Thank you very much. Mr. Chair.
I think the witnesses would probably agree with me that concerns about individuals attempting to come to Canada are not just about the potential of they themselves committing an act of terror or some kind of injustice on Canadian soil, but also about the potential of some whose words may inspire or incite violence here in Canada. I do want to note that this can happen with individuals regardless of their political ideologies or their religious backgrounds. We can see that covering the entire spectrum. I've been on this committee long enough to have seen that, but I will point out one example that did make the news recently. This is just a few weeks old.
It's concerning the case of Mr. Mohamed Hoblos, who was scheduled to come to British Columbia to speak at Thompson Rivers University earlier this month. He has been registered in the European Union on the Schengen Information System, so he's been barred from entering Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, and I believe he was also detained and deported from Switzerland.
I just want to use him as an example, because there may be others, and I wanted to point out those countries, because of course Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland are strong western democracies. They share the same values as Canada does, and I'm sure they have very similar outlooks to the Canadian government's. In comparison with other countries that are very much aligned with Canada's approach on the world stage and that share our values, what can we learn from other countries that may have decided to bar certain individuals, and are there other instances where those individuals have been admitted to Canada?
I would just like to hear from some of the people with us today their views on how Canada judges that information and why, at times, we may find ourselves at odds with some of our closest allies and partners who share our strong democratic values.