Foreign Affairs Committee on March 29th, 2007

[Prof. Gordon Smith]

We are deeply into the national solidarity program, both in Kandahar, where we obviously feel a particular responsibility, and in the rest of the country, and where it has not yet been expanded it's going to be expanded so that it will cover the entire province.

The result has been quite a phenomenal election of these community development councils. I'm told that there are now upwards of 16,000 nationwide and the number of projects that are being funded is increasing dramatically. So I think there is an understanding of the very real problem you point to. I think it is now being addressed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Smith.

I think that pretty well concludes our time here today. Certainly we want to thank you both for appearing before our committee. It is appreciated.

We're doing a fairly comprehensive study on Afghanistan. I think all parties have the intent of finding those areas in which Canadians can improve our role or improve the resources that are going to certain parts of that mission. I think we all understand the importance of democratic development and promotion in countries like Afghanistan, including the values, the principles, the human rights that we believe are important.

So we appreciate your input. We've enjoyed your testimony, as I've mentioned before, in the past in New York. We look forward to hearing from you again and reading the many different reports that both of you have helped author.

Again, thank you for attending.

We're going to suspend for a few moments and give each one an opportunity to grab some lunch, and then we're going to move very quickly into committee business.

So I ask the members of the committee to stay and we will proceed into committee business. We have a number of topics and items for committee business that have just come out of our subcommittee this morning.

Thank you. We'll suspend for two minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We'll call this meeting back to order. It's my understanding that we are no longer televised, and that's always good. I always have a problem eating when I know that we're being televised.

We're going to come back quickly and go to our committee business. There have been a couple of things.

You do not have a copy of this budget. This morning in our subcommittee on human rights it was asked that this budget be passed out. It is a budget, according to the clerk, that is very much in line with what a study would need. The amount requested is $9,900, and it is in regard to the human rights study in Iran. It was passed unanimously in the committee.

We're doing a study on China, and now a bit of a study on Iran. Mr. Cotler and a number of others have brought forward a motion, and we're going to move that into a study on Iran.

Do we have a consensus on this budget? We do? Agreed.

This morning there were three reports, and again this is not on your agenda, because I just came from the human rights committee meeting, which was held from nine to eleven. The first report has been filed, and we can discuss this. Certainly I'm not saying that we're going to move this today, but just so you know, it is that the Government of Canada should launch a criminal investigation into the involvement of Iranian Prosecutor General Sayeed Martazevi in the torture and murder of Canadian citizen Zarah Kazemi pursuant to section...and it goes on.

Also, the following was addressed to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development:

The Subcommittee on International Human Rights expresses its profound disapproval at the failure of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Development to comply with the motion of Caroline St-Hilaire,

--this is an important one--

adopted by the Subcommittee on November 7, 2006, requesting a copy of a report prepared by Professor Charles Burton. Therefore, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights demands the unconditional production of the unedited and original version of the report....

That comes from Madame St-Hilaire, and we'll deal with all of these in the next meeting.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That was passed unanimously, was it not, Mr. Chairman?

[A voice]

But we are not passing anything today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No, we're not going to. It's just so you know which three they have brought to us.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I just said it was unanimously adopted.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes.

The third report is as follows:

That the Subcommittee on International Human Rights urge the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take all steps possible to urge the Prime Minister and the Parliament of Japan to: (a) pass a resolution in the Diet to formally apologize to the women who were coerced into military sexual slavery during the Second World War and were euphemized as “comfort women” by the Japanese Imperial Army; and (b) to provide just and honourable compensation to these victims.

Those three have been deposited with our clerk.

Madame McDonough, do you still want to move your motion and reserve it for the next week? That would give you time to speak on it today as well.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

First of all, I think we all agreed we had extraordinary witnesses and it was an opportunity to use the full time in respectful exchanges, and I think it was a good decision. So I was happy to say there's no magic in the motion today. Then we'll carry over for the next day?

