Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 5th, 2017

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

Hello, everyone.

We will begin our study of consular affairs.

Today we welcome Heather Jeffrey, assistant deputy minister, consular, emergency management and security; Mark Gwozdecky, assistant deputy minister, international security and political affairs; Mark Berman, director general, consular policy; and Lisa Helfand, director general, consular operations.

Without further delay, I give them the floor.

Thank you very much.

[Heather Jeffrey, Assistant Deputy Minister, Consular, Emergency Management and Security, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you very much.

First of all, I'd like to thank you for inviting us here today to talk about the work of assisting Canadians abroad.

I'd like to begin by introducing my colleagues. Mr. Mark Gwozdecky is the assistant deputy minister for international security and political affairs, and he is responsible for issues concerning terrorist hostage-taking. Ms. Lisa Helfand is director general for consular operations. Mark Berman is our director general for consular policy.

As we start our discussion on how we serve Canadians abroad, it is helpful to put today's travel into context. As travel has become easier and more affordable, and communication virtually instantaneous, we see Canadians travelling more and visiting or living in more remote places. At the same time, the nature, frequency, and location of security threats and weather-related events have had an impact on our work. As we have seen recently in the Caribbean, abnormal weather events are increasing in regularity and severity. All of these factors have led to an increase in the number and complexity of consular cases abroad.

At the same time, as the security threat evolves and we face increasing numbers of significant weather events, Canadians are travelling, working, studying, retiring, and simply living abroad in ever greater numbers. An estimated 2.8 million Canadians currently live outside Canada, and Canadians made 54 million trips abroad in 2015, an increase of approximately 30% from 10 years ago.

The preferred destinations for Canadian travellers are also diversifying. In 2016, while we continued to see the United States as the favourite international destination for Canadians, we saw a drop of almost 8% in Canadians travelling to the U.S., while Canadians made even more trips to everywhere else. In fact, travel to places besides the U.S. saw an increase of 3.7%, or approximately 12 million trips, continuing the trend of strong growth in overseas travel since 2014.

We expect that Canada's efforts to strengthen ties with the world through study and international business linkages, for example, will mean an increase in the demand for consular services.

Serving Canadians abroad is a major function of Global Affairs Canada. At our 260 points of service around the world, there are 850 officials either wholly or partially responsible for providing consular service to Canadians. In addition to these officials, Canada's ambassadors and high commissioners bear ultimate responsibility for consular delivery in their missions. They are briefed on specific consular cases and broader obstacles and are called upon to become directly involved in helping to resolve particularly difficult challenges.

Their work is supplemented by the work of honorary consuls who have proven themselves invaluable time and again in helping Canadians in need. Finally, in extreme emergencies we can rely on a network of volunteer Canadian wardens who are ready to assist Canadians and extend the reach of the mission.

Officials based in consular missions are most directly involved in delivering our consular mandate. Consular officers overseas are there to help, whether it's renewing a passport, providing contacts for local medical resources to those in need, or sharing information on local legal systems to parents of abducted children. It involves visiting Canadians detained abroad, assisting with the identification and repatriation of deceased Canadians, and seeking clemency for the death penalty. The type and extent of their assistance is adapted to the legal and bureaucratic framework in the country in which they operate.

In situations where Canadians are unable to rely on services available in the local environment, we develop tools and seek options elsewhere. One example of this work is the child well-being assessment tool, which was developed to allow us to gather information in situations where a child's welfare is at risk.

Consular officers opened over 265,000 new consular cases in 2016 alone. Of these cases, the overwhelming majority, 97%, were of a routine or administrative nature and were resolved quickly and directly at the diplomatic mission. When cases are complex, however, communications between missions and headquarters becomes paramount, and assistance may be required for years, as in the case of Canadians detained abroad or in cases of international parental child abduction.

Canada's missions are supported by a team of 120 staff at headquarters, including case management officers, policy officers, and emergency management experts.

