Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would add just one thing coming from what Alexandra said. I think President Chávez has attempted to engage citizens in a better way than regimes prior to his did. That has certainly been the focus of his government: working with the poorer sectors of Venezuelan society, maybe trying to speak to a need that he didn't see answered by previous regimes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Just briefly, there are a couple of things. Nationalized companies in Venezuela no longer have independent unions, and there is labour organization in lines with specific...coming out of the ruling Socialist party. There are incidents of labour unrest. While it may not be front and centre in some of the things that Alex Bugailiskis mentioned in her opening statement, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in its annual report of last year, did devote some space to the issue of problems faced by unions in Venezuela.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There was a question on how our relations have changed, and it touched on an earlier question. I don't know if I have the capacity to comment on the evolution of Canada's relations with Venezuela over 30 years or even on Hugo Chávez, who has been president for over 10 years. That is almost as long as I've been in the Canadian foreign service, so I'm not well placed to give such a broad historic overview.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the fact that the government broke off diplomatic relations with Israel in the wake of Israel's incursion into Gaza gives a sense of its geopolitical stance. At the same time, the government, I think over the past year or so, has made efforts to indicate that its views towards Israel or towards the actions of the state of Israel are different from its views towards the Jewish community of Venezuela, which it very much sees as an integral part of the republic of Venezuela.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would like to add a point. I think Alex is maybe being a little bit modest. She led the department in the development of our more focused engagement in the Americas in the last few years. As part of the internal processes at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we've decided to try to focus more thematically on issues, so we've had a little bit of reorganization and re-engagement with the Americas.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  May I add a couple of things? The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights pointed out in its report that it has not been invited into Venezuela. As Alexandra has indicated, Canada is a strong defender of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and of other human rights mechanisms of the inter-American human rights system--for example, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression--and we very much encourage Venezuela to be open to receiving visits from the commission and from other mechanisms seeking to visit the country.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To add a little bit to that, I actually had the pleasure of accompanying Minister Kent to Venezuela in January. He met with a large cross-section of the leadership of the Jewish community. We actually had a meeting in the Maripérez synagogue, a synagogue that had been vandalized last year.