I honestly don't know at the moment what the current status is. I understand that Canada has offered to send 10 RCMP officers to the ICC. I guess it will be up to Karim Khan how he deploys them.
I can say that, in my experience when I was still with the OTP, the RCMP officers who came over to assist us under an agreement that was developed while I was still deputy prosecutor were absolutely first class. Our people loved them. They hit the ground running, they fit in well and they worked extremely effectively. That's still the case. The more the better, I suppose I would say.
These investigations are vast, and they are multi-layered. You go from satellite imagery to intercepts, to open-source material that you can gather and authenticate, to witness testimony on the ground, to forensic examinations of crime scenes, to armament examination and all the rest of it. You layer this evidence so that you build up, not only the crime base, but you work up through the chain of command and you find who's responsible for what's happened, right up to the top, if that's where it goes.
Some of the things that, of course, you can rely on are what people say. What does President Putin say? What does Sergey Lavrov say? There's some wonderful stuff there, for anybody looking to do a criminal prosecution, I have to say. The support that Canada can give and other states parties can give to the office of the prosecutor now will be of great value, I think.
The other things you mentioned are important too. I know that Karim Khan, the current prosecutor, as we did, believes very strongly in complementarity. One thing that is innovative in this situation—I've seen this on their website—is that they have become a participant in the joint investigative team that's been set up by Eurojust, involving Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. This allows the OTP to get access to evidence that's uncovered, say, by the prosecutor general of Ukraine, but also, in its discretion, to share evidence it acquires with them. It's this kind of innovative approach, bringing together a number of different elements, that could be very important.
There may be some diplomatic things that I won't get into that Canada could be helpful about. There are so many different levels at which we have to work, but yes, a full engagement by Canada is going to be very important.
I have to say, again, based on my experience, that Canada has always been extremely well represented in The Hague through its diplomats. The current ambassador, Lisa Helfand, is no exception to that rule. She's just great. I think, in working through her, that she will be very well informed about what the needs are and what's happening.