Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 16th, 2012

[Susan Johnson]

Right. One element of our response that we highlighted in our remarks was for the regional appeal of the International Federation. The appeal is not ginormous—it's $3.7 million—and we would like to see the Canadian government make a contribution to that regional appeal. So far it's covered 30%, so a contribution from Canada would be helpful in that regard.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Do you have an ask for the Canadian government right now that you would like to see directly? You have the opportunity.

[Susan Johnson]

Given the situation on the ground and the mix of actors—this is a conversation, of course, and we're in direct dialogue on a daily basis with Leslie Norton and her team about this—a reasonable contribution from Canada, given the size of Canada's response elsewhere, would be something like half a million Canadian dollars.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Another issue of great concern for many—and there were reports I was following in the summer, in fact in the spring—is on the whole issue of security of women and children, in particular citing rape as a weapon of war, which we've seen in all of these conflicts, as something that is not only an outcome of war, but is sometimes a strategy of war. This is deeply concerning.

It's confidential in terms of individuals, of course, but can you talk in terms of that whole phenomenon of rape being used as a weapon of war and what is happening in terms of victims?

[Susan Johnson]

We've been aware of similar reports, the same reports, both in terms of the situation for women and gender-based violence and also the reports in regard to children. I'm not in a position to make any particular remark or confirm what might be behind the known facts. I would only point out that our understanding is that in situations of conflict—of course tragically—it's not unusual to find that women are subject to particular violence. We've also recently published a report documenting the relation between violence against women and children in natural disaster situations. Our experience at the Red Cross is that it's not only in situations of conflict. Even in a simple natural disaster environment we see a spike in interpersonal violence, in which women and children are particularly vulnerable.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Do you have requisite resources right now to deal with victims, both children and women, particularly of sexual violence? In other words, do you have the capacity to deal with that?

[Susan Johnson]

We have some capacity. We work with other partners as well in regard to that. One of the aspects of the work we do is with the national societies themselves. Part of it is raising awareness of the volunteers and the staff of the national societies, so that people are alert to the circumstances they might be confronted with and how to actually ensure that we are sensitive to the situation and able to ensure we have an appropriate response.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Johnson, thank you very much.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

May I make a very brief point?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Sure.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I'm dangerous.

I wanted to apologize for having missed part of the presentation. I have been going back and forth—I had a little emergency—but my apologies to everybody.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

Ms. Johnson, thank you very much.

Mr. Michaud, thank you as well for being here.

With that, we'll adjourn the meeting.