Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 10th, 2009

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

No.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

You haven't. So you expect no money, for instance, from legal fees to examine the case?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

Do you want to be a little more specific?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Have you spent any money on the legal case of Mr. Khadr? Have you had anyone look at it?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

No.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

So no one's looked at the case, and no one has given you a legal opinion on it.

Maybe Mr. Edwards could help us here. Has no one looked at the legal case of...? I can't put it any plainer. Has anyone in the department looked at the legal case of Mr. Khadr, yes or no?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

Well, let's be specific here. If you're asking whether we looked at the legal case to have a general idea of what the American policy is, the answer is yes, we looked at the American policy. Yes, we are cognizant of the fact that the trial of all cases in front of the military commission has been halted at Guantanamo since January 20 of this year. We're aware, of course, that the U.S. administration has ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay. So if you're asking me whether we looked at that, the answer is yes, we have.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

But beyond that, there is nothing in terms of what might happen or of scenarios about the future? That's interesting.

I say “interesting” because I think something I would do is ask, “What happens if...?” But that's just me.

When I look at this, I see that we have a case in which the Americans are very clearly sending a message to us that they're closing the shop. We actually have a legal representative in the room—Mr. Kuebler— who has suggested that....

Well, let me try this one with you, Minister. We often talk about Canada's believing in the rule of law—isn't that right?—and about our exporting that principle, that value. In your opinion and that of the officials, when we talk about the rule of law, would you suggest that it includes having fair representation?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

If we're going to discuss the issue of Guantanamo, that's a complete—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Well, actually, no, I'm talking about a case of the rule of law—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Let's keep this back and forth through the chair, please.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It's through you, Chair, to them.

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

Okay, it's through the chair.

Chair, what we won't speculate on is hypothetical scenarios. Yes, Canada does promote the rule of law; with like-minded countries, we do that. But Mr. Dewar, I have to point out that there is a process in place. We're following that process; we're following it with interest. Once the outcome has been determined, we will develop a position and will make that position known.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It's clear we're not going far with this, unfortunately. As I said through you, Chair, to the minister, we're going to have to do something. I guess the sad part is that we see more leadership on this issue from south of the border than we do in our country.

I will turn my attention to Afghanistan.

It's interesting when we look through the estimates, Minister, and I see that in the case of National Defence there's approximately $330 million in additional funding for the mission this year. How much more is the department receiving this year in the estimates for the mission in Afghanistan? That's for DFAIT and CIDA.

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

I'll let Mr. Hirst answer that question.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

And I have a question about how we're coordinating the mission.

I talked to Mr. Edwards about this before and I recall that we used to call it the “3D” and now we call it “whole of government”. That seems to go back and forth in terms of nomenclature. I recall very well the debates in the House when we were trying, with the motion that the opposition agreed to with you, to recalibrate the mission so we would have more development and more diplomacy. I want to get a sense of that from the numbers, because money talks.

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

We'll let Mr. Hirst answer the first question and then maybe we can get back to that.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

While they're doing that, maybe they could get back to us on something related to that in Afghanistan. I noted carefully and I saw Mr. Day's presentation in the fall about a progress report, and one of the things that aren't in here specifically is corruption and drugs. We know that's the big challenge right now. As recently as yesterday, this issue was brought up with your colleague Mr. MacKay. We are turning our attention now to our military being involved with hunting down drug traffickers who are “associated with the Taliban”. In your planning and the resources on the ground, is there a line item for drug eradication and dealing with the drug trade in your government's plan for Afghanistan that you could show us?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Pontiac, QC]

We'll let Mr. Hirst answer the first question, if you don't mind.

[Bruce Hirst, Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade]

The first part is fairly easy to answer. We spent $102 million this fiscal year in Afghanistan. That brings our total from 2001-02 up to $130 million to this present year. Those are the figures.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Through you, Chair, to the ADM, how much more are we going to see from Foreign Affairs vis-à-vis Afghanistan this year?

[Bruce Hirst]

It is $102 million this year.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

That's in addition to what had been base funding last year?

[Bruce Hirst]

Yes.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

In total, how much is Foreign Affairs getting for Afghanistan this year?