With increased travel comes heightened risk to Canadians in regard to security threats and terrorism. New security threats from Daesh and other terrorist and criminal entities in all regions of the world have had an impact on Canadians in Europe, Asia, Africa, and in the Middle East, from Cancun, to the Philippines, to Paris, to Barcelona. The tragic events earlier this week in Las Vegas have again shown that Canadians can be at risk from other forms of violence, even closer to home.

Ensuring our missions maintain effective relationships on the ground with emergency responders and government officials becomes key to providing timely and relevant advice to Canadians before they travel, and to ensuring we can reach out quickly to assist Canadians injured and affected by attacks.

We are constantly re-evaluating and improving the way we work. Given the increasing demand for consular assistance, it's more important than ever that we offer consular services that serve the needs of today's Canadians.

We are modernizing our approach. For example, Global Affairs Canada relies on innovative new initiatives such as the emergency watch and response centre, which deals with calls on a 24-7 basis from around the world, and a standing rapid deployment team that is comprised of specially trained, experienced officials ready to deploy on hours' notice to anywhere they're needed. They helped Canadians during the serious earthquake in Nepal in 2015, and most recently have been on the ground over the past month across the Caribbean, supplementing our hurricane response there.

No longer do Canadians need to reach out in person or via telephone to access services or seek travel advice. In a social media age, we need to be where Canadians are to give them access to timely information and assistance. While the sources of information multiply exponentially, Global Affairs Canada believes that we play an important role in providing Canadians with reliable, accurate, and timely travel advice and information. Consular services are adapting to this reality through new services such as the digital “Ask Travel” initiative.

Recent advice targeted to vulnerable groups, such as young people at risk of forced marriage or LGBTQ2 travellers, ensures that Canadian values inform our consular information and response. While the international legal framework for our work remains founded in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, we are using all of these new avenues to respond to new trends and challenges and to expand our international collaboration with like-minded partners to resolve emerging issues.

As we have recently seen in the Caribbean, times of crisis underscore the importance of the role of Global Affairs Canada in coordinating the government's response to international emergencies and providing support to affected Canadians in their time of need. While this work is guided by well-established coordination mechanisms, each emergency has unique characteristics, and we need to be flexible and adaptable in bringing a broad range of tools and assets to the consular response.

As hurricanes Irma, Jose, and Maria broke, Global Affairs Canada provided timely travel advisories warning Canadians of approaching danger and brought together key departments and agencies to ensure an effective whole-of-government response. Following three intense weeks in crisis mode, we are proud to have responded to over 5,000 phone and email inquiries from concerned Canadians and to have successfully facilitated the safe return to Canada of over 1,700 Canadians via a variety of means.

However, our work does not stop when a given crisis ends. Our emergency response framework is continually being refined as we draw lessons learned from past emergencies to inform contingency planning and undertake regular exercises to ensure early detection and rapid response to new emergencies. The devastating impacts of this season's overlapping hurricanes and the challenges of response in remote islands are already being mined to inform our future responses.

At the heart of every consular case is a personal situation involving a Canadian citizen abroad. Global Affairs Canada takes its responsibility to safeguard the private information of Canadians seriously. For this reason, we do not typically provide public comment on the details of a consular case, even when some details may already have been disclosed by others into the public domain. While recognizing that you may have particular examples in mind, we will respond to the committee's questions from the broader perspective of program delivery rather than by commenting on individual cases in particular.

To conclude, consular officials are proud of the service we deliver to Canadians abroad. We recognize the need to continue to deliver these services both in exceptional circumstances as well as in the timely routine services needed by the majority of Canadians. We need to maintain an awareness of trends to make sure we are where we're needed, when we're needed.

We are looking for innovative approaches to ensure that our services are effective and efficient, and respect the privacy of Canadians. We will also look to take advantage of opportunities to collaborate with other countries, provinces and territories, non-governmental and international organizations, and the private sector to ensure a strong foundation for our work, and to make sure that the consular services of the 21st century serve Canadian needs.

I would like to thank the honourable members of this committee for their attention. We stand ready to respond to any questions you might have.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

Thank you very much, Ms. Jeffrey.

