Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the committee for inviting us to speak here this afternoon. Project Ploughshares is an ecumenical peace centre of the Canadian Council of Churches, based in Waterloo. We have advocated and worked to advance stricter controls on the internat

Foreign Affairs committee  We have made representations. In particular, we have had many of our own members and other Canadians from across the country send in an e-mail petition calling on the Canadian government to adopt the two-track process that I mentioned earlier. At last count, I think over 3,000 C

Foreign Affairs committee  In your information, I think there is a list of the global principles we are talking about.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think this could be a lengthy discussion. There are many elements, but certainly one element is that arms control negotiations generally have always been difficult for states, because they are so basic to states' interests. So anything that's being introduced, particularly from

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly within the program of action on small arms and light weapons in particular there is attention to the issue of stockpiling and the need to ensure that stockpiles are well regulated and controlled and do not leak into the illicit side of the arms trade. What I don't think

Foreign Affairs committee  As I mentioned, those were assembled with the help of international legal experts who drew on existing international law. A basic point that we are making about those principles and the arms trade treaty more broadly is that we're essentially calling for states to follow existi

Foreign Affairs committee  I can point to a very specific example, because it's one Project Ploughshares has been involved in. The Nairobi declaration and protocol process that emerged essentially since 2001 has drawn together east African and Horn of Africa countries to look at a regional approach to addr

Foreign Affairs committee  You'll have to remind me of some of the other questions, starting with the exports to the U.S. Were you asking for further details on that?

Foreign Affairs committee  The situation is that there's a special arrangement between Canada and the U.S. in terms of military trade. As a result, there are no export permits required for the transfer of military goods across the border. Because the current process of monitoring arms exports in Canada is

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a good question, to which I don't have a full answer. We certainly saw the draft report as part of that process, and our understanding is that there will be some amendments to that draft report, but not significant ones. We haven't actually seen the final document. I can o

Foreign Affairs committee  There are some specific changes we would like to see in Canadian export controls, and I made some reference to those. I think it would serve Canada well, not only for making sure it isn't contributing to the problem, but also for setting a standard for others. We look to Canada t

Foreign Affairs committee  I would just repeat some of the things I said earlier. Canada's export controls need to be tightened up, and I've listed some of the areas in that paper where that could occur. But Canada can also show some leadership on this issue, because it does have a well-deserved reputation

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, the government has emphasized the affordability of the F-35 aircraft. However, U.S. government sources now cite the per-unit cost of the JSF at close to twice the initial projected price. Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands have postponed their F-35 procurement decis

National Defence committee  Yes, I think one of the points to make about the JSF program is that it has been almost universally controversial within all the partner countries that are participating in the program. As you mentioned, in the U.S. alone there's been a lot of debate about the rising costs of the