Evidence of meeting #2 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was china.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Steve Verheul  Chief Negotiator and Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development

4:50 p.m.

Bloc

The Vice-Chair Bloc Stéphane Bergeron

Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Minister.

We will begin another five-minute round.

Ms. Sahota, you have the floor.

4:50 p.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think I'll carry on with that line of questioning. In terms of coordination, we heard quite a bit after President Trump had banned foreign nationals from entering the U.S. There was a response from the European Union and other allies talking about why coordination and the lines of communication are so important when it comes to COVID-19, since it has become a global problem and not just a Canadian problem or an Italian problem or whatnot.

Can you describe to me what that process looks like? How are the countries coordinating? How should they be coordinating? What are the negative effects if they fail to do so?

4:50 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

Thank you very much, and that's where multilateralism is important.

For example, when the first cases of coronavirus started in China, obviously we were in touch with the Chinese authorities to repatriate people. More recently, with respect to South Korea, I called my counterpart to try to understand lessons learned and what may have happened so that we can learn better and implement best practices and lessons learned.

We are talking constantly with countries around the world. We are monitoring the situation, and again I want to give my deepest appreciation to the team. You have seen, for example in the case of Italy, how things evolved so quickly. How can we update Canadians? My main concern as minister is to make sure we provide timely information to Canadians so that they can make their own decisions with respect to travel.

There's a G7 health minister call, and I'm also trying, as the foreign affairs minister of Canada, to lead and create a group where we can update each other on a weekly basis. I did a call with my Italian counterpart today, and there are some lessons learned there.

We will continue to engage. I was supposed to travel more extensively next week, and we are curbing a bit of that. Clearly we'll need to think about how we do diplomacy now by video conference to keep updated about what's going on while reducing risk.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Are you finding that countries are being forthcoming with lessons learned and things that they should have done, perhaps, and didn't?

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

Yes. You see when you face—

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Do you have an example?

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

Italy was a good example today. I was asking how they went from no cases to the situation they had. They explained to me the spread of the virus, the ratio, the percentages, what they did and why they did so. A lot of that is lessons learned, so as we're looking at our own situation, we are learning how you can shove the peak, how you work with different authorities and what kinds of measures are effective.

Some countries have decided to close their borders. That doesn't seem to have been very effective in many regions.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

Where? Can you give us some examples of that, and why not?

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

You've seen, for example, that when the virus started, some countries immediately decided to close their borders. I think Italy was one of those.

I think now we're looking back and saying there are other measures they took, which were the ones that stopped the spread of the virus. When they identified patient number one, they were able to identify where that person came from, who she is—I don't know if it's male or female—and the interaction, how long that person could have had the virus, what the spread was and where these people went. They were able to identify regions.

All of that learning is obviously very helpful. I can tell you I spoke to my South Korean colleague and my Turkish colleague. I spoke to my Australian colleague this morning. Everyone is very forthcoming. We're trying to gather a group of countries to keep abreast of the next developments and implement measures that will stop the spread of the virus, not only in North America but across the world.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON

When it comes to human rights—I'm going off my colleague's question a bit—it's interesting to see that the Conservatives have been opposing Canada's bid to the Security Council and to see the opposition to some of the measures that have been taken to try to get Canada a seat on the Security Council.

What are some of the benefits you foresee when it comes to human rights that Canada may gain from having access to that seat?

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

I would hope we can all speak with one voice. If you care about human rights, climate change, gender equality in the world, I think you should care that Canada should be on the Security Council. Canada is that positive, progressive voice. I can assure you, whether I was—

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Leona Alleslev

You have 15 seconds.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

—in Africa, whether I was in the Baltics more recently, or with the Lima Group, everyone wants that voice to make sure these voices can be heard around the table where peace and security are discussed.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Leona Alleslev

Thank you, Minister.

We are at the two-and-a-half-minute round again.

We will move to our next questioner, Mr. Bergeron.

4:55 p.m.

Bloc

Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Montarville, QC

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Minister, I know you told me a few moments ago that, essentially, you rely on facts, but I would be concerned if you told me that you were ignoring hypotheses that might turn out to be less favourable to Canada.

