Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 17th, 2022

[Hilary Childs-Adams]

Egypt has not taken much of a stance publicly on what is happening in Ethiopia. Egypt has very strong interests at stake because of the Nile River and because of the GERD. Ethiopia and Sudan share similar concerns about reaching an agreement with Ethiopia on the management of the water flows, but we have not seen direct interference by Egypt in this conflict.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

In other words, it's safe to say that the stance, the position, of Egypt has not changed with respect to the region in light of the conflict that has been unfolding in Ethiopia.

[Hilary Childs-Adams]

If you're talking about the broader region beyond Ethiopia, Egypt has bilateral relations with all of the states in the Horn of Africa and has definite interests there of its own. However, in terms of Ethiopia, there hasn't been an actual change in position. They're very much staying out of it and respecting Ethiopian sovereignty by all appearances. We hope that it will be possible for them to reach a negotiated solution on the Nile River in the future.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no further questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Chong, thank you very much.

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

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to be building on Ms. McPherson and Mr. Chong's line of questioning. Actually, they both stole my questions, which is a good sign. On the first one, if Ms. McPherson wants to join this round, I'm very happy to give some of my time to her.

I want to go back to the issue of women and the role of women in peace-building, and our particular penchant to try to figure that out. Let's maybe dig a little further into the theoretical of how we're going to do it. Are there some practical ways we are going to be engaging as Canadians in helping African women—and it may be women in Ethiopia or women in Africa from outside Ethiopia—engage in this peace-building process?

[Tarik Khan]

I'll turn to my colleague Ms. Kutz in a second. I can say that from a policy point of view, we see women in peace and security—in both peace-building and in conflict prevention—at the community level and in national processes of peace-building and mediation as critical.

As you know, we have a Canadian ambassador for women, peace and security, Ms. Jacqueline O'Neill, so this is something we certainly see as not just valuable but essential. We support all the work done internationally on women, peace and security, including UN Resolution 1325. We believe that a lot can be done in this specific instance, given what it takes to bring a community together, to prevent conflict before it arises and to build confidence and peace at the local level. When that breaks down, the violence really occurs.

Let me turn to my colleague Ms. Kutz to say some more.

[Gwyn Kutz]

Since the conflict has worsened over the course of this past year, we have scoped out and approved new projects that are specifically designed to help women prepare for and participate in the national dialogue, which we see as a very important element in reducing inter-ethnic conflict around the country. We have projects that are helping communities deal with conflict analysis and with propeace activity-building. We are working with implementing partners to provide capacity-building and alliance-building and to support networking opportunities for Ethiopian women's groups, with representation from a wide range of communities and backgrounds.

We are working to build, from the community level, the capacity to engage fully in the national dialogue. We of course also call for countries that are looking to recover from conflict to fully engage women in their peace agreement processes. Moreover, we stand ready to support the mediating efforts by providing gender experts to ensure that the voices of women, considerations of women and participation of women are brought to the fore.

We work for advocacy—

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

I just want to interrupt.

Ms. McPherson, do you want to jump in there? I know you're following this.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Oliphant.

The only thing I would add is to urge the government to ensure that gender provisions are in fact part of any peace agreement that is agreed upon. I'm sure the experts have thought of that.

Thank you for the time, though.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Following on Mr. Chong's questions about the region, and Dr. Fry's as well, I note Sudan is obviously in political turmoil and may have refugees to deal with if the border becomes porous. Somalia, Eritrea...none of these are countries have a lot of political stability at the present time.

Are there any thoughts about what Canada could do to strengthen regional stability? You have half a minute.

[Tarik Khan]

Thank you. That's an excellent question.

As we know, the conflict has had devastating impacts on Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. The UNHCR and our other humanitarian agencies are working to meet the needs of those Eritrean refugees in addition to those of Ethiopians affected by the conflict. We work, of course, to advocate an implementation of a global compact on refugees and the achievement of comprehensive refugee responses for these protracted refugee situations that we see in the region. Of course, that includes Somali refugees as well.