I will now give Mr. O'Toole the floor.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Thank you very much for being here today.

I think all members of Parliament, regardless of side in the House of Commons, find some of the consular cases that come into their offices some of the most stressful for the families involved. On behalf of the official opposition, I want to thank your teams for the work they do, in some cases in very troubling areas of the world.

I have a few specific questions with respect to the Prime Minister's statement and policy in the recent G20 meetings in terms of paying ransom for kidnapping in consular cases. It is my understanding that, in the past, these cases were not discussed publicly, so payments or communications between third parties or organizations representing the kidnappers were never discussed publicly. Certainly we saw the murder of two Canadians shortly after this stated policy from the Prime Minister.

Has that policy changed the way you handle consular cases abroad?

[Mark Gwozdecky, Assistant Deputy Minister, International Security and Political Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Let me preface my answer, if I could, with a brief comment for the rest of the committee, just to note that you are referring to the smallest subset possible of consular cases that Ms. Jeffrey referred to. She was talking about millions of Canadians abroad. We are talking about 20 cases over the last decade where Canadians have been abducted. We call them “critical incidents”, because they are more than your run-of-the-mill hostage-taking. These are individuals who have been abducted by terrorist organizations or organizations affiliated with terrorist bodies, which seek not only concessions from the family, but ransom and concessions from the Government of Canada, and therefore, have national security implications.

The policy stated by the Prime Minister about not paying ransom and not making concessions remains the policy of Canada. It's very difficult to point to empirical evidence that the payment of ransoms does facilitate further hostage-taking, but there is certainly a strong body of anecdotal evidence that suggests that whenever you enrich a group through the payment of ransoms, they have the means to continue to conduct that business line. It is, therefore, the policy of the Government of Canada not to do so.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

The case of Amanda Lindhout is interesting for most Canadians, because we see charges being laid against one of the kidnappers in Canada, due to some exceptional work by the RCMP. Once there is either a return or a very tragic outcome in these critical incidents, as you call them, does the Government of Canada continue to investigate and try to lead to a prosecution, as in the case of Amanda Lindhout's kidnappers?

[Mark Gwozdecky]

Yes, indeed, it is the policy of the government. In fact, the Criminal Code gives the authority to the government to investigate and prosecute anyone who abducts a Canadian anywhere in the world. The responsibility to lead the investigation and to do any prosecution falls upon the RCMP. As you mentioned, charges have been laid against Ali Omar Ader for his alleged role as a negotiator in the hostage-taking of Ms. Lindhout in 2008.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Just yesterday, I publicly praised the minister and the Prime Minister for their work in securing the release of Pastor Lim. I'd like to ask about states that Canada knows have people in detention and that might be abusing or torturing those people. Certainly, Pastor Lim was in one of those states, North Korea.

The William Sampson case is one that I think gripped a lot of Canadians, where Canadian consular officials visited Mr. Sampson and knew he was being mistreated.

Does that circumstance give rise to a higher level of action in trying to extract a Canadian? Is there a caution on even visiting someone who might be experiencing abuse in the hands of a foreign state?

[Mark Gwozdecky]

As Ms. Jeffrey pointed out, we're not in a position to speak about the particularities of individual cases, but you are quite right that the question of misuse or mistreatment or torture is a major priority for us in terms of handling these cases.

The one case that I can speak about more publicly has to do with Mr. Omar Khadr. In that case the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Justice have already made public statements in that regard, and that decision flows from a Supreme Court decision in 2008 and 2010 that held that Mr. Khadr's charter rights were breached. That led to a number of changes in terms of how we work with foreign governments or if we work with foreign governments that may be involved with mistreatment, so that we now have new protocols that would govern those actions.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Could those protocols be shared with this committee? What I find interesting is when the—

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

Mr. O'Toole, maybe we can come back to that on the second round.

Thank you.

[Heather Jeffrey]

I can expand a little bit on that answer.

