Foreign Affairs Committee on April 3rd, 2008

[C/Supt David Beer]

No. My last appearance before the committee was shortly after the death of former RCMP member Mark Bourque. I'm pleased to say that since that time, though we have been exposed to considerable violence for a period of time, there have been no further casualties.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Madame Martin, could you reply to Mr. Goldring's question?

[Ginette Martin]

Yes, I wanted to complement what Mr. Beer was saying. Sorry, it's not a comment on the borders. I will let Mr. Derouin speak to the borders.

In terms of tangible results in announcements that are being made, one thing I think Minister Oda announced in early February was a $75 million construction project to build a road between two urban centres in an area of Haiti that has really seen very little development.

I had the pleasure of accompanying Minister Bernier when he was in that particular region and seeing an event with the population and how enthusiastic they were to see that. I think that is related to an earlier experience I had. I was impressed, when I was speaking to some of the local population, with how the one thing they pointed to in terms of tangible results was the fact that they no longer had to drive eight hours across a very bumpy road, which usually meant the buses broke down and the vehicles broke down, in order to get to a market. That road is not the one we're building, but that is just an example of what is being asked of donors like Canada.

The fact that a road had been improved meant that instead of maybe eight hours to reach their destination, they were travelling two hours to reach their destination. So there have been very concrete results in that respect.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Go ahead very quickly, Mr. Derouin.

[Robert Derouin, Director General, Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START) Secretariat, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade]

Thanks for this opportunity. It's my birthday today, so this is a wonderful present to be here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Well, happy birthday. We'll give you an extra ten seconds.

[Robert Derouin]

There is a lack of adequate infrastructure and state presence along that border, not only in terms of illicit trafficking of goods and people but also an irritant with the Dominican Republic.

We have committed through the START program in the Global Peace and Security Fund $12.2 million for infrastructure development and equipment for Haiti's land and maritime borders, including improving the Haitian maritime service coast guard type of service, training immigration officials, and training law enforcement officials to deal with the human trafficking.

There's also the importance of cooperation between Haiti and countries in the region on border security. There was, when Minister Bernier was in Haiti, a trilateral poll of Hispaniola, an event with the participation of Dominican and Haitian government officials, to inaugurate an effort for land border collaboration.

Also, through START, we have been working to support dialogue and collaboration among the government of Haiti, MINUSTAH, the Dominican Republic, and other countries in the Americas on issues pertaining to border management and regional security.

There's one last bit. We've been working with the IOM, International Organization for Migration, on trying to champion some legislation through the Haitian Parliament on the trafficking of people. That might come through over the next while.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

We'll move to Mr. Dewar, please.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I actually will just make one comment. Well, no, I'll make two comments.

I have an observation for our friends from the RCMP. If there's a way to have more women involved, I think most of us would like to see that. It's great to see that there's 10%, but I think most would hope we could see that complement grow.

I'd just say to CIDA that we heard from Rights and Democracy. I know a question was put forward to you by someone else, but it's just to encourage you to support the work they're doing.

My only concern when I go through the Haiti file is that we talk about prisons, judges, and security, and these things are all very important, but I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done with civil society in supporting and building that. So I'd like to underline that, and thank all of our guests for being here today, especially our friend who has his birthday today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Dewar.

You actually asked the question I was going to ask, and that I think was more directed to CIDA. I think it's funding from them.

Also, I just want to let you know that there is a review that Rights and Democracy is going through, and the Haiti portion has been completed. If there was a concern about waiting for some review on the Haiti thing before that money was allocated, if indeed that is the wish, that thing is available.

Mr. Patry said he had a ten-second comment.

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

Not a comment, a question for Monsieur Beer.

Mr. Beer, you told us that there had been a very significant decline in the number of murders and kidnappings in Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince.

A few years ago, Haiti was a hub for drug trafficking, most commonly originating from Colombia. What is the situation now? Is there less trafficking of drugs originating in Colombia in Haiti, or is the situation about the same?

[C/Supt David Beer]

Haiti's position is a location or central point for trans-shipment of cocaine from

South America. Drugs are still smuggled to Miami, Boston, New York and Montreal. Drug trafficking still exists.

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

Is it much as before, or is it improving?

[C/Supt David Beer]

I have to say that the situation is probably about the same as before. There is still much work to be done in the fight against narcotics.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

I want to thank our guests for coming again and for updating us. As you know, with the report that we concluded last year, we do like these occasional updates, so thank you for being here today.

We're going to suspend and come back to committee business.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We will call this meeting back to order.

We want to move right into our committee business. As you recall, at the last meeting we were dealing with Madame Barbot's motion in regard to Omar Khadr. I think at that point, if my memory serves me correctly, Mr. Obhrai had the floor.

Mr. Obhrai, you were speaking to the motion, and we were debating the motion. We have moved the motion to the front of the committee's order paper, and we are now debating this motion.

Mr. Obhrai.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for debating this motion.

First of all, I would like to welcome Mr. Mark Eyking and the others out here. It's good to have them here.

Mr. Chair, I was just wondering—and it's up to Madame Barbot—in light of the fact that the NDP motion by Mr. Dewar is very important, time-sensitive, I was wondering if he could have that motion moved first and talk to that, and have this motion moved down to the subcommittee, and then we can discuss that, considering the fact that it has a time element to it, and this motion does not have any time element to it. If I were to propose that we move that ahead of this for—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Well, Mr. Obhrai, what you stated was that we not move it in front of this, that we take this motion to subcommittee, which we've already really debated.

There are two options. Perhaps you can convince Madame Barbot of that—I would rather doubt it. The other option would be that with unanimous consent, because we've already moved this one ahead, we move Mr. Dewar's motion ahead of this one that we're in the middle of debate on.

We could adjourn debate on Madame Barbot's motion and go to Mr. Dewar's motion and come back to Madame Barbot's motion, but I think we've already really debated the subcommittee.... I don't know.

Have you spoken to any of them in regard to Madame Barbot? Are you doing that now?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

No, I haven't spoken to Madame Barbot. I'm doing it right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Have you spoken to Mr. Dewar about this? Is he able to speak to this today?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Well, I was hoping to get to it today. That's why at the beginning of the committee I asked if we could extend our time for committee business, hoping that we'd be able to deal with Madame Barbot's proposal and get to the one on the MDA, because it is time-sensitive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Again, we're in the committee's hands here. We either continue debate right now on the motion that we have--and my intentions are at 5:30 to conclude it--or we need unanimous consent in order to go to Mr. Dewar's motion and then to come back to Madame Barbot's motion.

I haven't heard any type of a motion.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

I suppose Madame Barbot has to agree to this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madame Barbot.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Deepak Obhrai has asked me to suspend dealing with the motion and to study the one tabled by Mr. Dewar. I would like him to tell me why. We have been working on this motion for several weeks and as far as I know, Mr. Obhrai has made no effort to help us do constructive work in this regard. So I don't understand why he is the one asking me to come to this kind of agreement today.