As we go forward, I think the first step is of course being able to stem the flow of refugees out of countries like Ethiopia and out of a protracted conflict. Indeed, the persistence of protracted refugee situations in the neighbouring countries is an issue, particularly for Sudan, so I think this is something that we will definitely need to take account of, and not just in humanitarian assistance, because that's short-term assistance. We do look at development projects that use what we call “durable solutions”, in the language of refugee response. Durable solutions are the kinds of investments that can go into communities that have been long-time refugees, and it helps them integrate both economically as well as socially into the communities in the countries and places where they might be choosing to stay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Khan, I'm sorry. We'll have to leave it there just in the interests of time. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Oliphant.

We will go into our fourth round.

The floor goes to Mr. Genuis for five minutes, please.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

I'm taking this round, I believe. Mr. Genuis is not—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Okay, Mr. Aboultaif. Please go ahead.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

You're okay, Garnett?

Thank you, Chair.

Reports suggest that the Government of Ethiopia is going to have a problem restoring peace, prosperity and security if it does not address the attachment with the OLF, which is the Marxist party, and also the OLA, which is the Oromo Liberation Army. To that, the government will not be trusted by other parties in order to be able to restore peace, security and prosperity.

In your opinion, Mr. Khan, how long will it take the Amhara and Afar governments to trust the Abiy government in order to bring peace, prosperity and security back to Ethiopia?

[Tarik Khan]

Thank you for that excellent question. I think you hit right on it. What it will be incumbent upon the Ethiopian government to do is to restore confidence. You cannot have peace, prosperity and economic development with a centre and its regions without having their confidence and their trust.

There are a few things that the Government of Ethiopia is going to need to do to restore that confidence.

One is fulfilling the work of that national dialogue commission. That dialogue commission was particularly about rebuilding federalism in Ethiopia and the rights of those ethnic regional states.

It's also about the release of political prisoners from those regions. You mentioned Oromia in particular.

Of course, it's also about lifting the state of emergency, which leaves them in a state of constant terror and fear of arbitrary detention.

That last bit has just now been lifted, so there are some promising signs, but really, the first true confidence-building measure is what we see now, and we will need to see more, and those groups you mentioned will need more confidence-building measures like the other ones I mentioned.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

There was some pressure coming from the U.S. government in that regard in releasing some of the prisoners, although there were also questions about the political nature and history of some of these prisoners. Was Canada part of that same direction to assist in pushing for that process further, again, to regain the trust needed? That's the most fundamental issue on the table right now to ensure the country is going to start dealing with other problems that are arising all over the place.

[Tarik Khan]

We argued consistently in all of our political démarches and our diplomatic engagement for the release of political prisoners, particularly those held arbitrarily and without charge under the emergency act. I can say absolutely that we were part of that overall thrust by the international community in calling for that to take place.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

What would you call the most significant Canadian request to the government, to Dr. Abiy, in accelerating the process to make sure that the crisis can be contained so that other fallout will be controlled and no further damage can happen to the society, to the people, to the women, children and everyone there?

[Tarik Khan]

The Government of Canada's requests to the Government of Ethiopia have clearly been in the areas of the three objectives I mentioned: ending the humanitarian blockade, making public signs of movement toward a mediated political solution, and then ensuring accountability for human rights violations.

I think progress has been made. We've seen steps taken toward a potential political solution, the first step being lifting the state of emergency and a toning down of the rhetoric. The rhetoric was very bad between these parties to the conflict some months ago. It has become much better.

Now we are potentially seeing the first signs that humanitarian aid may be able to flow better with the lifting of the state of emergency.

I think these are all areas that still need to have pressure, which we cannot let up on.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thanks very much, Mr. Aboultaif, and Mr. Khan.

We will now go to Mr. Ehsassi for five minutes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Khan, I have a couple of quick questions.

I want to follow up what one of the other members asked about Eritrea. Can you explain what Eritrea hopes to gain by getting engaged in the Ethiopian civil war? In your opinion, is it the fact that they have alliances within Ethiopia, or is it because at some point they would have irredentist claims to Ethiopia?

[Tarik Khan]

It's difficult to speculate what their intentions are, but let's remember that Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a historic peace agreement, which means that there is obviously some sense of obligation and relationship and collaboration between the two governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara.

It would be difficult for me to speculate beyond what we're hearing. There's obviously some kind of ethnic alliance between the Eritrean people and the Amaran people; I think that's public knowledge. However, I can't speculate beyond what their intentions will be, other than what I just said.