Evidence of meeting #4 for Canada-China Relations in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was extradition.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Right. Are those discussions still going on?
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
They were not formal discussions, so they didn't formally commence or formally end. It would be possible to continue to have discussions.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
So you haven't at any point gotten policy direction from the government to cease to have those discussions.
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
This wasn't a policy direction from the government. It was an agreement between officials to have a discussion. There was no formal mandate from the government to negotiate a treaty.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Okay, but the Prime Minister said publicly that this was happening. Of course, you can't answer for what he said or didn't say, but presumably officials note it when the Prime Minister makes a statement like that, and it shapes what actions are then taken.
Is it your understanding that the rules of engagement vis-à-vis that extradition agreement as they existed in 2016 continue to apply, or have there been subsequent statements from the political level contradicting that or changing that direction?
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
There's never been any formal mandate to negotiate a treaty with China. That hasn't changed.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Okay, but an informal mandate to have conversations.... I'm just trying to understand this so that people watching at home can get a sense of it, because the Prime Minister did say.... There was a joint statement, and clearly when there is a joint statement saying that we're prepared to move forward with this, that influences what next steps are taken or not taken by officials.
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
I don't have anything more to say, other than that we don't require a formal mandate to have preliminary discussions about whether a country might be interested in a treaty. These kinds of discussions happen among officials, between Canada and a number of different countries—
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
To negotiate a treaty, we would require a formal mandate, and we don't have one.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
When was the last time that informal conversations happened between Canadian officials and Chinese officials on the possibility of an extradition agreement between the two countries?
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
I'm sorry. I don't have that answer.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Could you come back to the committee with an answer in writing? Is that part of the...?
Senior General Counsel and Director General, International Assistance Group, Department of Justice
I'm not sure if I can even get you an answer, because the discussions could have taken place between officials from my department or they could have taken place from officials in Global Affairs.... I'm not sure I can give you a—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Geoff Regan
Ms. Henchey, perhaps you could check on it. I'm going to ask you, if you can, to do so.
Mr. Albas, you have a point of order, perhaps, because we are at the end of the time.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
I do realize that, Mr. Chair.
It's just that you had asked earlier about a breakdown of extraditions by country and how many get done. If it's possible, could the department also include how many extradition agreements of those lists are with countries that have the death penalty? I think that would be reasonable.
Liberal
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Mr. Chair, I do have a point of order. Just to add to the comments or the questions put forward by Mr. Genuis—
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Perhaps this would add to our understanding. According to a 2016 National Post article—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Geoff Regan
Mr. Fragiskatos, this is not a point of order. It sounds like it's debate, and I think we're.... We may have occasions to debate in the future, but I'm sorry, I don't think it's a valid point of order.
I would like to point out that the committee members have now received copies of the document “L'extradition au Canada”, which the clerk had distributed in only one language today.
However, I must advise future witnesses that, if they want documents to be distributed, they will have to provide them in Canada's both official languages.
Deputy Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Geoff Regan
I want to thank our witnesses very much for appearing today.
I also want to remind colleagues that we're meeting tomorrow night from 5:30 to 7:30 with Ambassador Barton. I especially want to bring to your attention, just as a reminder, that we're meeting tomorrow night in room 415 in the Wellington Building, because, of course, we might otherwise come by mistake here, where we've been meeting regularly.
Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.