When there are allegations of torture, we take all of these allegations extremely seriously. There's a requirement on all of our consular officers to immediately report those allegations back to us. We have a team of experts who look at all allegations and assess their seriousness and credibility, and the government is informed of all allegations made. When allegations are credible and serious, we take an immediate series of steps, and these are decided on a case-by-case basis.

As the member mentioned, we have to look at the safety and security of those who are in detention. In different circumstances, the response might be different. Typically, the kinds of things we look at are immediately seeking access, making representations to the government that is holding these Canadians abroad, visits, increased frequency of visits, consular access, and other documentation so that we can make more informed and more pointed interventions on their behalf to try to ensure their well-being.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

Thank you.

Madam Vandenbeld is next.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you very much to all of you. Thank you, Ms. Jeffrey, for your interventions today and also for all of the work that you do.

As my colleague stated, as MPs we all get these kinds of cases. I know that we've always had very good service, and for those of us who've lived abroad and for Canadians who are working on behalf of the Government of Canada in countries that are very dangerous for human rights, for humanitarian issues, I think this is something that's extremely crucial.

I was very interested in what you said, Ms. Jeffrey, about the number of Canadians who are living and working abroad. I think you said that the number has gone up by 30%, but at the same time, in the last 10 years the number of consular cases is remaining steady. Could you explain why you think that is the case? What are the reasons for that?

[Heather Jeffrey]

I think what we have certainly seen is an increase in the number of complex consular cases abroad as people travel to more diverse destinations where the risks are more diverse. We have more cases that require a longer time to resolve and a more intensive investment of time and attention.

The complex cases are a much smaller subset of the 265,000 I mentioned. There are only about 6,300. Part of what we try to do as a consular service is preventative work, and this aspect is really important. It involves the travel advice and advisories that we maintain on a 24-7 basis. We work with local stakeholders in the travel industry, provide advice to Canadians before they travel abroad in terms of making sure that they have insurance and that they're registered in our registry of Canadians abroad—which is voluntary, but which allows us to access them in a time of emergency—and provide advice on all of the measures that they can put in place to protect themselves and ensure that they have sufficient resources if unforeseen circumstances arise.

We put them in the best possible position to have the right documentation, to have information on the local context, and not to put themselves at risk unnecessarily. That is something to which we devote increasing attention. Our fondest wish is that Canadians not be in harm's way at all, and anything we can do to prevent that is really important for us.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you.

In terms of the preventative work, how many Canadians actually avail themselves of the registration and of the services that are provided in terms of the warnings? In some instances, it's easier to foresee if something is going to happen. There may be an election, and there might be anticipation of violence following an election or conflict, but in other cases, such as natural disasters, it's much harder.

How does that differ in terms of how you would work with Canadians in each of those instances? As well, how many of the Canadians who are impacted by these kinds of things actually register?

[Heather Jeffrey]

We've devoted a lot of energy to improving our digital tools, given that Canadians primarily find their information through the Internet. We use social media like Facebook, Twitter, and a variety of other tools. In 2016 we had 14.2 million visits to our page, travel.gc.ca, which is where we have all of our travel information and advice. This was an increase of 14% compared with the previous year, and we've seen a steady increase in trends of Canadians looking to this for information and the latest news. As advice changes, information is also pushed out to people who are registered for particular countries or regions.

We use our registration of Canadians abroad locally and from headquarters to push out information about changes to the local security context or other emerging environmental threats, such as approaching hurricanes, etc. For example, our Facebook page has 264,000 followers. We have a new Travel Smart app that can be downloaded in mobile form. People can stay abreast of information. We also have a wide range of print and digital publications.

Registration is voluntary, as I noted, so in almost all cases, the number of Canadians that we have registered is a smaller subset of those who we know are actually in a given country. The number tends to be higher in places where people perceive real levels of risk, and lower in places where the environment is perceived as safe. In the most recent storms that passed through the Caribbean, we found, for example, that significant communities of Canadians on very remote islands had not registered. We did not know they were present, and the number of people was sometimes in an order of much greater magnitude.

