Canada-China Relations committee  We'll be continually reassessing the situation, and I'm sure we would be happy to engage with the committee in terms of the travel advice in the moment that you're considering. In terms of the work of the committee and its mandate, I will respectfully leave that up to the chair

Canada-China Relations committee  I can't comment on a hypothetical question. We would have to—

Canada-China Relations committee  I believe that the continuing legal name of the department is Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, but the working name that we use is Global Affairs Canada, so they're both correct.

Canada-China Relations committee  In terms of the provision of consular services brought under the Vienna Convention, that provision of consular services is focused on Canadian citizens in the first instance. However, in cases of natural disaster, humanitarian responses and evacuations such as what we see in Hube

Canada-China Relations committee  We have been working with all Canadians and permanent residents on the ground. We've been exchanging with them to determine their needs. At the moment, it is a hypothetical question. We're working with the Chinese government to see what is possible and how we can assist everyone

Canada-China Relations committee  What I would say is that the Vienna Convention, obviously written many years before the prevalence of dual nationality, doesn't contemplate specifics in regard to many of the modern-day challenges that we face in terms of the provision of consular services. It's for this reason t

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm suggesting that we're continuing to advocate for greater consular access to Canadians than the Chinese government is providing us with.

Canada-China Relations committee  The agreement that we have bilaterally between Canada and China, as I mentioned, is 20 years old. It was put in place to establish a minimum threshold for access in particular cases of dual nationality. Prior to that, there had been extreme challenges. It lays out, I would say,

Canada-China Relations committee  Under the agreement, China has agreed to provide us with access only to those Canadian citizens who entered China on a Canadian travel document. If you are a dual national of China and entered on a Chinese document, under the agreement, China has said that they will not provide u

Canada-China Relations committee  Our position as the Government of Canada is that all Canadian citizens have the right to consular access under the Vienna Convention, and we continue to advocate for that at every opportunity. There are many countries in the world that do not accept that position, but we continue

Canada-China Relations committee  The agreement was signed in part to respond to the fact that the Government of China was refusing to recognize consular access for any dual-national Canadians in China. It allowed us to make some progress in terms of accessing dual-national Canadian-Chinese citizens who entered C

Canada-China Relations committee  As I'm sure the committee can appreciate, behind every one of these consular cases are the personal situations of Canadians in distress. To protect their privacy, and to protect the privacy of their families, we're not going to comment on the specific details of their conditions

Canada-China Relations committee  I would say that we are continuing to advocate for greater consular access to Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor and for their access to their families and to additional supports. We advocate for their well-being with local authorities, and we are continuing to find every possible way to

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, the advice that we offer to all Canadians is our travel advice for China. At the current time, our travel advice is at level three, which is to avoid all non-essential travel to China.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, we began with reporting through our emergency watch and response centre, which is actually an emergency management tool that conducts a bit of a watch on what's happening globally around the world. We have situation reporting to inform people of developing situations.