Or gals....
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to start by echoing some of the comments made by other members of the committee and thank our consular staff for the work they do in very difficult circumstances.
MP Lantsman, thank you for bringing this bill forward. I agree that Canada needs to do more to address hostage-taking and cases of arbitrary detention. We know that for years the families of hostages have asked for increased communication from the government. They've asked for better resources. They've asked for more support. I see that this bill attempts to create a requirement for the minister to provide timely information and assistance to families of Canadian nationals taken hostage or arbitrarily detained.
One area where the NDP has asked Canada to do better for many years is arbitrary detention. While arbitrary detention is included in this bill, it's not clear to me whether this would apply to particularly egregious cases, including the rendition of Canadians, such as the cases of Maher Arar and of Huseyin Celil, who is still held in China after many years, or the Canadians held in northeastern Syria whom this government has refused to bring home to face our justice system here.
In your view, does this bill apply to those cases? Could you articulate that?