Foreign Affairs Committee on June 22nd, 2017

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Shall the bill as amended carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Shall the chair report the bill as amended to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Colleagues, that will bring an end to the exciting part of the agenda, which was to get through the clause-by-clause and the amendments that were presented.

Now I'd like to turn the floor over to the sponsor of the bill, Mr. Bezan, for some comments. As you know, this is a private member's bill.

Mr. Bezan, please.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

To the committee, I want to thank you for your great work, not just on dealing with the amendments but the work that you've done through the winter in putting together the report “A Coherent and Effective Approach to Canada's Sanctions Regimes: Sergei Magnitsky and Beyond”. It's just fantastic, multipartisan work. If anyone's watching today's proceedings or wondering why you haven't called witnesses to talk to the bill, it's because you've already done all that work. I just can't thank you enough for how you put together such a thoughtful and strong case to have this type of legislation.

I, of course, have to give kudos to Senator Raynell Andreychuk for writing this bill. I know that it's based upon the work that Irwin Cotler did in the previous Parliament. She definitely took it and expanded it. It really is about human rights.

In the preamble, two clauses that really speak to what this bill does are the following:

Whereas adding gross violations of internationally recognized human rights as a ground on which sanctions may be imposed against foreign states and nationals would further Canada's support for human rights and advance its responsibility to protect activists who fight for human rights;

Whereas it is important to acknowledge and remember Sergei Magnitsky's sacrifice, as well as the sacrifice of other victims of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights;

And whereas all violators of internationally recognized human rights should be treated and sanctioned equally throughout the world,

When we do get this bill finally royally proclaimed and into force, Canada will be standing right there with other western democracies, standing up for those who are being victimized by corrupt foreign officials. We can't allow those foreign nationals to enrich themselves not just through corrupt activities but also by violating human rights in their countries.

I want to thank Minister Freeland. She definitely championed this. Her predecessor, of course, was not a fan, but the amendments that she brought forward, I think most of us agree, strengthen the bill. In some places they may soften it somewhat, but I think that the offences and definition of who qualifies under this will definitely make this a lot more robust in how it's applied.

I want to thank the officials at Global Affairs Canada for working with Senator Andreychuk and me, and with Irwin Cotler, to bring about these changes.

I don't need to talk about Sergei Magnitsky and the sacrifice that he made and how he was treated in Russia for exposing one of the biggest scandals and tax frauds in history, but I think all of us have to acknowledge that memorializing him in this bill is important. With regard to the work that's been done by Bill Browder, Marcus Kolga, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, whom we all know very well, we need to recognize them so that their efforts, not just here in Canada but around the world, aren't going unnoticed.

Mr. Kara-Murza said it best when he quoted Boris Nemtsov, who was here before he was assassinated, who said that a lot of people think this is an anti-Russian bill, but it's a pro-Russian bill. This will empower those in Russia who are being victimized by the kleptocrats in the Russian regime.

We also want to recognize that this bill got strong support from other communities across Canada and around the world: the Vietnamese community, the Falun Gong community, and the Iranian community as well. They want to make sure that we recognize that there are human rights abuses happening in their home countries, and that this is a way that we can target those.

Finally, I'd just say that the work that we've done across party lines here will stand in good stead with Canadians, with our allies, and with human rights activists around the world.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bezan.

Mr. Fragiskatos, do you want to make a few comments? Then we'll wrap it up.

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

Since this is the last meeting of this session, I simply want to thank colleagues around the table for all of their work. It's great, actually, that we were joined today by Wayne Stetski. We got to know him in eastern Europe when we did the trip for the study.

Please pass along our thank you to Hélène for the work that she's done here.

At the end of the day, I think we have presented a bill here that is robust and that, as I said at the outset, reflects collaboration. It's also a statement of human rights, a statement that is very clear and is general. It does not apply to one particular state. It memorializes Sergei Magnitsky in a way that makes his lesson and example that much more powerful, because we have a piece of legislation here that can be applied to human rights abuses in very general terms and not just in one specific country.

Finally, this is a measure where there was collaboration, but certainly we saw Minister Freeland take seriously this idea of human rights and the fact that we needed legislation in place to put it forward. On behalf of all of us on this side and, I think I can say, around the table, I'd like to thank her for her efforts in helping to champion this issue and in working collaboratively with the sponsor to make it happen.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I would echo my colleagues' remarks.

Mr. Chair, I think there should also be recognition of your skilful guidance over the past 15 months or so of what we in the official opposition certainly thought might be a bit of an uphill battle. The unanimous report that the committee produced in the name of Sergei Magnitsky and the bill that came before us today, constructively amended, are in large part testimony to your leadership of the committee.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you, Mr. Kent.

Mr. Stetski, please.

[Wayne Stetski, NDP, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

I just want to add my congratulations to the committee. You've done great work on this. This is a very important bill. I really appreciate the effort that has gone into it. It's an honour to be here today to see the work of the committee approved.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Stetski.

I want to conclude by thanking Mr. Bezan for presenting this private member's bill and the work that's gone on behind the scenes. I think people don't realize how serious this matter is. When you put someone on a sanctions list for gross human rights, it changes their life forever. The strength of the bill and the safeguards in it are equally important as we work our way through a different way of approaching our work as parliamentarians.

Again, it's always a pleasure to work with a committee that I consider to be very high end. When I say “high end”, I mean we work together. We may have disagreements, but we have attempted to take the position that foreign affairs is Canada first and is not intended to be politics as usual. I want to congratulate all of you.

I will present this bill through special motion, through what we call the “back door”, and I will do that on your behalf as quickly as I can sign it. Then we'll get on with doing business and bringing it into law.

Again, congratulations. Thank you for this morning. We'll see you in the fall, very likely.

Before I wrap up, I just want to move one little motion, as is normal:

That the analysts and the Clerk, in consultation with the Chair, prepare a news release for publication on the Committee's website and for distribution upon presentation of the report to the House.

I would seek unanimous consent.

(Motion agreed to)

This meeting is adjourned to the call of the chair.