So I come back to the issue of the closure of U.S. borders to flights from Europe. At any point in your discussions since yesterday, have you had the feeling, if not the conviction, that the Americans want us to follow suit eventually?

On another note, put my mind at rest and tell me that you have planned for a scenario where the Americans might close their borders to Canada. How would we react?

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

Thank you.

I got no indication of that. When the situation is fluid, I often put hypotheses to one side. In this case, the facts are changing hourly around the world. The best way to anticipate these changes is to look at the facts as they are presented to me, rely on science, consult with our public health experts and talk to our counterparts abroad.

To date, in the discussions I have had, there has been no indication of that.

5 p.m.

Bloc

Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Montarville, QC

I understand that you stick to the facts and to what might appear to be the most elementary logic, but I will allow myself to say something that you probably could not say yourself: We know in particular that the current occupant of the White House has set himself apart by behaviour that might appear unpredictable, tosay the least, since the beginning of his term. Some people claim that the decision to close the borders completely to flights from all European countries except the United Kingdom is consistent with this type of behaviour, which is unexpected, to say the least. Let's put it that way.

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Leona Alleslev

There are only 30 seconds left.

5 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

With the Grand Princess, you saw the coordination that took place to repatriate Canadians. It's a great example of how we are working to share information and make sure that everything is done properly to stop the virus from spreading in North America.

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Leona Alleslev

Thank you very much.

Mr. Harris, you have two and a half minutes.

5 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Thank you, Chair.

Minister, I'd like to raise the question of the elections in Bolivia, which occurred around the same time as our elections last October.

Canada participated with the OAS in what seems now to have clearly been a failed effort at election monitoring. Fraud was alleged, based on a statistical analysis. For the first time this has proven to be flawed, without substantive evidence, leading to significant demonstrations and eventually the installation of a different government by the military and promises of elections, which haven't taken place, etc. They're now going to take place some time in May.

Canada has been part of that and supported it. Do you think there's a need for a different approach to the elections that are being held in May? We've seen the representatives of the party that Mr. Morales was part of being prevented from running. We've seen various things happening. There seems to be a need for a different sort of election monitoring, and perhaps more parties than the OAS. Is Canada prepared to call for greater involvement of other nations in election monitoring to ensure, as best we can, the greatest possible fairness in the election that should take place in Bolivia?

It's made a big difference to what's going on there now. If we were going to support democracy, should we not be encouraging a broader look at that election and encourage the direct involvement of Canadians in election monitoring there?

5 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

Madam Chair, one thing that should concern all of us is the retreat of liberal democracies in many parts of the world. What we've seen recently in South America in particular should be concerning to all of us, whether it's in Venezuela or in the countries that you mentioned. Canada always stands ready to help. I'll take the comments of my honourable colleague if he has any practical suggestions on how we can improve, because one thing we see in our world now is the retreat of people who believe in the principle of liberal democracies and free and fair elections.

That's why, for example, when I called the Lima Group, the reason was obviously to help the Venezuelan people, but also to talk to my colleagues and say that we need to do more. I was actually supposed to be in Panama next week with a number of colleagues to talk about—

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Leona Alleslev

Thank you. Sorry, Minister.

Moving on to the next round of questions, we have MP Epp.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Minister, I'm going to go back to our relationship with our southern neighbour. We share the longest unfortified border in the world, I believe. Talking about the COVID-19 virus, along this line you talked about the co-operation around repatriating some Canadians from the cruise ship off San Francisco. We have so many border crossings all along this undefended border.

Let's go back to the level of coordination that we're doing at those border crossings with our American friends.

5 p.m.

Liberal

François-Philippe Champagne Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

In my understanding, Minister Blair has been in regular contact with his U.S. counterpart. Officials are talking because, as you said, with the longest unguarded border in the world, the only way that we can deal with that is by talking to each other. As I said, the Grand Princess was a good example of everything being coordinated. We talked to each other. We knew when the ship was coming. We talked with state and local officials. We made sure that the disembarkation would be done in an orderly fashion.