Foreign Affairs committee  I didn't interrupt you. You'll forgive me if I respond by saying I think that the decision we made with respect to how we vote on the Middle East is a decision we've made to say, “Look, we're not going to pick and choose between a number of resolutions.” That's a position the government has taken at the moment.

Foreign Affairs committee  You're commenting on a number of things. One of them has to do with the internal decisions of the Israeli government with respect to the internal politics of Israel, which I'm not going to spend a long time commenting on. With respect to the impact on the West Bank and Gaza, the impact on the Palestinian people living in that part of the country and that part of the world, and the people who are there....

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have the luxury of agreeing or disagreeing. I have the luxury of doing what the position of the Government of Canada is. I'm explaining that as best I can.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I remember.

Foreign Affairs committee  There will always be differences of opinion on multicultural policy. Nevertheless, I'd like to return to something you said, to the effect that multiculturalism was an Anglo-Saxon idea. I completely disagree with that statement, Mr. Bergeron. We live in a democracy and people can have different ideas.

Foreign Affairs committee  Not at all, Mr. Bergeron. There are many visions or ideas about Canada. You just described two of them, but we could talk about dozens of others. I think it's important to reflect that. Ever since the beginning of my public career, I have always talked about the importance of respecting human rights, Canadian pluralism and Quebec specificity.

Foreign Affairs committee  On the question of the overall impact, I think there's no question that the fallout from the war and its economic and social impacts have been enormous. It has been on Ukraine. The humanitarian situation in Ukraine remains extremely difficult. Bombs can come at you anywhere in the country at any time.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a huge topic. India is the largest democracy in the world. It has a democratically elected government. The Government of India is one we have a strong and powerful relationship with as a government. They're a federal country. There's a tremendous amount of diversity in India.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there is an ongoing debate in India itself about the question of nationalism, how that populist nationalism is expressed and what the treatment of various minorities in the country is. I don't equate that situation in the same way as I do some others. Obviously, as you may know, I was asked by the Government of Canada 17 years ago to look at the Air India bombing.

Foreign Affairs committee  As you may know, Randeep—if I may—I was here in New York. We were watching very carefully with a great deal of concern the growing speculation that Russia could, in fact, launch an attack on Ukraine. The Security Council was meeting in the evening at the very time that the war was launched.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's not just my office, Mr. Genuis. It's also our office in Geneva, which is very involved in the issue of what's happened to the Tamils. I have been very involved with this issue since my work at the Forum of Federations, going back to the end of the last century, so this has been a long time coming.

Foreign Affairs committee  Not that I'm aware of. I have not seen that as an official position of the government. It doesn't take away in any respect from our ability as a delegation to refer specifically to the situation involving the Tamils. As you may know, this is something with which I'm extremely familiar.

Foreign Affairs committee  I have done, and I don't hesitate to have very candid discussions with other countries on that subject, as well as on a number of others.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's correct.

Foreign Affairs committee  We have been very actively involved. Canada, in fact, led the way in the gathering together of a number of countries—I think we're now up to over 50—that have agreed with us with respect to writing a very strong letter to make a very strong declaration with a number of other countries on the situation affecting the Uighurs.