Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, I have a couple of precisions, if I may.

Canada-China Relations committee  Germany has not announced a policy of asylum. The German refugee process, which I believe is similar to the kind of judicial process we have in Canada, has granted asylum status so Germany does not have such a program. The U.K. has the British national overseas program. Australi

Canada-China Relations committee  Let me say that we do have great sympathy for people in Hong Kong, especially young people who are feeling huge stress in these new political circumstances. That said, wherever you are in the world, everyone who is in the territory is subject to the legal authorities in that terr

Canada-China Relations committee  At this point, we don't have any experience of application of the new national security law in this area of extraterritoriality, which is of concern to us. I think the kinds of judgments that one would need to make would be, in our view, similar now, on certain topics, to the jud

Canada-China Relations committee  At this time we do not assess that by participating in the asking of questions in a committee there's any likelihood that somebody would be prosecuted under the national security law in Hong Kong in that context.

Canada-China Relations committee  We have had many meetings of different kinds. One form it takes.... We have approached the Hong Kong government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make representations to them many times over the last 18 months on these different issues. When the Hong Kong government seeks us

Canada-China Relations committee  As I mentioned, we haven't seen any indication of that up to now. Certainly, some people are currently prevented from leaving Hong Kong because their passport has been confiscated through a bail process. We haven't seen that kind of arbitrary application either for Canadians or f

Canada-China Relations committee  We have warned Canadian businesses that there are new risks since the national security law came in. We have Canadian companies that do employ a lot of people in Hong Kong. We know from talking with them that they're working with their legal counsels to review what kinds of vulne

Canada-China Relations committee  There have been Canadians, but not under the national security law. So far, under the national security law, we are not aware of any Canadians having been arrested. In the cases that I'm talking about we had 14 cases related to the civil unrest. These are people who were arrested

Canada-China Relations committee  The findings of the survey, and I think they hold true generally today, are that the vast majority, some 83%, are dual citizens. They're residents of Hong Kong and they are citizens of Canada. Of the many people I've met, there were a lot of families of people went to Canada in t

Canada-China Relations committee  Let me say, first of all, that it's not a term you will hear me or anyone on our staff using. We have Canadian citizens. A citizen is a citizen. Even though a lot of people I meet in Hong Kong describe themselves that way, there are only citizens. It's a very large community. T

Canada-China Relations committee  Indeed, this is the concerning thing for us about the national security law and why we are trying to raise awareness of the changes this brings to Hong Kong. We have, for the first time really, political offences and political crimes in Hong Kong, and they constitute a big concer

Canada-China Relations committee  The global policy of Canada, similar to most other countries, is that our diplomatic missions, including consulates, do not accept applications of asylum at our offices from people who are in their own territory. There are avenues to become accepted as a refugee in Canada, but

Canada-China Relations committee  Up to now, we have not seen any case of a Hong Konger, or anyone in Hong Kong, being prevented from exiting, except for people who are already under a legal constraint. There are people who have bail conditions. There were over 10,000 people who were arrested during the protests

Canada-China Relations committee  I will not be in a position to comment on policy matters when a policy has not been announced yet by the Government of Canada. As the committee knows, the government has already signalled it is considering further measures in the area of immigration. I understand that measures a