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The committee is the result of a Conservative motion passed in December that was supported by opposition parties in the minority Parliament.

Conservative deputy leader Leona Alleslev said Barton told her in an email that he is “ready and willing” to testify.

She said it was important that he testify first because he could help the committee understand the government’s strategy towards China.

“It’s such a critical witness,” she told the committee.

Alleslev said Barton could help the committee understand “what the lay of the land is from Canada’s man on the ground, as they say.”

Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, said government MPs on the committee realize the importance of Barton testifying, but he initially suggested that a briefing from officials at Global Affairs Canada would better set the table for MPs.

“We will operate in good faith,” he told reporters before the meeting. “We have Canadian lives at stake, and we’re going to take that very seriously.”

Thirteen months ago, China detained two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who remain imprisoned without access to lawyers or their families.

The move has been widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the United States, which wants to extradite her on fraud charges related to U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The motion that created the committee authorized it to order Barton, as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to appear as witnesses “from time to time as the committee sees fit.”