Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before I start talking to our guests, the motion that I gave notice of I'll hold until the next meeting because of the changes we made for our Colombia guest.
Thank you for your testimony. I am very pleased to hear from the civil society.
One of the things that we've noted of this process is that it's very much parked in the bureaucracy of our government. In some fashion, it's almost like the process is walled in. As dutiful as our bureaucrats are, they still are accountable to their political masters, whoever they may be at any given point in time, and I see that as problematic.
Hearing your testimony, from both of you, it was very much in line with what Mr. Neve gave us the other day from Amnesty International.
The other thing that occurred in Tuesday's testimony, in fairness to the people from the bureaucracy who were here, they sounded very open to change in the process. They were--and you should hear this--apologetic for the fact that because, as they stated, of the limited timeframe, they didn't access civil society as they felt they should have. In fairness to them, I think it's important to say that.
Since this process is new, there is still room for change and tweaking. So one of the things that's been suggested is bringing together first ministers, territorial ministers, and so on. I understand we haven't really looked at human rights in Canada in that fashion since 1988, so that's a very good thought, and I appreciate it.
Do you feel the current process has been heavily politicized, or do you feel it's because it's new to the bureaucracy that it has that kind of walled-in feeling?