Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 17th, 2022

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the department for such detailed views and feedback on this topic.

As you know, the various ongoing conflicts in Ethiopia seem to be exacerbated by interference from outside interests.

Mr. Khan, you mentioned that we are aligned with the United States in our position on the Ethiopian conflict. What is the Canadian government doing to speak to representatives from Turkey, Iran, United Arab Emirates and China regarding their provision of military support to their combatants?

[Tarik Khan]

China and Russia have made their positions very clear. They called for non-interference in what they see as Ethiopia's internal affairs.

The ability for us to have a conversation with Russian and Chinese counterparts—and similarly with Turkey and the UAE—is quite limited. I would say that we clearly discourage the interventions in the region by any of these countries, as this would exacerbate tensions or escalate hostilities.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

The answer is no, basically. I can understand that maybe the talks with China and Russia are different—and Iran.

I'm keen to understand the talks with Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, since we do have some relations right there. It's obvious that there are so many hands in the Ethiopian conflict that are supporting the dynamic where the neighbouring countries.... You know, everybody is kind of involved in this pool. It would be nice if we could see Canadian diplomatic attention on these areas to stop feeding the combatants and the people fighting on the ground.

I have another question. Ethiopia is an old country, but democracy is relatively new there. What has the Government of Canada done to assist the transition from a Marxist, one-party system to a fully functioning democracy? There's a lot of talk about this right now. If we can assist this country in working to settle the conflict, I think part of the deal has to be that it has democracy. What is the Government of Canada doing in that regard?

[Tarik Khan]

We have a number of projects that support governance and inclusive governance in Ethiopia. I think we recognized from very early days, in the earlier conflict of Ethiopia and it's rise and progress in recent years, that having more inclusive governance is key as a federal state and a state with multiple ethnicities to the progress of the country. We have provided funding and a couple of projects, and we can certainly provide information to the committee on projects that we've done to support governance. We do see that as an important way forward.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

That is part of the $43-million assistance, correct?

[Tarik Khan]

No, that is different. The $43 million is international humanitarian assistance. However, our bilateral development assistance has gone to organizations that support governance and inclusive governance in Ethiopia.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

How is the Government of Ethiopia with Prime Minister Abiy reacting to this initiative in having that assistance in moving the country from being, for a long time, under a Marxist regime to being more democratic? It's a recipe to probably assist in changing the conflict or maybe in settling the conflict further.

[Tarik Khan]

There's a strong commitment by the Government of Ethiopia to make progress and reform in the area of economic governance in particular. At the same time, I think the conflict that has arisen now, which is an inter-ethnic conflict, has raised lots of questions about the actual effectiveness of Ethiopia's federalist state and federalism in Ethiopia. There will need to be a thorough revisiting of that through the national dialogue process they're going to start, and of course we stand ready to support those efforts.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Do you think Ethiopia's model will look like that of Somalia, for example?

[Tarik Khan]

I think Ethiopia is a long way from becoming a Somalia. It still has relatively strong state institutions and a fairly strong centralized government, but it does have ethnic division in the country and polarization. I think we cannot see it becoming a Somalia in the early stages. It is also still relatively strong economically.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Mr. Aboultaif. Thank you, Mr. Khan.

We will now go to Mr. Sarai for five minutes, please.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our guests, the departmental officials.

On November 8, 2021, Minister Joly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke with President Faki of the African Union Commission to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ethiopia. During their conversation, they discussed the importance of working towards a political solution and an inclusive national dialogue to bring the conflict to a peaceful resolution.

Can you speak to the work being done to develop a political solution for the best interests of the region? What would this political solution look like?

[Tarik Khan]

The shape of a political solution is going to be for Ethiopia, the Government of Ethiopia and the parties to the conflict to determine. However, I will say that a political solution obviously has to begin with cessation of hostilities. There has to be a ceasefire and an end to armed conflicts and attacks. It has to address the issue of arbitrary detention and there has to be a release of those who have been arbitrarily or unfairly detained. It also has to address human rights violations with human rights accountability. If we think, for example, of the extent of human rights violations that have been committed given the size to the conflict, there will be have to be some agreement on how those human rights violations are going to be addressed moving forward.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Can you speak about the government's work with the African Union? Can you speak to the African Union's commission of inquiry on human rights violations in Tigray, on that note?

[Tarik Khan]

I'll turn to my colleague Ms. Hilary Childs-Adams to comment on that.

[Hilary Childs-Adams]

The complaint to the African Union has been laid but it has not yet been heard, so we're following very closely to see what happens when there is a hearing into that complaint. In the meantime, we are focusing very much on the implementation of the joint report between the UN and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, and also on the upcoming investigation, which the UN will be leading, into the continued human rights violations in Ethiopia.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

At the moment, Ethiopia is host to over 800,000 refugees, mostly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, who rely heavily on international assistance to survive.

How has the humanitarian crisis and conflict in northern Ethiopia impacted the international community's ability to provide assistance to the refugees from those countries?

[Tarik Khan]

In response to these other crises, I will turn to my colleague, Mr. Salewicz, regarding the humanitarian response to communities outside of the conflict.

[Stephen Salewicz]

Indeed, as I mentioned previously, we do take a whole-of-Ethiopia approach in responding to humanitarian needs. We have specific programming that targets the needs of refugees.

For instance, in the Gambella region we support a number of NGOs—Concern is included in there as well as HelpAge—to respond to the needs of refugees. We also support UNHCR, which has a mandate to support the refugee response as well.

I would say that the international response continues. It is significant, and the focus remains on supporting those 800,000 that are primarily in the east and the southwest of the country.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

How much time do I have, Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

You have just over a minute, Mr. Sarai.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

I apologize if this has been asked before. In 2021, I think, Canada provided $43 million to address humanitarian needs in Ethiopia, including the needs arising from the conflict in the Tigray region.

Can you speak to how that $43 million has been allocated and what impact it has had on the ground.

[Stephen Salewicz]

We covered this somewhat earlier, but maybe it will give me a chance to talk a bit more specifically about some of the results we're seeing from the support we have provided.

Indeed, $43 million has gone to respond to the crises across Ethiopia. In Tigray specifically and in northern Ethiopia, our funding has gone, for instance, to support the needs of the conflict-affected population in Tigray. The WFP provided food assistance to 877 000 people between mid October and February 2. In Amhara, food assistance was also provided to one million people between January 31 and February 6, so we see a robust response happening there.

Through other programming we have with the country, with OCHA and their country-based pooled fund, we have seen support going for emergency shelter repair; for life saving health and gender-based-violence programming; for nutrition programming to help respond to the needs of children; as well as support for health care through our ICRC programming to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Salewicz, I apologize, but I will have to stop you there in the interest of time. Maybe there will be a chance to follow up, but thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Sarai.

We will go straight into our third round of questions.

Again, leading us off with a five-minutes round is Mr. Morantz.

Go ahead, please.