Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would say that in many ways capacity building is an underlying theme or objective of almost everything that Canada does in Afghanistan, and certainly it is a very important part of all of our efforts in Kandahar province in particular. Governance has been an important aspect of that, and we have been engaged in trying to build capacity in a number of different Kandahar institutions.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd be happy to talk a little bit about counter-narcotics. This is an effort that we deal with in a number of different ways. The minister in fact announced a major contribution during the course of the London conference—I think it was $25 million—to the UN counter-narcotics efforts.

Afghanistan committee  As Minister Cannon said, the London conference was really an opportunity for the new Afghan government to present its programs to the international community. Of course, a lot of the focus was on security issues and ensuring that the Afghans are ready to take on greater responsibility for their own security.

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chairman, let me say that we were concerned by some of the changes that the president initially proposed to the electoral law, specifically the provisions with respect to the electoral complaints commission. We were concerned that some of the proposed changes could mean less independent oversight of the electoral process.

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chairman, to build on the minister's statement, we have conducted 210 separate visits. There is a very small number of prisons to which Canadian detainees are actually transferred, but this refers to the number of actual visits by Canadians to visit the prisoners.

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chair, I have a colleague who is responsible for international security issues at the Department of Foreign Affairs, but I don't believe we have a branch, exactly, as you have described it. I'm afraid I wouldn't be in a position to comment on relationships with other agencies outside of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Afghanistan committee  I don't have the precise numbers of prisoners seen, because of course that number varies all the time. What I can tell you is that since 2007 when the supplemental agreement was put in place, some 200 visits have taken place. Some prisoners would be seen more than once. It would depend upon how long they're actually in the prison.

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chairman, indeed our ambassador did alert us to this law. In fact, we were made aware some time ago. Since then, as Minister Cannon has mentioned, we've been making a number of representations in addition to those that Minister Cannon himself made. Our ambassador has been very active on the ground in Kabul in calling on various ministers of the government to bring this situation to their attention and to suggest that they review this law.