Foreign Affairs Committee on April 30th, 2013

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I only have so much time and there's so much to ask, Mr. Baird.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Then you shouldn't have made comments—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It seems as if you've decided to eliminate the global peace and security fund. Your website says the global peace and security fund supports foreign policy and objectives and has made important contributions to the advancement of peace and security in its areas of engagement. You note that—you probably know this—we have helped to fund the important trial of a former Guatemalan president, Rios Montt, through the global peace and security fund—that money is no longer there.

Small arms for training in Palestine, conflict minerals trade in the Congo, constitutional development assistance in South Sudan, and legal services for IDPs in Haiti—all these projects were funded by the global peace and security fund, which seemingly has been eliminated in the estimates and the budget. How do you foresee us going forward to deal with all these important issues that I've just laid out?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I don't know you can say something is a fact and that it's seemingly eliminated. Either it's a fact or it's not a fact.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Is the global peace and security fund going to continue?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We'll be coming forward with a new initiative in this regard that I think will get widespread support.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

When?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I'll let you know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much. That's all the time we have.

We'll start with Mr. Dechert. Sir, you have seven minutes.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to both our ministers for their appearance here today and their comments.

Minister Baird, you mentioned the situation in Syria in your opening comments. Obviously, Canadians are very concerned about what's happening there. You mentioned the possible use of sarin gas, I believe. We know that President Obama has recently made a statement about that. You also mentioned that the Assad regime is blocking the OPCW investigators from going to Syria.

First, can you comment on what President Obama said?

Second, in your opinion does the blocking of the investigators by the Assad regime amount to an admission of guilt?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I have no reason to doubt the comments made by President Obama, by the administration, or by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government. We'd like the United Nations to get in there to specifically validate these conclusions. Before the Israelis or the Americans spoke up, Canada was proactively involved, offering financial support to the UN organization that deals with this. We think that's tremendously important. We'll continue to put pressure on them.

The crisis in Syria and the suffering of the Syrian people will end only when we get a political solution to this challenge. There are almost four million internally displaced people within the country. Obviously Turkey is a NATO ally. It is a much richer country, a much larger country, with a huge population. But when you have two smaller countries, such as Lebanon and Jordan, the percentage of their populations vis-à-vis these refugees is extraordinary. Most meaningful and thoughtful international organizations say we should focus humanitarian support on the poorest of the poor and on the countries that are least able to do it.

We provide funding that goes to all four countries—to Iraq and to Turkey as well. But we certainly did in the case of Jordan. It's one of our closest allies. The stability of the Jordanian government is tremendously important. It obviously has hundreds of thousands of refugees from 1967 who are still in the country. This is putting huge pressure on things as fundamental as water, education, and jobs, which are beginning to be taken by refugees. This poses internal challenges. Those are the areas of our concerns there.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Sure, and I guess there is a concern that the chemical weapons, which we know exist in Syria, could fall into the wrong hands outside of Syria.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We're concerned, first and foremost, about their use on the Syrian people and second, obviously, about the stability of the stockpiles. There are many. We're concerned, third, about nefarious actors getting a hold of them, whether it's Hezbollah or an al-Qaeda affiliate. This causes us huge concern, and it's something we regularly have discussions on with like-minded allies.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you for mentioning Hezbollah. We've heard, at this committee, evidence that Hezbollah fighters are fighting in Syria for the Assad regime. Many of them are coming from Lebanon.

Can you tell us what you know about that? What messages have you delivered to the European Union and other world leaders about the fact that Hezbollah is engaged in—

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We're deeply concerned about the growing role that Hezbollah is playing, not only in Lebanon but also in Syria and elsewhere, in Bulgaria, on NATO soil, and on EU soil. We've been very actively pushing our European counterparts to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. I bring this up in every bilateral with a European colleague. I brought it up in meetings with the EU. I brought it up in meetings with NATO. I brought it up yesterday when I met with all of the EU ambassadors and heads of mission.

We think it is important that we take a strong moral stance. This is something Canada did many years ago, and something the United States did many years ago. In this battle on international terror, the great struggle of our generation, we must be morally clear. Canada has one of the strongest, most principled voices in that regard.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you.

I have a question for Minister Ablonczy, if I may.

Minister, you may know that members of this committee were in Washington last week to meet with the Organization of American States, conducting a study on the OAS. You mentioned that fostering lasting relationships is very important to our policy in the Americas region. I wonder if you could comment on what you feel are the strengths of the OAS in helping to foster these lasting relationships and why they're important to Canada's foreign policy.

