Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If I can add just one thing—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay. Just to answer briefly, the Eritrean consulate is not like any consulate that tries to promote its relationship with Canada or other countries. The activity of the Eritrean consulate is to govern Eritreans who live in Canada, so that is their main concern. They don't care

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. Last year the National Post wrote a wonderful article about the 2% tax. They interviewed several people who paid the 2% tax, and they explained clearly how the extortion takes place. Even the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, was interviewed, and

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would add one thing to that, Mr. Cotler, which is that in Eritrea, there are no independent journalists. BBC has reporters and correspondents everywhere. They had them in Eritrea. But reporters have been expelled from Eritrea. There are no NGOs in Eritrea. There are no independ

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In Eritrea.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's why this has an upper hand, to control Eritreans living here, in the way they send money. Actually, it is registered as a private company, but it is owned by the ruling party. It is very hard to know, because the person who has registered it is a Canadian citizen. But eve

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There is one organization called the Eritrean Canadian Association of Ontario, which is based in Toronto. What they do is they invite a cultural troupe from Eritrea. This cultural troupe is a military cultural troupe, by the way. They get in through a visa. All of the permits are

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. The Beilul exchange bureau is like Money Mart or Western Union. If you want to send money to Eritrea, you go to them. For example, the exchange rate for $100 is equivalent to $4,000, but they don't give you that rate; if you want to send $100, they give your parents $1,500.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, that's okay.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. Most of them are well known, so we know their names, but still there are people who work underground. In addition to that, all those people who were forced to pay the 2% tax have receipts with them, and they have all the details, and they know exactly who those people are wh

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Let me elaborate.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The way they charge the tax, it is not like a regular tax. For example, if I request my university transcript from back home, they don't charge me for that service, so I have to pay a 2% tax. When did you leave your country? Let's say it was in 2002. From 2002 to this year, they

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, it's not per month. There are four stages. That means they simply classify those amounts in four stages. The minimum contribution is $500, but usually it is above that.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on the Eritrean human rights issue. I would like to speak specifically about what is going on in Eritrean Canadian life in Canada. But before I address that—Elsa has mentioned mo