Christine Stewart

[Poverty, May 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond to my colleague's question on behalf of our Minister for International

Co-operation who takes major responsibility in the government for international poverty issues.

Canada is very committed to the issues of international poverty and works together with the multilateral community to effect progress. We have seen some progress but we hope that by the year 2015 we with the international community will be able to reach some further significant targets.

Canada works by providing up to 25 per cent of its official development assistance for programs of health and education, clean water, sanitation, micro enterprise works, programs that will have a benefit for women. We will continue to work with the international community to do more in this field.

[Report Of Auditor General, May 7th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the concern of the auditor general that perhaps our documentation was not as complete as it might be, my deputy minister met with the deputy minister of finance and we have implemented improvements to our documentation for important rulings.

[National Organ Donor Day Act, April 19th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, a point of order, I simply want to confirm to the House that next Tuesday will be an allotted day.

[Foreign Affairs, April 19th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, our Department of Foreign Affairs provides very good consular services to Canadians in trouble abroad.

I am not familiar with the details of this particular case but I would be very happy to put our department in contact with the hon. member so that he can receive some answers about this case.

[Lebanon, April 19th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada deplores the attacks against the civil population of Lebanon and the peacekeeping base within Lebanon in recent days.

We have received a request from the International Red Cross for assistance to the people of Lebanon and we are at his moment considering what we can do to come to their aid. It is something we intend to do.

Canada is not a member of the security council of the United Nations. Yesterday we did support its resolution deploring the attacks against Lebanon and we have asked for an immediate ceasefire on the part of all parties. We want to see negotiations bring about a peaceful resolution to the situation there.

Canada does support the integrity of Lebanon's territory through resolution 425. We will do everything we can to assure that integrity is achieved through ongoing negotiated peace accords in the area.

[Terrorism, March 15th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the conference that took place in Egypt this week sent a very important message to the international community that collectively people, including those who historically were sometimes antagonists, can come together to confront terrorism, violence and the cowardice of that in our world community. It is an important message, particularly to the Middle East peace process, at this time.

The summit was a very short process. There was agreement that a working group be formed. Canada will participate in that working group to find other ways in which the international community can improve its efforts and collaboration toward ending terrorism and violence around the world.

Our departments are meeting to see how we can, in fact, prevent fundraising and the organizational work of terrorists in our country.

[Byelections, March 15th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I find the question absolutely incredible. Canada is very proud of its longstanding commitment to Haiti and to the people of Haiti.

The announcement made yesterday by the minister who has the responsibility of the francophonie, of which Haiti is a member, is also the minister responsible for international co-operation. He made the announcement in a series of Canadian government announcements in support of the people of Haiti.

The two projects announced yesterday will be implemented by two Canadian NGOs, CECI and CESO by name. They will be working in collaboration with Haitian non-government organizations.

All of the funding is for the benefit of the people of Haiti, not for the people of Canada, whatever their origin, and certainly not for the personal benefit of the minister.

[Terrorism, March 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the anti-terrorism summit in Egypt is a very important event in the name of peace in the world. Canada is very pleased to have a role in trying to promote that peace. We have been very involved in the Middle East peace process as a chair of the working group on refugees. We also feel that as Canadians we have a large stake in the success of the continuing peace process in the Middle East.

Certainly it has been challenged by the recent extremist terrorist acts on the part of Hamas. Our presence there along with the international community gives moral support to the peace process. Besides that we will be talking substantively during that meeting to find out what more Canada and the international community can do together to eradicate terrorism worldwide.

[Chinese Orphanages, March 8th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada is very sympathetic to the issues that the member raises with regard to human rights issues worldwide. We have officially addressed abuses to human rights in China. Among those, we have raised the issue of the conditions in which children and babies find themselves.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission will be convening shortly. The Minister of Foreign Affairs will be attending that meeting in Geneva, along with, we hope, other parliamentarians. We will all have an opportunity to address these very serious issues, not only in China but in other areas of the world where we have serious concerns.

The Canadian government, through CIDA, has also put together a policy on human rights, democratic development and good governance. I would be very happy to share this with any parliamentarian here.

[Chinese Orphanages, March 8th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond to the question.

Federal government officials have visited China. During conversations with officials the issue of the situation with babies and small children in China has been raised. We have told them of our concern about the deplorable conditions we learned about in which some Chinese children are living. We have offered our assistance to help them deal with this situation. We have also referred them to UNICEF. We understand that right now China is in dialogue with UNICEF and that UNICEF will be providing some assistance.

The Government of Canada supports UNICEF financially and we will keep an eye on this issue to make sure there are improvements being made.