Mr. Sweet, I appreciate the question. I said in my report that I was in favour. When the government asked me, “What do you think about using the Magnitsky act in the course of our work?” I said, “Go ahead and use it.” The key thing is to make sure you have evidence that will sustain any attack on that measure.
There's a legal process the government has to go through to determine an individual's responsibility. I continue to believe that's something that should continue to happen. It's something that the minister has indicated to me she supports and is keen to do, and I know she is raising it with her fellow foreign ministers.
You'll appreciate that a measure like the one we've taken is really most effective when a number of other governments agree to do the same thing. Right now, there are two governments that have agreed to do that, ours and the Government of the United States. European governments have yet to do it.
We are pushing the Europeans and saying, “Let's try to move here together and move in the same direction at the same time.” There are competing views in other capitals, but I've been very clear that I think applying individual sanctions is appropriate, and it is something that I hope the government can continue to look at.
You ask if in my view they have been deficient. I can't get inside the bowels of the justice department or the legal division of the Department of Global Affairs and ask, “What about this guy? What about that person? What about this person?” I do think, however, that it is important for us to take those steps and to encourage the level of discussion that needs to happen at a very senior level with other governments to see that they're doing the same thing, and I hope that they will.