Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I also want to welcome the witness. I appreciate his testimony.
I want to mention this parenthetically for the record, I think it's not unimportant that it was a Liberal government that appointed the senator. I say that, because when you make principled appointments, those accrue to the benefit of the Senate and Parliament as a whole. I wanted to make the point.
Senator, you mentioned that what happens in Sri Lanka is something for the people of Sri Lanka, but what happens in the Commonwealth is the business of the Commonwealth. We have heard in our witness testimony—and I sense that you have read the witness testimony—that there has been evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity that have been committed particularly in the final phases of the civil war. If that's the case, then it becomes also the business of the international community, whether or not it is a Commonwealth country, and of course if it is a Commonwealth country as you mentioned in this case. This brings me to my question and my concern.
My concern is not only with the international crimes that have been committed—though it is certainly with that—but also with the culture of impunity that has attended those crimes since then as well as with, as has been described in witness testimony to us, the kind of culture of fear and intimidation that continues to exist. In that sense, these are my questions. First, what can be done to counter the culture of impunity?
You made reference to the prospective international commission of inquiry, but that will take another six months if it is to be set up, and there will be this vacuum in the meantime. There is something the Commonwealth can do, but as you said that might not happen for another two years. Is there something that can be done now to counter the culture of impunity? That relates to the second question, which is what distinguishable role can Canada play both as a Commonwealth country and also in terms of what Canadian Parliamentarians can do—if there is anything that we can do—to combat that culture of impunity, that culture of fear while fostering accountability?