Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witness for her presentation.
Your presentation is quite different from that of some of the witnesses we've heard here before, but I would like to carry on a little bit with a line that Mr. Dorion was talking about. Both the United States, via the CIA, and Cuba have a reputation for activities within that whole region. It goes back very many years.
In the area of difference in your testimony as opposed to others—and I'm not calling into question in any way the testimony you've given; it's just a comparator. In the area of the Constitution, we had witnesses at this committee talk about how the average citizen was so proud of their Constitution that many of them carried it with them, and that there was a dialogue on the streets, within the community; there was a sense of engagement in the population that in fact we would even envy in this country.
You mentioned health care. They also testified that for the poor people there was a substantial betterment in the area of education.
Again, I want to discuss a little bit what Mr. Dorion started with the TV stations. Evidence was given here that one particular TV station actually led the coup. The other evidence matched yours, though, in regard to the administration's closure of the other stations, which is precisely the evidence that you've given.
Commentary was given that one of the worst problems in the country wasn't the army and it wasn't the government, but it was the police themselves. They saw in the government that they weren't being active enough in controlling and perhaps educating the police, and that there were a lot of abuses there.
I, for one, am not overly surprised that in a country where a coup is attempted against the government, following that coup perhaps there's a hardening. Testimony does match that there's been a hardening of the resolve in the approach of the government.
You mentioned appointments, and I'm not so sure whether you were talking exclusively of the Supreme Court judges, but here in Canada we've had successive governments appoint to our Senate people who are aligned with them politically, including the current government. That's not seen as particularly bad, because if you have a philosophy of how you want to move your country forward to support it in that fashion.... But again, the separation of the court system is something that needs to be protected.
If you'd like to respond to any or all of that, feel free. Then perhaps we can go further.