The first question is the toughest one. The United Nations system, as you know, is a big conglomerate of very distinct missions and different mandates. I am mainly concerned about what I've experienced in the field, which is that it's not always very easy for people to understand what exactly they want to achieve.
I will give you an example. In Nigeria there was a major, multi-basket fund for democracy. The governments of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were funding. We tried very hard to co-operate with that office in Abuja. It was very weird in the sense that we never got clarity on how we should proceed. When they told us that we should proceed with the support of the Nigerian legislature, we had the support of the Nigerian legislature and nothing came about.
Our high commissioner at that time, Chris Cooter, wanted very much to have an account of the use of the basket fund, and the British high commissioner wanted the same thing. We never had any answers that would be satisfactory to our taxpayers.
It's a very uneven situation with the UN. They are all over, in many different fields. I'm really concerned about that.
Canada's role on the whole has been positive but not very audacious. We have reached a point where we need to be a bit more audacious. I'm thinking of the work that your chair, Michael Levitt, is doing on Venezuela. It's an example of what Canada should be doing, being more proactive and more visible. We need to pull the resources together and unite our allies, like we're doing in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan case is a good example of what Canada can do. I think Ms. Freeland has decided that she wants to take some leadership. We have a very good special envoy, Allan Culham. I would like to see more of what I saw with Venezuela.