Foreign Affairs committee  Clause 11, as it is construed right now, has at least three paragraphs that do not show that.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like to complete my answer because I can link your question with what Mrs. Brown was asking me earlier on what we do to try to influence. We have national offices in eight countries. We have an office in Washington, and we do try to convince our American friends to ratify

Foreign Affairs committee  I can't talk from an American perspective. I can certainly hope that from a Canadian perspective we would have the spirit of the convention, which Canada has signed, so we agree in its essence. I think we should send a clear message to our soldiers that they should promote that,

Foreign Affairs committee  The Government of Canada, by signing the ratification of the convention, theoretically should stick to the essence of it in all of its articles. Article 1 is very clear. My colleague Amelie, in Geneva, mentioned the relationship between article 1 and article 21. Our concern is r

Foreign Affairs committee  I will give the floor to Jérôme.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Speaker, I would like Amélie to answer to that. As executive director for Handicap International Canada, my role is toward the Canadian government, trying to advocate our position toward our country. I have attended international conferences and have mostly tried to influenc

Foreign Affairs committee  It is always possible that the ratification of a bill that is not up to par can encourage other countries to follow the same path. Of course, that is one of our concerns. The major goal of the convention is to eliminate those weapons and to make sure they are stigmatized. Clause

Foreign Affairs committee  Any piece of legislation that can promote the stigma makes it possible to strengthen and affirm our position in a clear and direct fashion. In the convention as written, we feel that it is a form of encouragement. A number of our allies have already done so. I named a few in my

Foreign Affairs committee  The current bill was submitted. We are very happy that, a number of years later, the government has taken this step. It is very important that the ratification takes place. We feel that clear prohibitions are already included, but they must be taken a little further, as we mentio

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, thank you so much for inviting us today. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak before you. Co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent aid organization that celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Our organization