I will tell you in English. The question from the journalist was, “How was Nathalie when you met with her?” The answer from Mr. Obhrai was, "Nothing stood out of concern to me".
On September 22, 2009, embassy officials went to see Nathalie at Saeed's request. Before they arrived, Saeed locked Nathalie and the children in a room, so that she could not be present for the meeting. We were made aware of that meeting by Saeed, who called me at the office to tell me he was prepared to let Nathalie and the children leave unconditionally, but that he first wanted to speak to people at the embassy.
The day after that meeting, Nathalie Tenorio-Roy, a case officer with Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, called Ms. Durocher. Ms. Durocher immediately sent me an e-mail recounting her conversation with the departmental officials—which I will be providing to you—and dated September 24, 2009. It says that Saeed asked for $300,000 U.S. in exchange for releasing Nathalie and the children. Furthermore, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade refused to use that information, even though, in our opinion, that is clearly a ransom demand related to negotiating Nathalie's and the children's return to Canada with Saudi authorities.
It was only on October 22 that Ms. Tenorio-Roy put that information in written form—you can refer to the e-mail of October 22 in that regard. She added that the Department verified the legality of that demand in Saudi Arabia and that an article of the Sharia allows it. We asked to be given a copy of that article of Sharia law. This is a practice involving a refund of the dowry that was paid—something that a spouse can ask of her husband when she asks for a divorce. However, Nathalie was never married, she did not receive a dowry and, furthermore, she did not ask for a divorce because in Saudi Arabia, if she asked for a divorce, she would lose custody of her children when they reached the age of seven, and would no longer be able to take them out of the country.
In closing, I would just like to mention that Ms. Francine Lalonde, the member of Parliament for La Pointe-de-l'Île, and myself met with the Saudi Ambassador, Mr. Osamah Al Sanosi Ahmad at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia on May 3. He began by saying that he had met with the Canadian Ambassador in Riyad and together they had discussed the case of Nathalie Morin. He said that the Canadian Ambassador never told him that Nathalie had been beaten and forcibly confined by her spouse, nor that she wanted to return to Canada with her children. When we insisted, saying that there were multiple pieces of written evidence from Nathalie regarding her living conditions in Saudi Arabia, he finally said that if we forwarded the information to him, his government would take action.
I would now like to turn it over to Mr. Stéphane Beaulac.