Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not sure that it would. Any outside scrutiny or intervention by an officer of Parliament would be helpful, but that's speaking generally. Frankly, if someone is unrepresented in dealing with these situations—and again, I'm speaking as an advocate—the situation would be very

Foreign Affairs committee  Go ahead, Dean.

Foreign Affairs committee  On the issue of privacy, obviously, the legislation doesn't just apply to the department we're concerned with. As lawyers, we deal with it all the time. There are exceptions within the privacy legislation, both federally and in different provinces, that permit the exchange of inf

Foreign Affairs committee  It is such a bizarre misuse. It's a cover. It's basically an interpretation that exists, and that's why we're trying to approach this as a cultural, systemic issue. All the things we're talking about, they're not about the magnificent people who work in the department. It's the h

Foreign Affairs committee  I might add a couple of things. Obviously we don't have much control over the development of international instruments. We have somewhat more control over what Canada does internally, and I think the point both Dean and I are trying to communicate is that, if there is criticism o

Foreign Affairs committee  I defer to my senior colleague.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the degree to which a particular case is made public or not depends on the circumstances. When Dean and I and others advocate at times for more direct government involvement or more pressure being brought to bear by the department on a foreign state, it doesn't necessaril

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely, but in cases where there's no advocate—no private advocate, no lawyer, no representative dealing with consular affairs of the government—then basically it's totally up to consular affairs to do what they're going to do, because there's really no experienced scrutiny b

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Nault, and thank you to everyone on the standing committee for the opportunity to appear before you to address some of the concerns we have encountered in our representation and advocacy on behalf of Canadians imprisoned or detained abroad in violation of their hum