Foreign Affairs committee  There is an issue, as has been said earlier, with dual citizens and getting access. There are countries where it's more difficult to get access to our citizens. That's where we continue to insist that we be able to see the Canadian who's detained.

Foreign Affairs committee  One of the things we found is that it isn't always consistent. I couldn't provide you with a list of countries that don't allow access to dual citizens. That's one of the situations we see. In some places, we'll get access to a dual citizen in one case, and then depending perhaps

Foreign Affairs committee  The first thing we do is ask for access when we become aware of a case of a Canadian, whether dual or not. If we don't get access, then we will persist with the local authorities, insisting on getting access. That could be through informal means. It could be through diplomatic no

Foreign Affairs committee  In the vast majority of cases, the Vienna Convention is respected, and we get regular consular access to Canadian citizens.

Foreign Affairs committee  Something we've become aware of in recent years is that we can't just stop providing services when people arrive at the border. I was talking about the links that we've developed with provincial authorities, and we have worked very hard to make sure that we have the proper links

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, we work with the local authorities in the country, those in charge of child services, to make sure that there is some kind of care in place for the child, whether it be with other family members or with the local authority. Then we would work with the appropriate ch

Foreign Affairs committee  The other thing I would add is that we're also building our network with the provinces. We're unusual in that we are a service provider face to face in the Department of Foreign Affairs, but often have to interface with the social agencies in the provinces. That is an important n

Foreign Affairs committee  The only hypothetical instance in which we wouldn't offer consular services is if we thought we were putting our officers in danger. However, my experience is that any time that has been the case, we have found creative ways to offer consular services. I know of no cases for whic

Foreign Affairs committee  We've certainly worked since 2012 on improving consular services, looking at ways that we can improve what we're doing, on the case of mistreatment in particular. We have been constantly improving the system since 2012.

Foreign Affairs committee  We work extensively with other departments when necessary. I mentioned earlier, for example, the one point of contact for cases of abducted children. That's a network that we use. We reach out to other government departments quite often, for our complex cases in particular, so we

Foreign Affairs committee  In some instances, the Chinese government does not recognize people to be Canadian citizens who we believe are Canadian citizens, and that's where there is sometimes a problem.

Foreign Affairs committee  I was going to say exactly that. The location is often a factor with complexity, but there are other factors, such as the nature of the charges against someone, limited consular access, or whether there's been a miscarriage of justice or human rights issue.

Foreign Affairs committee  We did in fact after a point in time get consular access to Mr. Khadr, but these visits were kept completely separate from the more problematic visits from Canadian officials.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can't tell you exactly what he requested during the visits. I can tell you that he did have consular access and had access to a consular officer.

Foreign Affairs committee  Each protecting power agreement is different, but what it comes down to is communication between the protecting power and us. We will ask them, either through informal or formal channels, to carry out a particular consular service for us, for example, to go visit someone in priso