Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question.
Human rights is indeed a very big item in the government's foreign policy agenda. In all possible fora in multilateral institutions, Canada has never backed out from taking a very strong stand on human rights issues.
However we never believe that confrontation is the best way to go. Canada has been involved behind the scenes in many programs dealing with human rights issues in China, through CIDA, through co-operation, dialogues and so on. These actions will help the government in China to understand and respect human rights.