Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 5th, 2020

[David Sproule]

If I may go back, you may remember our discussion at the last hearing. The information we're able to give you going back to 2016, if there were any, would not be specific for privacy reasons, but it would be a general statistic, which I think you will probably be interested in.

Insofar as engagement is concerned, we re-engaged and had discussions. Our department had discussions with their department as far as that's concerned. Those had not been undertaken for some time before that. There was more active work with civil society, and there was increased engagement as far as our embassy in Warsaw was concerned, which has responsibility for Belarus.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Just out of curiosity, with respect to the SEMA sanctions, why were they not put back on the area control list as part of the sanctions? You used the sanctions under SEMA, but why not put them back on the area control list, given what's happened?

[David Sproule]

In these circumstances one of the overriding considerations was that we needed to act quickly and send a very strong message. SEMA was a very excellent way to do it, because, as I said, they met the criteria and we were particularly able to put that together quite quickly.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Has there been consideration?

[David Sproule]

As far as the area control list is concerned, it always is a fine line to put that in because of the broad nature of those sanctions. To make sure the sanctions you do are aimed particularly at the violators and do not hurt or harm the general population, those have to be done with some care and timing, walking that fine line.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Is it being examined, though?

[David Sproule]

We consider all of our options, all of the tools we have in our kit.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Mr. Morantz. Thank you, Mr. Sproule.

Our final series of questions goes to Ms. Dabrusin for five minutes, please.

Go ahead. The floor is yours.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I wanted to pick up a bit on Mr. Harris's question. He was talking about the UN. One of his questions wasn't just about the actions of the UN, but about UN observers. Have their been UN observers in Belarus?

[David Sproule]

I'm not sure whether there have been UN observers. I know in the past there have been OSCE observers. Maybe I could defer to Ms. Grant again in case she has better information.

[Alison Grant]

There is a UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, which monitors the human rights situation from a UN perspective, but no, I'm not aware of UN human rights observers on the ground.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Maybe I misheard because I thought there had been reference earlier when Mr. Sproule was talking to an OSCE rapporteur who had prepared a report, but could not travel to Belarus. Is that correct?

[David Sproule]

That's right.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Why were they unable to travel to Belarus?

[David Sproule]

The Belarus government did not allow them entry into the country.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

On that same thing, you mentioned that the OSCE didn't have observers in Belarus for the election. Why was that?

[David Sproule]

They were not permitted entry into the country to observe the elections is my understanding.

[Alison Grant]

I could add just one clarification. The reason was that they did not issue an invitation to the OSCE in a timely fashion, by the deadline that the OSCE's ODIHR arm needed to organize a proper electoral mission. At the last minute there was a move from Belarus, but it was far too late for the OSCE to be able to mount a credible mission.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

So far, I'm not hearing about many people on the ground being able to help monitor.

What are the international resources on the ground who are able to monitor what's happening right now in Belarus?

[David Sproule]

We're relying on civil society contacts, like-minded countries with diplomatic missions there, contacts who are in the media, think tanks, universities. Those are the people who we are receiving information from.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Okay.

That goes a bit to the heart of why I'm asking these questions because throughout the time you've been talking and what we've been hearing, we've been hearing about human rights violations and we've been hearing about political prisoners. Particularly, when I looked at the travel advisory for Belarus, it referred specifically to journalists being targets.

Asking that question, how are we ensuring that these people who are providing us with this monitoring advice—these members of civil society, these journalists, these professors...? What are we doing to ensure their security?

[David Sproule]

First and foremost, we're ensuring the confidentiality of the information we receive. We do not want to inadvertently expose them to risks to their person or their families, so we're very careful.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I didn't catch that last bit because your sound is a little low, sir.

[David Sproule]

On our interaction with people who advise us on the situation as it is, if they are under risk for assisting and giving us information, we have to be very careful with its use and its dissemination, particularly its source.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I have very little time, so I just want to ask about asylum claims.

What are we doing to support asylum seekers? Are they making it to Canada? I'm not asking you as to whether they qualify for refugee status or not. What I am asking is this: What are we doing to ensure that asylum seekers from Belarus can make it to safety, and are they getting to Canada?