National Defence committee  Call it “Canada's back”.

National Defence committee  I'm assuming you've all had access to the Senate report. The Senate committee discussed the same thing 18 months ago.

National Defence committee  I told them pretty much what I told you.

National Defence committee  I think on the more nebulous side, because influence is very hard to quantify, we have very much lost our place at the table. Officially the government will say that's not true, but the feedback I get from colleagues in the UN is that they are very disappointed. They did not know what had happened to Canada during the previous government and they had welcomed the current government as the one that was going to fix it.

National Defence committee  You'd have to ask previous governments. We sat on the Security Council once every 10 years, once every decade, from the get-go, and then we lost out. The Security Council, for all its faults...and right now it has a major fault, in that there are major vetos. The veto is being used.

National Defence committee  If we're at the table, we can be part of that. Right now we're in the corridor.

National Defence committee  May I comment?

National Defence committee  This will be another one of my blunt interventions, Mr. Fisher. My understanding, from conversations I've had over the years with colleagues from the military and the Department of National Defence—and I'm going to really stick my neck out here—is that the Canadian military doesn't want to work with the UN.

National Defence committee  You're absolutely right to consider peacebuilding to be something that starts right from the very beginning. My last job in the UN was as assistant secretary-general supporting the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission. My definition of peacebuilding is that it starts long before the peace process.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure what the current discourse is in the Security Council on nation-building. Certainly the trend has been towards fostering local elements and supporting local elements. Even in Afghanistan, a lot of the emphasis was put on supporting the new government there, and there was definitely an amount of nation-building.

National Defence committee  No, I never said we haven't done anything; we just haven't gone in formally in a peace operation.

National Defence committee  No, we are present. We have an aid program in Mali. We contribute to the humanitarian efforts, absolutely. I'm sorry to have misled you. That's a good clarification. Thank you.

National Defence committee  I'm very supportive of Canada going into Mali. First of all, I'm supportive of our getting into peacekeeping, and given that we need to make one choice, it's better to make one choice than to have a scattered approach and do a little bit here, there, and everywhere. We have to have enough focus to make a difference.

National Defence committee  I would just say that I might have a slight disagreement with Walter on the location of it.

National Defence committee  We moved from Cornwallis to Ottawa because we needed the Ottawa connection.