Foreign Affairs committee  I could add just one clarification. The reason was that they did not issue an invitation to the OSCE in a timely fashion, by the deadline that the OSCE's ODIHR arm needed to organize a proper electoral mission. At the last minute there was a move from Belarus, but it was far too late for the OSCE to be able to mount a credible mission.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, that's not something.... I am not aware of an outflow. We've had good discussions with the Belarusian Canadian Alliance and the diaspora here in Canada, fruitful conversations. I have been in touch.... They are a bit dated conversations, so this wasn't a topic then; however, it is something that does need to be reviewed.

Foreign Affairs committee  There is a UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, which monitors the human rights situation from a UN perspective, but no, I'm not aware of UN human rights observers on the ground.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, we are quite actively involved, especially right at this moment, in determining our programming in support of Belarusian civil society. We did announce the $600,000 in funding to civil society with the focus on independent media and women's leadership. We are right at the stage of developing projects to correspond to that number.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, I don't have details on any Russian semi-permanent military presence. I know that a point of contention between Russia and Belarus over the years has been the establishment of a military base in Belarus, and you've seen Alexander Lukashenko publicly make comments about it that weren't welcomed by Russia.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would say that it's hard to gauge the risks of something like a Russian intervention. We obviously do not want Russia interfering in Belarus's internal affairs. As Mr. Sproule said, Russia is very concerned about stability on its borders. We've seen that before with other states too.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. Thank you. In this case, sanctions under SEMA are imposed in relation to the actions of a foreign state. This is appropriate here because it's the actions of a foreign state that we've seen in terms of the human rights violations committed by the Belarusian state against its people, whereas Magnitsky is based more on the individual.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. Sorry, I need to correct myself. The sanctions enacted under SEMA are, in this case, targeted against individuals. We have 42 individuals to whom sanctions will be applied under the SEMA for Belarus. The consequences for those individuals are that they are inadmissible to Canada, that Canadians cannot have dealings with those individuals and also that their assets, if they have assets in Canada, will be frozen.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's my assessment, yes. I need to qualify that I'm not a sanctions expert, but that is my assessment.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, I will be able to take questions along with Mr. Sproule but I have no prepared statement.