all that, we do have a stake in this and I think there is also the fact that we care about the Philippines and the development in the Philippines. We have seen over the years that there's a huge community of Philippine-Canadians in Canada, and we recognize the fact of the urgent need for us to take action.
So we thank you very much for coming forward to the committee. I just wanted to make that comment. But I hear your recommendations and I appreciate them, and I've taken note of them.