Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The only thing I was going to add was a series of key points, including things like what are the human rights reforms needed in the country. I made a series of eight points, but all of those have already been read into your record by previous witnesses. If you're looking for a se

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No. You may know that at the conclusion of the war, the general who successfully concluded the war was dismissed and tried to run for president. He was imprisoned and completely intimidated, so the president showed that he can take out the generals he wants to take out. With re

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. There is this sense of it being a regal court, that now “I'm actually going to redo the city”. It gets a little out of hand.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, it was widely publicized two years ago when the Prime Minister first stated his intention, and then also in October when he made it final that he would not attend. At the actual Commonwealth summit, it was David Cameron who stole the show for the reasons I touched on earlier

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I can only expand by saying it has very worrying implications for the rule of law, which we've already seen in relation to the changes to the constitution, which have now ended the term limits on the president and have affected the judicial appointment structure in the country an

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, there are problems with the media accurately reporting the situation, but even if they did, I'm not sure the president is reading it. It's almost like a regal, court-like approach. It was quite shocking if you watched the coverage of the press conferences around the Commonwe

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's a complicated system and I can't get into the details. There are ridings, but there's also some proportional element in it that I'm not exactly sure of. In any possible configuration, he and his party still have enormous support.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know. I can't speculate. I know that one group of people believes it is about winning votes in ridings where there may be a significant Tamil population. And others say, no, this is a principled position that arose out of a genuine concern for the human rights situation i

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  You referred to the earlier testimony. I really can't add anything to what you received from Dr. Saravanamuttu. He's much more knowledgeable on that issue, and he spoke to you. There is a big debate about the numbers. Hopefully, the census of the deaths will help us to pin that

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  From when I was there in June, the first thing I'll say is that not everyone is going along with it. Sri Lanka still hosts a very active, brave, and serious civil society, some of whose members have testified to you, and it has always impressed me, going there. Essentially, you

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's a good question, and I hadn't anticipated it. Do you mean in terms of pushing legislation forward?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If I were a parliamentarian now in Sri Lanka, there's not be much that can happen in terms of the big picture. But I did make recommendations about where Canada could engage with the Northern Provincial Council and with the Tamil National Alliance. I would be thinking about pot

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not aware of any controversy about that.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As far as I know, it's satisfactory. But there is a precedent. The Nepalese government contributes a lot more troops to peacekeeping. Actually, it's a prestige thing for the Nepalese army, but it's also a significant income earner. I think it's not a significant income earner for

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No. People like to portray some of these sectarian conflicts in religious terms. Insofar as religion's relevant, it's because it's been manipulated. The Tigers essentially invented the technique of suicide bombing. Up until about 2003, pre-Iraq war, most of the people who had bee