Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 19th, 2016

Evidence of meeting #27 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was measures.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Canadian Government's Countries of Focus for Bilateral Development Assistance

Statutory Review of the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act and the Special Economic Measures Act

Committee Business

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Andrea Charron Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba, and Director of the Centre for Security Intelligence and Defence Studies, Carleton University, As an Individual

Sue Eckert Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security, As an Individual

4:50 p.m.

Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security, As an Individual

Sue Eckert

I would just add that there is a role, short of UN sanctions. I agree. I think it's very important to get as many member states committed to the sanctions as possible, but even without having a UN Security Council resolution, there are other ways for states to coordinate like-minded states, and that's what the Russia sanctions have been. They've been like-minded states, in terms of the United States, Canada, and Europe.

I believe they are having an effect. I think some of the individual measures or the ones specifically targeting trade or financial measures are probably hitting harder. We do have to be careful, because there is a rally-round-the-flag effect at times by those who are targeted. We saw that in Iraq, and I do not know the extent to which that has become a phenomenon in Russia.

Even if we can't get UN sanctions, using these measures by like-minded states and coordinating them and trying to have as much consistency as possible can make them more effective.

4:50 p.m.

Liberal

Borys Wrzesnewskyj Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON

Thank you.

4:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bob Nault

Thank you very much, colleagues.

To Sue Eckert and Andrea Charron, thank you very much for your time. We did take a little more of it than we had anticipated and probably could take more, but I wanted to first thank you on behalf of the committee for giving us this valuable information.

I will repeat somewhat what Mr. Kent said. One of the things that we very much want to do is to review this act in some detail to see its effectiveness. What we recommend to Parliament as it relates to this legislation is obviously very important to Canada and a better understanding of sanctions and their meaning, not only for us domestically—well, for sure, banks and others in the business community—but also in our relationship with other countries around the world.

This is an extremely important debate and discussion, and we appreciate your time. If there is any other information you think would be useful to the committee, please feel free to contact us and supply it and we'll be very supportive in taking it.

Thank you very much. We very much appreciate your time this afternoon.

4:55 p.m.

Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security, As an Individual

Sue Eckert

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're happy to do whatever else we can to help.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bob Nault

Thank you.

We will now go in camera for a few minutes.

As a reminder, I think we have votes at six o'clock, so we will start a process, but we will end at 5:30.

[Proceedings continue in camera]