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

First and foremost, Bob, the OAS is the only hemispheric multilateral body to which Canada belongs. There are others, but we are not part of them. If we want to have a voice at the table with all of our neighbours, then the OAS is the forum.

The OAS has its challenges. They're well known. I appreciate the fact that this committee is doing a study of the OAS, and I look forward to your observations. Canada has been leading in some important reforms to the OAS, particularly on the way its finances are handled, but the plethora of mandates that have been handed over to the OAS over the years are equally important. There are just so many things on its plate, and they need to be streamlined and better focused.

The OAS continues to be a very important forum for Canada. We're very committed to having it go forward in a strong and capable fashion.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

You have 30 seconds.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Okay, I just have a follow-up question, then. Could you tell us about some of Canada's successes of our engagement in the region and the successes that it's producing for Canadians?

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Well, as you know, we've just been accepted as observers in the Pacific Alliance, and that was a very important mark of acceptance and of engagement for us. We are also strong partners, as I mentioned before, in security issues. We not only support these with money, but we're actively giving trainers, mentors, and coaches to a lot of the security forces across the Americas.

We have, of course, the Pan American and Parapan American Games coming up in 2015, in Toronto. This will be an opportunity to showcase a lot of our partnerships there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

That's all the time we have. Thank you.

Mr. Eyking, sir, you have seven minutes.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Ministers, for coming, and everybody that came with you.

As you know, as Liberals we only get one shot at this so if we can keep our answers half short. I don't have 20 questions, I have four.

Minister Baird, my first question deals with your failure in London to convince your Commonwealth colleagues to move this fall summit, the Commonwealth summit. So I'm guessing that you didn't do your homework on this one.

I have two questions on that one. Did you get your senior staff to connect with some of the Commonwealth ambassadors here or your diplomats to lobby some of the various capitalists in these Commonwealth countries? The second part of my question is, did you or the Prime Minister write any of these Commonwealth colleagues and ministers, or prime ministers, encouraging them to move the venue?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We've had significant engagement with the diplomatic corps here and with foreign ministers around the world. Canada has been the lone voice at the Commonwealth, at the meeting in Perth, and at subsequent meetings.

I think if you were to ask the oppressed Tamil minority in Sri Lanka which political leader has been the most strong, the most courageous, the most forceful, 100% of them would say it's been Prime MinisterStephen Harper and our government.

There is a pressure, which astounds me, in the international diplomatic community, to go along, to get along. That's something that Canada doesn't do anymore. We don't mind taking strong and principled stands. We have argued strongly and forcefully, and I think that leadership has been recognized around the world. We're going to continue to say the difficult things that need to be said. We're tremendously concerned by the deteriorating and authoritating trend of the government in Sri Lanka, its lack of accountability and lack of meaningful reconciliation. We've tried to engage. We've had Senator Hugh Segal pay a visit to Sri Lanka. We had a three-member parliamentary group visit Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission and to engage. I've personally met with my counterpart from Sri Lanka.

This is a tremendously difficult file, and if Canada is the lone country to stand up and speak truth to power, we can all be tremendously proud, as most human rights groups have been in Canada.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Minister.

When I was under the Paul Martin government I was responsible for emerging economies, and Egypt was always one of the most important ones. Egypt has the largest Arab population and it's a big trader of ours.

You mentioned your recent return from the Middle East trip, and I was quite disappointed and concerned that you were so close to Egypt and you didn't drop in, especially when there's quite a democratic shift going on there. I thought it would have been really good for you to get in there and talk to the leaders in that country and push Canada's role there. I'm afraid you might have disappointed them. What are your thoughts on that?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I was to visit Egypt last year. Unfortunately, the day before I was to arrive in Cairo, the President had to leave the presidential palace and the security situation had deteriorated so that it wasn't possible for me to make that trip. I hope at an early opportunity I can.

Obviously, we have been tremendously concerned with some of the statements. I have issued statements in response to very serious comments made by the President of Egypt in the years before he took office. We've been tremendously concerned by the persecution of the Coptic Christian minority. We have been tremendously concerned about the agenda of the new government there, about their disengagement from Israel. I have, on a good number of occasions, met and spoken with various representatives, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt.

We'll continue to engage, and I hope I can get there at an early opportunity.