Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 24th, 2020

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

As you know, Canada is very committed to helping to meet the needs of vulnerable Palestinian refugees. You probably recall, Mr. Harris, that between 2016 and 2019 we contributed $110 million in funding.

This is something that I've been discussing with colleagues in the Middle East. At the same time that we are supporting them, we are also monitoring the work of UNRWA very closely and making sure that we exert enhanced due diligence. I think this is very important work for stability and security in the Middle East, and that's something we're looking at, at this point.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Minister.

The next series is a five-minute series. It goes to Mr. Genuis, please.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister.

About 25 Canadian children are in detention camps in northern Syria. The estimates are that 18 of those children are under six years of age. Why hasn't the Canadian government acted to repatriate those children?

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

Thank you, Mr. Genuis. I'm happy to see you, I must say. I missed you yesterday.

You will have seen from news reports—and obviously there's the Privacy Act—that we were able to secure the return of one orphan to Canada. You'll remember that at the time I said this was extraordinary. That was the only Canadian orphan we had in a camp, and, thankfully, she has been reunited with her family.

The type of logistics that we needed, involving the Canadian Armed Forces, was exceptional and extraordinary. We don't have, as you know, a diplomatic presence in Syria, and we have a duty of care to our employees. That mission was very unique.

However, we are aware of the situation and we always try to find out and inquire about their well-being.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

I think you would understand that if those were my children or your children, neither of us would find that response to be good enough. It's not an issue of the Privacy Act; it's an issue of whether Canada is prepared to repatriate Canadian nationals who are under six years of age, who are, to put it mildly, in less than desirable conditions.

You've demonstrated that your government is capable of repatriating children from those camps. You've demonstrated it in the case of Amira.

I'll ask the question again, because I don't think you answered it. There are still over 20 children there, many of whom are under six years of age. You were able to send in Canadian personnel to repatriate one child from those camps. What about the other two dozen children who are there?

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

They are with their parents. That was the distinction.

We had one orphan, and you will see, Mr. Genuis, that the operation.... I cannot go into the operational details. We've said that our—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Minister, I'm going to just jump in again, because I'm looking for answers here—

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

If you want an answer—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Can you explain to me why it is easier—

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

I'm happy to answer a specific—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Okay, I have a specific question for you. Why is it easier to repatriate—?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

If I could I interrupt for a second, it's impossible for interpretation to follow if two members are talking over each other.

Could I ask you, please, to separate questions and answers to the very best of your ability?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Let me sharpen my question and hear from the minister on this.

Minister, you said that the difference was that in one case there was an orphan and in another case there were children with their parents. It would seem to me, though, that the rights of Canadian nationals are the same and the logistics involved in repatriation are the same, and in many cases our allies have repatriated in cases where children were with their parents.

Why is the Government of Canada not repatriating the remaining dozens of children, many of whom are under six, in these camps?

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

Do you want me to answer now?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Please, yes. I'd really like to know.

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

What I said to you was that there was only one Canadian orphan who was in a camp. That's why we could mount a very extraordinary mission to repatriate her safely, ensuring her safety and safe return home to her extended family. In the circumstances and the operations, it was possible to do that with one orphan. Obviously, it's different from what you're suggesting.

Some other countries that you have referred to have a diplomatic presence. We do not have a diplomatic presence, as you know, in Syria, and our ability to provide consular assistance is, obviously, hindered by that fact.

We have a duty of care to our employees. What we did in this case was exceptional. We had one orphan, and we brought her back. We should all be happy with that.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Minister, I was very happy to see Amira brought back, but I am not happy with the response in total.

Your response, frankly, is very confusing. Are you telling me that there just wasn't enough room in the vehicle to add a few other people? Is that the issue, like, “Okay, sorry, there weren't enough seat belts, so we only brought out one person”?

