Thank you, Mr. Nault, and thank you to everyone on the standing committee for the opportunity to appear before you to address some of the concerns we have encountered in our representation and advocacy on behalf of Canadians imprisoned or detained abroad in violation of their human rights.
Dean Peroff, Chris Macleod—who unfortunately may not be joining us—and I have been working over the past several years on various initiatives aimed at improving the consular services and support delivered to such Canadians. As concerned individuals, or in conjunction with others, we've produced a proposed protection charter.
I believe you heard from Alex Neve and Mohamed Fahmy this week, who have been involved in proposing a new officer of Parliament as outlined in a document called “The Office of the Consular Advocate General”, which was produced by the National Council for the Protection of Canadians Abroad and me in 2016.
We've also produced a process aimed at improving consular services to Canadians, which we put together in conjunction with Amnesty and the National Council for the Protection of Canadians Abroad, also in 2016. That last document suggested a process whereby department officials and experienced advocates would be able to work together to develop ways of improving Canada's response to the most difficult consular cases.
These initiatives, I must say, have been met with interest and openness from department officials, but little more. Dean, Chris, and I are all lawyers who have years of experience representing or advocating for Canadians subjected to serious human rights abuses abroad. We have represented or continue to represent many of the most challenging cases, such as that of Michael Kapoustin, who is represented by Dean Peroff; Huseyin Celil, who is represented by Chris Macleod; and Mohamed Fahmy, by me.
While the protection charter and “Canadians abroad” documents represent some of our public work aimed at stimulating interest in and support for consular services reform, most of our efforts have gone into confidential exchanges with government and the department, including with the director general of consular policy and the office of the inspector general.
Despite approaching the issues with different professional experiences involving a variety of state actors, we are of one mind on the need to enhance the government's role in obtaining the release of Canadians imprisoned or detained abroad in violation of their human rights. While such cases are not numerous, they often provoke outrage from Canadians about the ill treatment suffered by their fellow citizens. In other instances, cases that lack notoriety or strong public advocacy may pass unnoticed except for the anguish felt by the families of such Canadians. In every one of these cases it is our duty to better their conditions of detention and ultimately obtain their release and repatriation to Canada.
It is our common view that Canada needs to change its approach to intervening in these cases. From an outdated, narrow view of its duty to provide consular services, Canada must move to ground its advocacy on behalf of Canadians abroad in a legally enforceable obligation to do so. Not only would the absence of a legal right to consular services come as a shock to most Canadians, if they actually knew that was the state of affairs, but in our opinion, seeing the provision of consular services as discretionary has helped contribute to an historically passive approach to the department's work on difficult consular cases.
While most consular cases are handled very well by the dedicated consular services staff of Global Affairs Canada, there continue to be a few extremely serious or complicated cases in which Canada doesn't do as well as we might expect.
These cases have occurred irrespective of the government or party in power. We say this based on the insights we've gained through our representation of some of these Canadians, as well as our efforts to synthesize our experiences into a common analysis of how Canada delivers its consular assistance. We are not privy to the views of government or consular staff involved in such cases, but imagine that their internal assessments vary from ours. It cannot be otherwise, given the friction that often develops between what the department does and what advocates believe it should do to free a Canadian trapped in a foreign prison for some imagined crime against that state.
From the perspective of many Canadians, advocates in the area, and even retired consular services officers, the department's work on behalf of Canadians facing grave human rights violations abroad needs to be improved. In this area of change we should break with the culture that says consular work must be conducted away from prying eyes and start to see the benefit of working more closely with families and legal counsel. Collectively, we should develop a common analysis of how well Canada does in providing consular services to citizens finding themselves in difficult circumstances, and suggest ways of enhancing government and private co-operation to reach our goals.
Today we would like to put forward five specific points for your consideration.
From our discussions with Global Affairs' officials, there is a gulf between the internal assessment of its work and the opinions of it “clients”. Without an objective assessment of how well consular services are delivered, any changes will be particular and limited. We believe that the key to improving consular services is for the department to conduct a thorough review of its work, culture, structures, and leadership. Soliciting the observations and experience of those outside the department would be essential to attaining real change. Our efforts in trying to convince the department of this have been unsuccessful to date.
Despite the rapid development and strengthening of international human rights, as well as the explosion in international work and travel, it appears that the culture within consular services is still very much grounded in state-to-state relations. It has been our experience that leadership within the department places more restrictions on themselves in dealing with foreign governments than is necessary or helpful. Consular officials should see themselves more as advocates and less like the classic diplomats of old. While each case has its own particularities, there is a common approach or culture applied to difficult consular cases by the department, which must be scrutinized.
Perhaps flowing from what we see as a somewhat antiquated approach to consular work is the almost universal cloak of secrecy consular officers place over their work. This includes an unwillingness to explain the efforts being taken, and the inappropriate use of privacy laws to justify withholding crucial information from family and counsel. In some cases there has been a resistance to even working with legal counsel. While we have experienced a much more open and collaborative approach over the past few years, more work needs to be done.
There is often a significant lag in prioritizing cases involving serious human rights abuses. Time is almost always of the essence in solving or ameliorating a prisoner's condition. This may reflect the need for increased and focused training of officers and a review of internal processes and organization at the department.
Finally, at one time or another we have all been frustrated by our inability to mobilize government to be more directly involved in consular cases.
While what a government decides to do or not do is largely discretionary, we believe there's an important role for Global Affairs to play in identifying when direct government involvement is necessary and advising government on the appropriate steps that should be taken with the other state.
As is hopefully obvious from these remarks, we strongly believe that increasing Canada's success in difficult consular cases will depend on the department's willingness to examine its systemic approach to such cases and its openness to the views of its clients.
Further, we suggest that this committee examine the implications of Parliament's creating a legally enforceable right to consular services.
Thank you.