Government Operations committee  That segues into the next question I want to ask, which is about employees. We're starting to open up our economy again, our economies within different provinces, and employees are starting to return to their workspaces. Can you speak about what's being done to make buildings safer, to make workspaces safer?

Government Operations committee  Thank you. You touched upon domestic companies. Can you elaborate a bit on the percentage of contracts going to domestic companies and give us some examples of domestic companies you're dealing with?

Government Operations committee  I'd like to thank Mr. Matthews for giving his testimony and his time here with the committee. I'll have a number of questions. Feel free, Mr. Matthews, to supplement what you were speaking about in your opening statement. You can use this time to elaborate upon that if you want to.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. That's very substantial, because we oftentimes think it's anecdotal. It's not anecdotal. That's the point I'm trying to underscore here.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  This question is for anybody who wants to answer it. It may be for the ambassador, but it's for all who are comfortable answering it. Before 2019, we were just hearing anecdotes. We know that Chinese papers were revealed in 2019. According to New York Times reporting and an independent consortium of journalists, those leaked government documents exposed a program.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are about 83 companies, big-name companies, brand name companies, named in that report. While we look at what is produced within the province, in our analysis at the same time we should also be looking at what is produced outside the province that is coming from forced labour.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay. Can you speak about Canadian technology, or western technology in general, supporting the surveillance of the minorities we're talking about here within the province?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know if anybody else has contributed to that but I just want to throw one thought out while you do contribute. Can we also tie in the Chinese papers and how new information has come out which shows there's a program going on from the top. Could you factor that into your answer please?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  First of all, thank you, everybody, for joining us and providing your expert testimony. I'd like to flesh this out. We spoke about supply chains. We spoke about the province, XUAR. We didn't speak about Uighur people and other minorities who are being transferred out of the province into the mainland and how those supply chains are impacted.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  For my second question, I'd like to follow up on another point. For the Uighur people within Turkey, are there any protections that the Turkish government is providing, or do you feel that the government is not in a position to protect you from threats and other forms of harassment that can be happening within the country?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  First off, I want to thank you both for testifying. I wish you peace, strength and fortitude. Thank you for your courage. This is very meaningful.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  You're welcome. You made an account of what happened to you personally. I wanted to know if what happened to you was the norm of what you saw within the camps. I can anticipate your answer.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  This is happening to everybody, essentially, who is in the camps.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  You're saying, then, that we're focusing on the Uighur people rightfully so, because there is a genocide, as many witnesses who have come forth have said, but that we are not necessarily focusing on these much smaller groups, despite the fact that it's the same program. Is that correct?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, but Tibet is a different case. What I'm trying to get at is that Tibet is another focus; it's a separate program. While the individual who enacted the program within Tibet was pulled into the province of Xinjiang, from what I understand, to implement and reproduce the same program within that province, the program within the province of Xinjiang is primarily focused on the Uighur people, but these other minorities are, through a ricochet, being pulled into it.