Re-registration is something we promote at every opportunity. You will have heard us, in our technical briefings and other interactions, really promoting the registration of Canadians, because it is one of the tools we have. We have to use all the tools at our disposal, and they include, in cases of emergency, working with local radio stations and other CB and hand radio operators, and using all manner of forums to try to push out the advice that we have.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you.

I would just like to talk about women who travel abroad and are victims of sexual assault and other crimes. What kinds of resources are you able to provide through consular services for those women? This applies to men too, but I'm asking primarily about women.

[Heather Jeffrey]

We have specialized training that we offer to our consular officers for a variety of different populations and vulnerabilities. Attention to women is part of that and includes the specific types of medical services and other things they might need. In different local contexts, we work extensively with non-governmental and other local organizations that have special service providers, and we can supply lists of appropriately specialized personnel who can provide recourse options.

[Lisa Helfand, Director General, Consular Operations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

That pretty well covers it. We make sure, however, that we have special training, as was mentioned, because these are the most difficult cases to deal with. Depending on the context, we also have special links with hospitals, medical specialists, and NGOs.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

Thank you very much.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask a question myself.

We have touched on individuals with dual citizenship or, specifically, citizens who could be mistreated in prison. As to those with dual citizenship, there are very clear cases of this kind of problem in China, Turkey, and Egypt.

To what extent does that complicate your work?

[Heather Jeffrey]

As the Government of Canada, we seek to assist all Canadians. Dual citizens can find themselves at particular risk when they travel to their countries of origin, in light of the fact that not all countries, as you mentioned, necessarily recognize Canadian citizenship and provide us with the consular access that we continue to seek. We advocate equally on behalf of all Canadians, and we use all means at our disposal to do so, but in cases where Canadian citizenship is not recognized and the dual citizen is treated as a citizen of the local nationality, sometimes consular access is blocked.

For example, in the case of China, where we have many dual citizens travelling and there have been issues in the past, we concluded an agreement—a memorandum of understanding—with the government in regard to the treatment of citizens with dual nationality. In cases where Chinese Canadians travel to China on their Canadian passport, the Government of China has undertaken to afford us full consular access, as we would expect under the Vienna convention. That has assisted in some cases with getting the access we need.

This is part of the travel advice we offer to Canadians proactively as well. We tell them to keep in mind that when travelling to their countries of origin where they have dual citizenship, while we will continue to make best efforts and to intervene at all appropriate levels and through all means when issues arise, in some cases our ability to access Canadian citizens is difficult as we are not afforded the access we would like to have.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

Thank you very much.

I know these are complicated files, and I join others in thanking you for your work and for the work by the minister 's office, with which we have worked very effectively on certain files.

We also know that consular services are a crown prerogative. There is no obligation to provide consular services at this time. There have been various suggestions to include certain aspects in legislation, to appoint an ombudsman for consular services. There have been proposals for a charter of rights on consular services.

I would like to hear your thoughts on that.

[Heather Jeffrey]

Yes. We very much value and are paying very close attention to the different submissions and reports that have been made about ways we can improve our consular services. While the provision of consular services is under the crown prerogative, our policy as a government is to assist all Canadians to the best of our ability wherever they are. We take that very seriously. We are not able to in all cases because of natural disasters, emergency or inhospitable local environments, war zones, etc. We go to great lengths, though, to have access as quickly and as directly as we can.

For us what is really important is the flexibility and adaptability that we need to adapt our consular response in different locations. We have guidelines and policies about all the different avenues we pursue, but every context and every case is different. In some cases certain tactics will be more effective; in other cases not. In some cases working publicly is more effective. In other cases working behind the scenes is in the best interest of the consular client.

It is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It's adapted to the local circumstance, but that doesn't mean people are getting different levels of service. We do our best.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Hélène Laverdière]

You also have a communication system, I believe, through which people can provide feedback if they are dissatisfied or have problems with the services they received.

Do you have any statistics on the number of complaints you receive each year and how they unfold?

I know there has been legal action in certain cases. How many lawsuits are outstanding at this time?