Mr. Chair, I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this issue.
If the government is really saying that it wants to work with a democratic government and that there is a road map for an election in July, there are many things that the Government of Canada, NGOs and Canadian government agencies can do to ensure that democracy is restored in Mali and Bamako.
I mentioned observers earlier. Canada has taken part in such an exercise before by sending nearly 500 observers to Europe to observe the election in Ukraine.
If Canada really wanted to express its desire to see democracy restored in Mali, could it dispatch a rather sizable observation mission? Could it send police officers with such a mission? Of course, we can expect that the election will not go smoothly in certain parts of Mali, especially given the terrorist groups who do not support democracy.
These are two simple ideas that the government must consider. It must come back to Parliament and tell us what direction it wants to take. It could even take the opportunity next week at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development to indicate what it intends to do.