Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm trying to think how to answer that. This is complicated. What we are doing is following the case very closely in terms of the issue of Berta Cáceres and the investigation. They're continuing it. It's not over. At least we heard from.... I don't know what her daughter said about this to you, but certainly in the media, her daughter was saying that she felt that it looked as if some of the work that was happening was....

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think it's always helpful that the political voices come forward and say this stuff. The question is how this is going to play out. Each of these areas has a dynamic to it. At the end of the day, I want to see the action. For example, we've seen action in the creation of ATIC.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for inviting me.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The problem with an independent approach is that you're bringing in people from outside. You're bringing them into a context they don't necessarily know. They don't have the kind of connection. There are a lot of challenges in doing that. When CICIG set up in Guatemala, it took it a number of years to get the capacity to do the kinds of investigations that it was doing in parallel with the Ministerio Publico.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The particular training we've been doing has been very targeted around the investigators who are dealing with murderers. We've been trying to make sure that at least certain teams of those investigators who do the actual examinations have the skills to do them properly. It's very targeted.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would argue that there has to be an increased emphasis for sure, because the reality is that when you talk to most people, their number one concern is about their security. I don't know anybody, when I talk to families down there.... The polls in El Salvador talk about how almost 80% of the families would leave the country if they could.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The president has announced that they're going to do a major purging. There are about 11,000 police, and they're talking about purging between 2,000 and 2,500. That comes to almost a quarter of the police force. Now, whether they can do that, or how well they can do that, remains to be seen.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We have had no difficulty in our working with, for example, the Ministerio Publico and working directly with ATIC. In fact, they've welcomed it. In terms of other areas, when you get into things like the call for an independent commission to come in on the Berta Cáceres case, in the conversations I have had, people are prepared to meet with people and share things, but the question of having an international group come in and take over becomes very delicate.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  This has been the question for Guatemala and all these countries. The information that's come out on Honduras is there are major elements of corruption and organized criminal groups within the police force. Some of them have been involved in work with the cartel, with killings.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Certainly, in terms of the cases we were talking about, they're continuing to investigate them. We've been monitoring a little of that. It's a concern and an issue. Certainly, it's been pointed out around human rights defenders, and it continues to be an issue in the country, that's true.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, we've been monitoring it. Part of what we've been doing, of course, is a lot of the technical training and the capacity building. What we've seen in the case of Operation Avalanche is they're using the techniques, and they're starting to get the results. Even in the case of the investigation of Bertha Cáceres, if you look at the physical evidence that's coming forward, a lot of that is really related to the support that they've been getting from Canada in terms of the video evidence, and in terms of even the analysis of the ballistics evidence.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Some of these conflicts have become more protracted, and we've been getting more disturbing results. In terms of the landscape of Honduras, it's connected to the fact that there are massive inequalities connected to land reform, and the way that corruption plays out around the extractive industries and other things.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay. For us there are a lot of issues. There's the issue of the corruption. There's the issue of what's going on around the extractive industries. There's the issue around how you strengthen the system, the increasing gang issue. Of course, even at home there's the issue of the need to engage with GAC around how you strengthen the capacity of Canada to support this kind of work.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay. The sound has been breaking up, and I'm hoping that when I talk I'm not breaking up. Do I sound okay?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think I lost about 30% of that, but the important thing is that you can hear me. What I thought I would do is a short presentation. I'll give you a bit of an overview of what we are doing and some of the issues we see. Then I'll turn it over to you for questions. Is that okay as an approach?