Foreign Affairs Committee on June 1st, 2010

[Katherine McDonald]

I think it's just been a suggestion from the civil society that it would be one way to avoid a “rob Peter to pay Paul” scenario. But with the other, commitments around Haiti, you know....

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

It essentially means that CIDA does nothing for the next five years, if in fact all the money gets used up for this particular initiative.

[Katherine McDonald]

Yes.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

Let's move down to the Bloc, to Madame Deschamps.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I'm going to share my time with Ms. Lalonde.

Good afternoon, ladies. I had the opportunity of meeting with you and discussing things with several of you at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. At the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, women are in the minority. And so we are very sensitive to the cause, and also very concerned.

I have two brief questions for you, Ms. Scott-Parker. Are you funded by CIDA? Please answer briefly.

[Jolanta Scott-Parker]

Thank you for the question.

No, we're not funded by CIDA. The Canadian Federation for Sexual Health national organization doesn't receive any Canadian government funding. Although we're an accredited member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, we don't receive funding from them, because of course the dollars they receive from donor governments, such as the Canadian government, are directed internationally to the global south. They would use their internal processes for determining that.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I'm going to try and summarize what I heard today. You say, Ms. Scott-Parker, that in order to attain objectives effectively, and reduce maternal and infant mortality, we should offer a range of services that would provide access to all means, including contraception and abortion. That is the vision you are defending, in Canada and elsewhere.

Ms. McDonald, you said something that touched me deeply. You spoke about a fundamental right. You said that last year in Italy, industrialized countries had committed to reducing maternal and infant deaths. This assistance must also be in compliance with international treaties.

In light of what we have been hearing for some time, and given that this debate is being reopened—you even referred to two recent quotes from Ms. Oda, who omitted a few passages from paragraph 8.25—given this approach—is the government not politicizing this whole issue? This is a basic human right. Is the government not trampling human rights by not meeting the commitments that the Conservative government made internationally? That is my perception. Is my understanding correct? This is a basic right, and by attempting to get around it, the government is politicizing the whole issue.

[Katherine McDonald]

Thank you for the question.

Certainly, the international community has agreed for decades that individuals and couples have the right to decide the number, timing, and spacing of their children. In 1994--and that was 15 years ago--reproductive rights were recognized for the first time by the international community.

Reproductive rights are very expansive. They include reproductive health. They include sexual health. We are talking about a broad framework of human rights that are based on our international treaties, that are based on the interpretations of human rights experts, that form the standards, and that are fleshed out in these consensus agreements at international conferences.

In fact, the title of paragraph 8.25 is “Addressing Unsafe Abortion”. That's what the paragraph is meant to address. That paragraph took over one year to negotiate. As you can imagine, in early 1994 it was extraordinarily controversial.

So every government in the world in the United Nations system has agreed on this carefully formulated language, which says where abortion is legal, it must be safe and accessible, and where it is not legal, we have to deal with the millions of women every year who suffer from complications from unsafe abortions. When states do not do that, they are violating women's rights to life, to health, to equality, and to non-discrimination. That's the agreed-upon consensus.

So for this government to ignore those extraordinary internationally agreed-upon human rights standards is inappropriate, especially given that we have signed an all-party ODA accountability act that requires us to give our foreign aid consistent with international human rights standards.

That's exactly what I said and it's what I believe. I'm a human rights lawyer. That's what I do for a living. I work on sexual and reproductive health, so it was very concerning to me to hear the minister's testimony, to take even a part of a sentence and say that this is what we're going to base our action plan on, when, if you read the entire paragraph--which I have as a footnote in my speaking notes--it's far broader.

I have some of the international agreed-upon definitions here around sexual and reproductive rights. They're very comprehensive. We have agreed to them and reaffirmed them over and over and over again.

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

Thank you very much for being here and for sharing all of your expertise and objectives with us.

My question is simple. Do you think you will be able to reach the country representatives who are going to come here, and get across to them the points you feel are crucial? Will it be possible?

[Katherine McDonald]

We have been in touch with the other governments and civil society in different countries. In fact, in a couple of weeks we'll be releasing.... We've had a series of letters from parliamentarians around the world.

We had a letter from the Ugandan all-party group on population and development, which was written to this government, setting out their position that safe abortion should be included in this maternal health initiative. We had a letter from the European Parliamentary Forum, which is an all-party group as well and spans Europe. We had a letter from the U.K. all-party parliamentary group saying the same thing. We had letters from many civil society organizations. So they're very well aware.

I just came back from Kampala, where I was at a meeting of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, comprising 120 members. Within one hour I got 62 signatures on a letter to the Canadian government.

There is a great deal of interest in civil society and among parliamentarians on this issue. They know very well what the issues are.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move over to Mr. Donnelly.

Welcome to the committee, sir. You have seven minutes.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Oh, my mistake. I sit on two committees and I got a little confused with the order.

We'll come back to you in a second, Mr. Donnelly.

Mr. Van Kesteren.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be splitting my time with Mr. Goldring.

I want to thank you all for coming here as well.

Ms. Lynch, you'll be interested to know that I'm a big advocate of midwifery. As a matter of fact—get ready for this—20 out of my 21 grandchildren were delivered with the help of midwives, and I can tell you that I know my wife would have been very pleased to have had that opportunity as well. I know the good work that you do.

You stated, as did Ms. Morris, that Canada needs to use the expertise we have. That is the case. We're trying to pursue that in the low-cost, highly effective solutions that we are experts on.

Going now to my question, I want just a quick answer from each one of you, if I could. I'm going to start with Ms. Scott-Parker from the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health.

Who funds you? Are you publicly funded? Are you privately funded? Are you funded through donations?

[Jolanta Scott-Parker]

The Canadian Federation for Sexual Health is a charitable organization in Canada, and we're funded exclusively through private donations.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Through private donations. Okay.

What about Action Canada for Population and Development?

[Katherine McDonald]

We are a human rights advocacy organization. We do not have charitable status. We are funded by the United Nations Population Fund, we have two grants from the Ford Foundation, and we are funded through the European Parliamentary Forum.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

So you're publicly funded?

[Katherine McDonald]

We're funded by private foundations and the United Nations.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Is that the case with the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health too, or is it strictly private funding? When I say private, I mean the Gates Foundation or something like that.

[Jolanta Scott-Parker]

Our only source of funding is individual donations. We don't have any government funding of any kind as an organization.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

And midwifery, I suppose, would be....

[Bridget Lynch]

We're funded through fees paid by our member associations.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Okay.

And what is the case for the Micronutrient Initiative?