Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 17th, 2022

[Tarik Khan]

We have heard reports of the use of children and minors as conflict actors. We still have to receive concrete evidence, but we have heard reports of this.

I would also say, to the question of genocide, that it is something that the global community is concerned about. The human rights reporting that was done by OHCHR and the EHRC did not make any allegations of genocide, and have we not heard those from any of the other bodies that have been investigating human rights violations, either.

That is not to say that atrocity crimes or war crimes have not been committed, but we have not seen evidence meeting the threshold of genocide yet.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Ms. McPherson and Mr. Khan.

Before we move on to the second round of questions, I want to remind you quickly that the speaking time has been carefully negotiated. The round of questions is five minutes or two and a half minutes. I would appreciate it if you could continue to stick to the time limits.

With that, we will go to our first intervenor in round two.

Mr. Genuis, the floor is yours for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We've had great questions so far and I'm glad one of the government members raised the lifting of the emergency order. It's generally positive from a human rights perspective when we see the lifting of an emergency order.

I want to refer back to the issue of the American position and how it relates to Canada's position. Would you say that Canada's position on the conflict is the same as or different from the Biden administration's position?

[Tarik Khan]

Thank you. That's a very interesting question.

We have a very strong alignment with the U.S. on the situation in Ethiopia. Due to the size of our economy and our engagement with them, we have different tools at our disposal and a different impact that we can have in our engagement on the issue, but I would say there generally is a fairly strong alignment between us and the U.S. We communicate regularly with them on the situation in Ethiopia and how best to align ourselves.

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

We have different tools, but the same view of the conflict.

[Tarik Khan]

We generally have a very common view of the conflict, yes.

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

Okay.

Secretary of State Blinken said in November of last year:

The conflict in Ethiopia must come to an end. Peace negotiations should begin immediately without precondition in pursuit of a ceasefire.

I haven't heard anything like that formulation come from our government, but would you say it is Canada's position that peace negotiations should begin immediately and without precondition?

[Tarik Khan]

Absolutely. In all of our interventions at the political level, we have been calling for a mediated solution. There is, of course, a national dialogue that the Government of Ethiopia has been intending to undertake, and we support that as well.

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

I would just say there is a distinction between saying that there should be a mediated solution and saying that parties should immediately begin negotiations without precondition. I've heard your answer on that, so it's been well clarified.

My colleague referred to the U.S. having imposed sanctions. Canada has not. We've heard in the context of various situations around the world the importance and value of like-minded allies coordinating sanctions for maximal impact. We're still a sovereign nation and should make our own decisions, but we know that there is value in coordination when it can happen.

Why did Canada choose not to coordinate with the U.S. in this case?

[Tarik Khan]

This question is one that I would say is open, because the possibility of the use of sanctions is always a potential tool for us. My answer to the question is to say that we assess the timing of sanctions, the impact of sanctions, the impact they will have on the civilian population and the impact they could have on civilians, along with other efforts that are being made at the time and that we could be making at the same time. The decision was [Technical difficulty—Editor] take to impose sanctions in line and along with the U.S. at this time.

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

I understand that you're saying there's a possibility of sanctions being imposed in the future, but we clearly chose not to coordinate. We clearly chose not to do so at the same time and in collaboration.

What we've done in the past in the case of sanctions is, maybe, we sanctioned some officials and they sanctioned others in order to minimize the negative impact on our country while getting the maximum impact on the regime. However, to say the U.S. sanctioned and Canada did not suggests we made a choice not to coordinate.

Can you shed any further light on why we chose not to apply sanctions in coordination with our partners?

[Tarik Khan]

I can only say that we are aware. When we communicate with our partners and when they share information with us related to sanctions, we do take careful consideration as to whether our joining those would have an impact. In this case, the U.S. individual sanctions were on Eritrean individuals, of course, and one Eritrean institution. We did not make the decision to join those sanctions.

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

Thank you.

Is Canada engaged in the case of Dawit Isaak, the longest detained journalist in the world, who's in Eritrea? How is Canada engaged on that?

[Tarik Khan]

I'll turn to my colleague, Ms. Hilary Childs-Adams, if she has any information on this.

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

Could you respond to the committee in writing, then. I know it's maybe a little bit off the main topic, and I don't want to put you on the spot, but it would be great to read about any work that Canada is doing with respect to that case.

I wanted to ask you one more question in the time I have. Canada's ambassador to Ethiopia last year met with the Ethiopian Minister of Mining and Petroleum, Takele Uma Banti. He tweeted a photo of that meeting, and that tweet was subsequently deleted. Why delete a tweet about a meeting with a government minister?

[Tarik Khan]

I'm not aware of the deleting of that tweet, but I'll certainly take a look and find out. I have no knowledge of that.

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

Thank you. I'd appreciate if you could report back in writing to the committee on that issue as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thanks, Mr. Genuis. That's your time, right on the mark.

We will now go to our next intervenor, Dr. Fry, please, for five minutes.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to thank the GAC officials for their really clear and succinct answers. It's really good to see this. It helps us to kind of dig through all the multiplicity of things going on.

I just wanted to ask a question. You talked about your partners, and then you obviously talked about the African Union. Are there other partners? Who are your other partners? Are there nation states?

[Tarik Khan]

Obviously, the U.K. is an important partner. The EU is an important partner in our coordination with like minds. We mentioned the President of Kenya, an important partner for us in communication and the role that these elders within the African political community can play in influencing results on the ground.

We mentioned the former head of the state of Nigeria. The African Union high representatives are an important partner. I would say the Nordics are also important partners for us in the situation in Ethiopia. We are like-minded, so this enables us to work with these organizations. The UN itself is an important partner vis-à-vis both monitoring and response.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Yes, I understand the UN to be your partner. Is every one of your partners in agreement that we must find an African solution to this problem?

[Tarik Khan]

I think there is generally a consensus that an African solution is one that will probably be more acceptable to most parties to the conflict.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you.

You know, immediately after the conflict in the region arose, Eritrea became involved. I'll be very quick here because I have a couple of other questions to ask you. What is the historic reason, and why would Eritrea suddenly get itself involved in something that has nothing to do with Eritrea?

[Tarik Khan]

There is a long history related to the ethnic origins of the conflict in Ethiopia. Eritrea was part of Ethiopia until it achieved its independence. It used to be the province just north of Tigray. There's obviously, from what we can gather, communication and coordination between the Government of Ethiopia and the Government of Eritrea, enabling it to enter the war.

When the Tigray People's Liberation Front led the Government of Ethiopia, that was when the war took place. Now, of course, Eritrea is an ally, if you will, of the Government of Ethiopia. It's a simple story, but it's a story that has roots that go back to ethnicity and conflict over the last 20 years.