Foreign Affairs Committee on June 17th, 2010

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Sure, absolutely.

I'm just looking for the detail of the terms of reference, such as we have them here. The truth and reconciliation commission will not be as short as one would ideally hope. It has a mandate, as I said, to clarify the facts surrounding the period in the years before the coup, what happened in the immediate period of the coup itself, and then in the years since.

We have to recognize that the atmosphere in which the commission is operating continues to be very fractious and that Commissioner Stein is going to have to use all the diplomatic skills in his toolkit to make it work. I think there is enough goodwill to pull things together and to lay out through their various meetings and hearings around the country....

The first working session was from June 4 to 11, just this month--Michael Kergin has just returned--and the target date for completion of its work is January next year.

At the same time, we expect to provide information, as it's relevant to national reconciliation, to the government and the opposition and to civil society at large. With the report that is eventually produced, the OAS has expectations that there will be actions by the government to address those realities.

The OAS itself continues to fund and support engagement in Honduras. As you know, because of its suspended status last November for the elections, we did not formally observe, but our diplomatic folks on the ground from the Department of Foreign Affairs, from the Carter Center, and others were there. There was fairly unanimous support from the international diplomatic community that the elections themselves were relatively free and fair and peaceful. There continues to be serious challenges in the country, and we recognize that.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

I have a couple of quick questions. One is about Michael Kergin himself. Is he a Canadian diplomat?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Yes, absolutely. To give you a little more of his CV, he has served as Canada's ambassador to Cuba as well as ambassador to the United States. He was in Cuba from 1986-89, and he was ambassador to Washington from 2000-05. He was also assistant deputy minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

I spoke to him the week he was appointed, and he really looks forward to re-engaging. He has the language skills. He understands the region. He is a career diplomat and a lawyer, and I think Canada will be well represented by him.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

I have two quick questions. They may not be quick to answer, but they are quick to ask, I suppose.

One question is on the interim president, Roberto Micheletti. What is his current role? I know he had quite a difficult assignment for the short time he was there. Is he still in the assembly, and how is he involved in the process?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I think Roberto Micheletti created as many problems as he thought he was resolving. He became a very difficult factor through the summer of last year.

On our ministerial missions when we met with civil society and the political parties that were contesting the upcoming elections in November, we saw some signs in the all-party commission--including members of President Zelaya's own party--that without OAS involvement reshaped President Arias' San Jose accord into the San Jose--Tegucigalpa accord to resolve the crisis. That gained a fair amount of acceptance broadly throughout Honduras.

Roberto Micheletti was a factor in blunting and blocking that. You're right. We believe he did have aspirations of having his picture hung among the legitimately elected presidents of Honduras in the presidential palace.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

I have a final question. CIDA is engaged with Honduras in capacity governance, capacity building. I think it's about $18 million or so.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

It is $18 million, yes.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Can you give us an idea of the areas where CIDA is trying to build civil society institutions?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Well, CIDA is engaged in agricultural development, in education, in literacy, in child health. It is one of the countries of focus. It's the only country of focus in Central America for CIDA. As I say, we are also engaged on the democratic governance side in terms of supporting the justice system and the courts system.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Lunney and Mr. Goldring.

We're now going to come back over to this side of the table, to Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I just wanted Mr. Kent to go over a couple of things. The first is the elections. I just want to clarify that you are saying that the Carter Center's evaluation of the elections was a positive one.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

That was its role. As you know, it put observation teams into the field.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I've worked with them, so I know how they work. But regarding your assessment, I thought they were not willing to participate. I'm just clarifying.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

No, they were there, and there were Canadians who participated under their auspices.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Maybe we need to clarify this. I'm just reading from their website, which says why they weren't going to participate. This is November 2009. They're saying that they were displeased at the fact that they were on the ground. Maybe we could clarify that.

I'm seeing that they weren't involved. Is that true? Were they involved or not?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Well, it was an unofficial group, but there were representatives of the Carter Center there.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Okay, so officially the Carter Center was not an observer in the election.

I've been with them and I know how they work. When they say on their website they didn't want to officially observe the elections because of the concerns they had, that's important.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Well, it was an unconventional election because of the status of Honduras. There were definitely key elements of the Carter Center present and some Canadians who worked with them in the observation.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Again, I've worked not with them but in the field where they've been. I was a little surprised when you mentioned that.

So I think we need to be clear about this. This wasn't an official mission for them. It was unofficial. Is that fair to say?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Sure. They had personnel on the ground, the same people who would have been there in an official context.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I think what I'd like to do is establish that they also said they weren't keen on the elections happening. Is that right? They wanted to have a unity process first, and stabilize, then elections.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Yes, as we all did. But we didn't want to delay the election.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I guess that's where we have a problem. We have a coup. By the way, I was happy with the initial comments that came out of our government, then was displeased, frankly, at what happened after. There was some equivocation that came out of the department—September 22, to be specific—in the DFAIT comments about blaming both sides. A military coup is a military coup. I don't think it was proper for Canada, for the record, to come out and start blaming both sides. I think, in terms of diplomacy, there was one side to blame: the military.

So there was equivocation there.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I don't know the statement you're referring to, but I have never equivocated in my role as representative of the government in the OAS proceedings.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It was September 22.

No, I'm talking about what was happening on the ground in Honduras at the time.