Canadian personnel went in. They were in the camps. They were engaging in diplomatic conversations with the people administering the camps where there are two dozen Canadian children, and you brought back one. You're telling me that there are operational difficulties in cases where the children have parents that don't exist as operational difficulties in cases where the child is an orphan. I think you can give a better explanation than that, Minister.

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

The better explanation, Mr. Genuis, is that, obviously, you're not aware of the details of the operation because you made a number of assertions that are just not accurate. What I said is that you're not aware of how the mission was conducted. You're not aware of what we did. You're not aware of the circumstances. You're not aware of the—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

But how in the world can it be about logistics? The Canadian Forces were there. There are two dozen children.

Minister, if it were your children or my children.... These are kids under six. They're Canadian nationals under six in these camps, and you're baffling us with excuses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Genuis, we'll have to leave it there.

Let me repeat the point, please, for future interaction, that it is absolutely impossible for interpretation to follow if members talk over each other.

You've had your five minutes.

We will now go to Ms. Sahota, please, for the next round of five minutes.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today.

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

It's a pleasure to see you.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

It's a pleasure to see you, as well. As I was stating when we were doing our sound checks, you always bring a very positive vibe and good energy wherever you go. I enjoy that.

I want to talk a little bit about something that won't come as a surprise to you. We probably got to know each other a little bit better over the repatriation mission that your department and other departments had to contribute in undertaking.

You stated that you last appeared here on March 12. It was the day before that that the WHO declared this current pandemic a pandemic. Soon after that, I started receiving a whole bunch of texts, calls and emails. I couldn't believe the number of people who were stuck across the world who wanted to be back home with their families here.

Can you describe a little bit...? You talked about going from 10 people working in this department of repatriation to 600 people. I know that the estimates that we're looking at right now are prior to all of this having been done. Maybe you can inform us a little bit about what it took to get the tens of thousands of Canadians repatriated, which you mentioned before.

Go ahead, please, Minister.

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

Thank you for your kind words.

I'll sum it up by leadership, leadership by all members of the diplomatic corps. This was a truly extraordinary effort, coming together with the deputy, with everyone here in Ottawa, and the missions around the world. We were facing some unprecedented circumstances. We had air space closures, airport closures, martial law being imposed, restrictions on flights, on cruises. This was the perfect storm. We had never experienced anything like this, where you had hundreds of thousands of people in about every country of the world, and we were able to repatriate and facilitate flights north of 100,000. If I include the commercial flights, you go even higher than that. We did about 500 flights from 110 countries.

I want to give credit to all those amazing diplomats. People went way beyond the call of duty, working countless hours. I think at one stage it was one million emails and two million phone calls, or the other way around, I can't remember. I remember I was getting 600 text messages a day. Everyone here was transformed into a consular officer to be able to respond. That's also why we provided the loans, because we realized people might be stuck abroad through no fault of their own and needed financial assistance. I'm happy that we gave about 5,000 of these loans.

We learned from that experience. I want to compliment the deputy minister, Marta Morgan, and all the officials there. We really stepped up. Sometimes when you face circumstances like that, you rise to the challenge, and I think the team at Global Affairs and everywhere in the world did rise up and did things, Ms. Sahota, that no one ever expected. I think of our people in Peru, and some places where our missions are certainly not comprised of enough people to face the challenges. We repatriated a lot of people from India, Peru, Morocco, Pakistan. I think we have been able to help hundreds of thousands of Canadians, and that's probably the thing I'm most proud of, the team that did extraordinary work at a time when they were also concerned about their own families.

You remember this was at the beginning, when everyone was asking what was going on and they showed up for work every day and put the interests of Canadians first and made sure we could bring these people back.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I definitely would like to compliment your team, your parliamentary secretary as well, and all your staff. Of course, the departmental workers also who put in all those hard hours and efforts. Two million emails are not easy to respond to. It was a logistical challenge at the time and I know a lot of people in my riding were stuck in India. I was constantly messaging and emailing you and all your staff about that.

Can you give us a little more detail as to why so many people were finding it challenging to come home from that part of the world?