Citizenship and Immigration committee  From an intelligence perspective, I can really only speak to what is happening, what we see happening. What we do is take that information and we flag it up to folks on the policy and operational side. We have to make a variety of decisions about what geographic areas they would like to pick, how they would set themselves up in those areas, and how they would mitigate the risks we've identified for them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I stated, the current operating environment is extremely volatile. It's very risky, depending on where you are. Right now there are ongoing operations and counter-operations in terms of the clearing of Mosul. In addition, we're seeing Daesh continue with efforts to conduct terrorist attacks in a variety of areas, including areas where they're not currently present, areas that we consider cleared.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think the process of bringing in the Yazidi population is going to affect it one way or the other. I think what's going to affect it are the ongoing military operations and counterattacks by Daesh. Potentially, as Daesh is diminished, there is the potential for the various other groups in northern Iraq to start taking on each other as the situation becomes more fluid.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  From the larger perspective of what we're watching here, there are areas within which as a military we are able to operate to conduct military operations. There are areas in which other government officials have been able to move people in to be able to do their business. I'm confident that IRCC will be able to speak to what their specific plans are and how they will secure what they need to do and what they intend to do, but I would caution the committee that nothing in this region is safe.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Those security challenges are managed and mitigated to the extent possible.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can't speak to that. It's not my area.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I could say from the perspective of the overall security situation in northern Iraq that I'm not aware of anything I would consider to be a safe zone in the current context, and I would have question marks about how you would secure such a zone.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can only speak to the security situation in the region, but we have been consulted and are being consulted on that, and we are able to deliver.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My department is not in touch with the German officials with regard to issues around this situation. We are in touch with German officials on a regular basis with regard to the overall anti-Daesh campaign, but on this particular issue, we are not in touch with them at the moment.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They have not, to my knowledge.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd be happy to do that. The statement, quite simply, relates to the fact that we have seen a number of groups within northern Iraq using or encouraging population displacements as a way to secure political and security influence over what has been previously disputed geography.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I understand that we're still fairly preliminary in terms of what specific efforts will be made and what the operational footprint might look like. There may be issues around where it's located, what security measures are taken around it, and how you move the people you are trying to help.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair and members of Parliament, thank you for the invitation to speak to you this afternoon. It's my distinct pleasure to speak to you about the security situation in Northern Iraq. I'm also glad to be sitting next to my esteemed colleagues, who will be able to provide different perspectives on the region.

National Defence committee  I'll briefly preface my remarks with two comments. One is that you promised me you weren't going to ask any questions. The other is that I will be in Colorado on election day, watching from NORAD. I may not come out again, depending on how that goes. More seriously, with regard to your question—and I've alluded to it a couple of times here but haven't really expanded on it—we've talked a lot about Russia, but the Chinese reaction to the Philippines court case in UNCLOS around the maritime disputes in the South China Sea was very interesting.

National Defence committee  It's very interesting to watch the Chinese try to recover from that and to try to put forward their preference for bilateral relationships and deal with specific disputes as opposed to dealing with the risk that they face in India to cope after that ruling with a number of ASEAN countries hopping onto that bandwagon.