Certainly the issue is whether the State Immunity Act, as it currently stands, is constitutional and complies with international standards. As you said, the UN Committee Against Torture, when it said in a previous case, the Bouzari case, that Canada was in violation of its obligations under the torture convention by not providing compensation to all victims, was responding to the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in the Bouzari case.
That is again the issue in the Kazemi case, with a slightly different set of circumstances, because of course she was Canadian at the time of her abuse. This is the issue that's still under appeal. As we've set out, Stephan himself has been given a right to proceed. But Zahra Kazemi’s own abuse has not been considered, at the moment, to give rise to a right as a result of the State Immunity Act, because the court refused to read in this exception for torture. All of this will be appealed. So this is not yet at the end.
In terms of what it means for us, this would allow us to give a number of the clients who come forward to us some hope of seeking redress. It's not a huge number of cases in terms of the numbers that would result. We have a few clients for whom this would provide a right to a remedy. In most circumstances, the availability of witnesses, the emotional trauma, the lack of financial resources, and other factors create a barrier to proceeding. At the same time, the clients who come forward who have experienced this kind of abuse or who are from a country like Iran, where there is an ongoing and significant level of human rights abuse, really just want to see that there is a possibility of justice, that Canadian courts are standing up for their rights, and that some cases are allowed to proceed in Canada.
I think this would provide a measure of hope to a broad base of survivors in Canada. There are at least one million people in Canada affected by these issues. It would send a very important signal about Canada's role in standing up for international human rights and not for torturers.