Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As you can appreciate, it's a multi-faceted response, like a lot of our efforts. On the one hand, we're trying to encourage those countries in the region that have an interest, as we do, in the broader security of the region and stopping ISIL in its advance to speak out more directly on these questions about how ISIL takes Islam and distorts it to advance their extremist goals and extremist ideology. We've been engaging the other countries in the region, especially those that we know have a more balanced approach—I don't want to say moderate, but a more balanced approach—to interpretation of Islam. Jordan is a key ally for us in this regard.

I hope to be travelling to Jordan in early February. I'll be meeting with interlocutors there, both religious leaders and government, to talk about how we seek to engender a particular understanding of Islam that is open to pluralism, that advances interconfessional dialogue. Certainly with our current project we're launching with Minority Rights Group, that's part of the goal—to ensure that interconfessional dialogue takes place in Iraq, but also in countries of what I would call proximate migration, where we've had mainly Christians, a certain number of Yazidis, and some Shia and Sunni Muslims. These are countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. We're looking at working with a variety of different partners to engage those communities in those countries to ensure there can be that dialogue between Christians, between Christians and Muslims in particular.

The Office of Religious Freedom sponsored a recent round table in Toronto. It was hosted by Minister Paradis and Minister Alexander. It brought together religious leaders from the different apostolic churches, the Jewish community, the Muslim community, the Yazidi community. One of the major concerns expressed by all the people there was that this region not be emptied of minority faith groups. Rabbi Frydman-Kohl from Beth Tzedec in Toronto said the Middle East without Christians cannot be the Middle East, and likewise with the Yazidis and other minorities.

We're continuing to engage domestically here with religious leaders to get a better understanding of the possible approaches we can take to ensure these communities are able to remain in the region. Our colleagues at CIC are working on refugee resettlement programs for those who feel the need to leave. Certainly Minister Alexander made an announcement just a week and a half ago or two weeks ago about that.

It's a two-pronged engagement, Mr. Anderson, both in the region with allies and with countries where we're hoping to see a stronger message about condemning ISIL and their activities, and then also here in Canada.

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