Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the invitation. I'm very happy you were all privy to the testimony of the humanitarian organizations first and foremost, because that's the most important element in understanding Syria. We've heard a lot of numbers, but the few numbers I haven't heard, I have to r

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. In fact, the universities are very open to this idea. However, for them to be careful, if you will, about their own balance books, they need to see the money up front, and that's not necessarily the case. In other words, they want to see equivalent cash in a bank

Foreign Affairs committee  I think 20,000 is very reasonable. I have to add here that many Syrians have small businesses that are family-run businesses. There's an immediate opportunity right there to actually give many, whether they are students or not, part-time jobs. When we're talking about a way to in

Foreign Affairs committee  You need heat-seeking MANPADS. That's the biggest thing that has prevented I think a real balance of power in this conflict. As many have pointed out, the fear is that they will be used against commercial planes. That's why none of the western powers are giving them. Now, the S

Foreign Affairs committee  That's called a UN Security Council resolution. It's the only way to do that legally. Both China and Russia have continued to basically block that and veto it. In answer to your previous question, in fact if you look at the manpower of the Syrian army versus the collective oppo

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Foreign Affairs committee  Okay. Just to point something out, Sweden has taken in 16,000 permanent residents. We can do a lot more than 1,600 in this great big country. We've only taken in 200. Now I do want to point out that if a Syrian applies when in Canada as a refugee for asylum, they've been very fav

Foreign Affairs committee  It's easy to say they need budget support, because clearly they are spending more. One can say invest in the infrastructure, because that's probably the thing that's most burdened. But that's also a challenge, because we don't know for how long and how many more Syrians are going

Foreign Affairs committee  I really do think so. If you want to do something good for the Zaatari camp, stop wasting money on.... I'm sorry, that's not the right word. It's money well spent, but if you really want to get your dollars' worth, get them here and get them out of the misery. Making an extra cli

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the priority dollars still belong to Lebanon and to Jordan. Turkey, yes, is definitely a lot more challenged because of an enormous amount of capital outflow due to investors running away from the current political crisis, but I don't think it's nearly as acute. Their cam

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Thank you to the committee. I appreciate the invitation. It's always an honour to speak to you. By the title of the hearing today, I gather there is an important interest, and I think a vital one, in ISIS's role in kind of trying to reshape the region. Wit

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. Thank you. Look, I think Assad for a very long time was interested in keeping control of Damascus, Aleppo, and the Latakia coast. That's his heartland. If we look at the map of what ISIS controls.... You know, I'm almost skeptical about using the words “ISIS”, “IS”, or “Is

Foreign Affairs committee  The quick response is that I think “ISIS” is legitimate. “ISIL” is a term that Barack Obama likes, and the administration, because it avoids the word Syria and we know that he is allergic to the concept of Syria. I think we shouldn't fall into that trap. As well, “Levant” does n

Foreign Affairs committee  I point out that this is already done, in the sense that the way in which the American forces were able to eventually overthrow al Qaeda in the first case, after the 2003 intervention, was by making a coalition with the Anbar province's locals, called sahwa or the awakening, in 2

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of the political strategy, obviously Iraq is easier, because in Iraq you have the central government's authorization. We have been focusing more on the Iraqi tribes to do that—at least, that's the way the message has been portrayed by the coalition—because we are in esse