Foreign Affairs Committee on May 5th, 2016

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you.

I believe we share consular services with other countries, with Australia and Sweden, for example, where we might provide services to those nationalities and they would support Canadians. I know in your performance indicators that's one of the things you measure.

I was curious as to whether you see any variation? Is that shared consular service working? Are Canadians getting good service from other countries' consular—

[Daniel Jean]

Shared consular services work pretty well, particularly in terms of being able to ask them to serve Canadians where we're not present and us serving their citizens where they're not present. It's been a good experience for us where we are able to extend more immediate services in areas where we're not located.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I have one last question.

I know lots of people in my riding use the travel advice and advisories for medical concerns, safety concerns, and security. It's a new measure this year in terms of a performance indicator.

You're looking at scoring accuracy in the quality of those advisories, so how are you going to be tracking accuracy? How do you evaluate that measure?

[Daniel Jean]

Canadians travel all over the world, and every time there are events, maybe a threat, maybe in security, maybe a natural disaster to a country, we make an assessment and we determine whether or not the travel advisory needs to be determined. It's usually done within a matter of 24 hours. We always want to make sure Canadians have the best possible information to make a judgment on whether or not they should travel.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I understand that's how you set up the advisory, but how do you evaluate it after the fact to determine whether it was accurate? You've set it up, and you do it a year later. Do you go back and do a retro...? How are you going to evaluate that performance criteria?

[Daniel Jean]

I don't know if we've done a formal evaluation of our travel advisory, but I can tell you when we have a travel advisory—let's take a country where the threat of terrorism has increased, and maybe it's a country that is a major tourism nation for Canada—you will have a lot of representations from the country that our travel advisory is too strict. We want the travel advisory to have the most accurate information possible for Canadians to make informed decisions and manage their risks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

We will go to Mr. Genuis, please.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you.

I want to ask about Canada's foreign policy and any development assistance with respect to Turkey. This is just in. I read in the news today that the Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, has resigned. This is viewed by many as a further consolidation of Turkey in an authoritarian direction under Erdogan. Obviously, there are significant concerns about the direction in Turkey: a lot of criticism about the elections and the expropriation of historic churches, and questions about the many militants using Turkey as a route into Syria and Iraq.

I wonder if you could comment on Canada's relationship with Turkey, and ways we may be involved or could be involved, in terms of democratic development or development assistance, that would address these issues in terms of governance, as well as minority rights.

[Daniel Jean]

Turkey is an important country. Turkey is a NATO partner, but as the minister described here today, with all countries with which we have engaged, sometimes there are things we like, and sometimes there are things we like less. We have been critical of some of the issues around freedom of journalism. I don't think we have any development assistance in Turkey, not direct assistance.

With regard to the issue of transit, I think the Government of Turkey has been trying to work very closely with partners to see how they can deter and prevent these kinds of transits, but that is a difficult situation.

[Peter M. Boehm]

Where we are working closely with Turkey is with respect to the processing of the Syrian refugees who have come in. Of our $100-million allocation to the UNHCR, a small portion went to the UNHCR specifically for processing at the Turkish end, and to help Turkish authorities in that context.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Just coming back to our engagement with, as you put it, aspects we “like less”.... Perhaps I would prefer stronger language, but of course it is up to you to describe things as you like. You talked about raising issues around freedom of journalists. Is Canada raising issues of minority rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey? Is that part of the agenda, in addition to the concerns of journalists?

[Daniel Jean]

As with any country around the world, we always monitor the situation very closely. When we have concerns, we raise them, sometimes publicly, as we did with the freedom of expression, and sometimes privately.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Would it be fair to infer from that that we are not raising issues of minority or religious freedom in Turkey in the same way or at the same level as we were raising issues around freedom of the press? Would that be fair to say?

[Daniel Jean]

Preventing discrimination against minorities is very much part of our foreign policy. Whenever we see these kinds of things that are going against minorities, religious or others, we take action, sometimes privately, sometimes publicly.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I asked a specific question there, but I guess we will just move on to something else.

The situation of the Uighur Muslim community in China is very dire. We have Ramadan approaching again this year. If past years are any indication, Uighur Muslims in China will not be able to mark that occasion in the way their faith would dictate they do. What is Canada's engagement specifically with respect to the situation of Uighur Muslims in China?

[Daniel Jean]

We have raised the issue of human rights and the rights of minorities, including Uighur, with China on a number of occasions, and we will continue to do so.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Your time is up.

Mr. Fragiskatos, go ahead.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I would just like to note that, as far as minority rights in Turkey go, this is a very important issue. Under the previous government, the Kurds in Turkey were not given a great deal of attention by the Harper administration, so I note that for the record.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

That is noted for the record.

Colleagues, I think that concludes our opportunity to speak to both Deputy Minister Jean and Deputy Minister Boehm and his colleagues.

I want to thank you very much for your great presentations and answers to the questions. As you know, we will be calling you back for the supplementary estimates. We very much appreciate all your hard work.

Mr. Jean, good luck with your new position. Thank you very much.

Colleagues, we'll just take a couple of seconds to let our witnesses go, and then I have one report I'd like us to move and we'll be finished.

We have the third report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. It relates to the subcommittee meeting on May 3. First is the list of priority witnesses and alternates outlined in the document prepared by the analyst for the committee's study on the countries of focus for Canada's bilateral development assistance. That needs to be agreed to.

Second, the news release for the study on the countries of focus for Canada's bilateral development assistance needs to be agreed to.

Third, the background information document prepared by the analyst for witnesses, who will appear in relation to the study on the countries of focus for Canada's bilateral development assistance, needs to be agreed to.

Fourth and finally, draft instructions for the report on women, peace, and security need to be discussed by the committee on May 10, 2016.

This is respectfully submitted, and I would like someone to move it and we'll approve it.

Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I so move.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

All in favour.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Just for the committee's background information, as you recall, we had a discussion about the very question that, I think, Mr. Kent was asking, and I was going to ask the same question, which was about the countries of focus and what their individual budgets were. I have written the minister on our behalf to get a breakdown of all the budgets for all the countries of focus and the countries that are partners, with the idea that the information would help us with our study. That's in the works, and hopefully we'll be getting that information very soon.

Colleagues, thank you very much for your time and your effort, and we'll see you next week.

The meeting is adjourned.