Canada-China Relations committee  I cannot talk about the sanctions on individuals. I can only say that in India, we are talking about the backsliding of democracy in the Indo-Pacific region. India, to begin with, has a very robust and excellent constitution that was adopted in 1950. However, since 2014 and the coming into power of this regime, there has been a very serious backsliding in democratic institutions.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much. I do, absolutely. One of the roles of this human rights committee could be to hold all the governments accountable, at least in the international fora. One important international forum, as I mentioned in my presentation, is on addressing the misuse of the anti-terror laws and the Financial Action Task Force, the institution that is at this moment doing the mutual evaluation review.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think it's very important, as we all know, that there is no international co-operation development aid between Canada and India. That has cut a lot of people-to-people dialogue between Canadian civil society organizations and human rights and civil society organizations in India.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, I'll give it a little thought before I say something. Thank you.

Canada-China Relations committee  No, not as yet, thank you.

Canada-China Relations committee  This applies very well to India today. The Indian government calls itself the mother of democracy. As I have pointed out, it is not possible to have universal human rights when the real democracy...which India is not today. As many observers have written, in 2014 India became a de facto Hindu nation.

Canada-China Relations committee  It's a good question. I don't know which country to identify of those that are promoting democracy or democratic institutions in there today, if that is the question, Mr. Chair. However, as I mentioned in my presentation, the European parliamentarians have passed a resolution highlighting the abuse of human rights in India.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm sorry about that.

Canada-China Relations committee  That's great. Thank you. There are institutions that are testing and promoting the Indian democratic institutions, but so far nothing concrete has been done in India, as far as I know.

Canada-China Relations committee  Sure. Can I just take 30 more seconds to wrap up? Mr. Chair, we also believe that people-to-people dialogue through civil society organizations between Canada and India is important to share ideas and views on the human rights situation in our countries, and our government should think of investing in this process.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much. Good evening. I would first like to mention that the written submission I have made has many references that have been hyperlinked. I am not an expert on Canada-People's Republic of China relations, but I'm here to speak of another country which is integral to Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy, namely India.