I want to say I think it's something the committee should be celebrating. I don't know who else had a chance to look at it, but I went to get the report itself. Is everyone aware of the motion I had brought forward? It's based on the report that has now come forward from the work that started at the international human rights subcommittee around corporate social responsibility as it related to Canadian companies in the extractive industries, especially in developing countries. I think it's a very good piece of work that is in the best tradition of industry and civil society collaborating, with government facilitating the process.

My point in bringing it forward is to say we really should make sure this moves forward in a timely way, because one of the things that was applauded at the press conference this morning is that so many of these things take forever and they sit around and they languish. In a surprisingly short time, this enormous amount of work was done with round tables across the country. It's pretty unprecedented to have such a high degree of consensus and very specific recommendations coming from industry and civil society with this high level of government participation. I think eight different government departments and agencies were involved in that process.

So I'm happy to leave it for next time, for us to talk about the motion itself, but I would really recommend to people the reading of that report from the advisory committee that held a press conference to release it today. We could discuss it after the break.

Thank you.

So should I move it or just leave it? Okay, good. So we won't start the discussions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I hesitate to say we should move into it now, given that we have gone too long. I want to afford everyone the opportunity to speak to it. It's very important, as you suggest.

Madame Lalonde.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I think we should come back to this very important study, but I think we should start by reading and finding out more ourselves.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Yes.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I would like to remind you that we passed a motion put forward by Alexa about the IMF and World Bank, but we didn't set aside a time to discuss it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I'll ask our clerk to explain that.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That is to discuss the report.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mrs. Angela Crandall]

The report is supposed to be tabled in the House, probably tomorrow. As soon as it is.... I've already made some preliminary efforts to contact the witnesses who were mentioned in the motion. So I'm trying to set them up, if possible the first week we come back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Patry.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I want to talk about Ms. McDonough's motion. I don't see a problem, but I just don't understand.

You're asking to discuss the plan for the government. We've done the report and we've already had a response from the government. In their response they asked to get these round-table discussions when we criss-crossed the country. There was a response. Now there is a response from the NGOs, civil societies, the mining corporations, and all these things. If it is that report you want to discuss now--the report that was done by foreign affairs.... If you want to invite international cooperation.... One body was responsible for the response, and I think first we should invite this body to discuss the report--which was not tabled, but came out today--concerning the mining companies that are working with the other ones. But there was a response from the government to our report.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Chairman, what I had agreed to, and the committee had asked, is that we not get into the discussion and debate about it now. But if what you're wanting to clarify is why I am bringing forward this motion, it's because there now is a report with very specific recommendations from the round-table process, and my point is that the original recommendations coming from the international human rights committee were unanimous, as I recall. The same is true of this committee in our contribution to precipitating this very constructive process.

Now what we want to do is make sure that the recommendations that have been released today are pursued in a timely way. There are reasons to feel there's an opportunity for Canada to really lead the way in this, to distinguish ourselves. There are very important meetings happening in June.

So it's to move it forward that next step, to hear a response from the government to those recommendations that have now been made.

I thought we weren't going to discuss it—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No, we aren't going to now.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

But now you've ruled it back in order for Bernard to discuss it, so—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No, no, I thought it was for clarification.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Okay, so we'll do that next time, Bernard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We'll deal with that next time. I think what Mr. Patry is saying is there has been a government response. The government response was to set up and encourage the round-table discussion, but out of those has now come a report, and she's asking for a response or action from the government.

We aren't going to talk about that this time. We'll talk about it next time.

Is there any other business?

Oh, yes, we have a request for two meetings with delegations from Germany.

Maybe you'd better talk about this. I'm not even too aware of when they're here and what they want.

[The Clerk]

They're going to be here on April 18. I sent an e-mail around late last night. I don't know if you've had a chance to see it. One is a member of Parliament who wants to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with the committee, and the other is the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. What they've suggested is a morning meeting or a lunch, but they don't want a joint meeting with the two groups, because their interests are different. So what I'm recommending is that we have the MP appear before the committee to discuss Afghanistan, and then have a lunch with the secretary of state.