Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Is there any special consideration being given to the crisis? Are we prepared to take half a million people, let's say, if necessary?

[Julie Sunday]

I would have to refer that question to my colleague at IRCC, but we are ready to support Canadians.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Could you send us something on that?

Chair, in the 30 seconds I have left, I have a question for Monsieur Prévost, on the operation on the ground.

What do you make of the assessment so far from the last few days? Do you believe President Putin probably thought it would be much quicker than the time it's taking, with the resistance of the Ukrainian people and army?

[MGen Paul Prévost]

To give you a rapid answer in the time you have left, we agree. We think Mr. Putin thought it would go faster. Obviously, there's been some back-and-forth along all fronts. Tracking the offensive against Kyiv, they're probably not going as fast as they thought, and the same against Kharkiv and also moving to the south, into Crimea.

You are correct. It seems as though it's not moving as fast as he may have thought.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Mr. Aboultaif and Major-General Prévost.

The floor now goes to Mr. Ehsassi for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Allow me to thank all the witnesses for being here today. It's been very, very helpful.

I will begin with you, Ms. Hulan. As you know, we have all witnessed the United Nations fall into dysfunction because of Russia's veto. The General Assembly will be taking up this issue. I'm wondering whether it is the position of our government to liaise with members of the General Assembly to ensure that hopefully we can get a very strong resolution out of the General Assembly and that as many members of the international community...are on board.

Could you shed some light on what we are doing in New York?

[Heidi Hulan]

Yes. Thanks very much for that question, Mr. Chair.

I'd also like to take the opportunity of having the floor to respond to the earlier question about the removal of Russia from the Security Council. That is a move that would require two-thirds of the General Assembly, as Ambassador Rae said, but also ratification by all permanent members of the Security Council, so it would require that Russia agree to its own removal from the Security Council. I just wanted to clarify the charter rules there.

The answer to your question is, yes, we are very actively engaging in the General Assembly with a view to building the broadest possible support for a resolution in the General Assembly, of which we are co-drafters within the core group, and to shrink the diplomatic support on which President Putin has been able to draw in the broader community. We are looking for positive votes and we are working [Technical difficulty—Editor].

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

I would like to ask Ms. McCardell a question.

Ms. McCardell, as you know, there are going to be many ramifications to Russia's assault on Ukraine. The reality of the matter is that Ukraine has been the breadbasket of Europe, with agricultural exports to numerous countries, particularly in the Middle East. Would you mind sharing with us some of the concerns that we should be focused on as we deal with the terrible consequences of this invasion, and in particular in countries in the Middle East?

[Sandra McCardell]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Look, I think it's clear that as horrible as what is happening in Ukraine is, there will be a lot of ramifications across the globe, whether it be energy prices or food security, which we will need to be addressing and preparing for.

On the specific question of food prices in the Middle East, we are very concerned about this. As you likely already know, these are areas that are highly prone to instability, where the balance between meeting daily subsistence and not is a precarious one. Even slight changes in the food prices can make a big difference to daily lives, but also to stability in fragile countries. You can only imagine what this means in a country like Lebanon, for example, which has already seen the devastation of its economy.

What I would say is that we have development programs in these countries. We are looking at humanitarian options in some countries like Lebanon, where we already have humanitarian contributions. We will be working with the World Food Programme and other UN agencies to see how we can provide basic subsistence if it comes to that.

The bottom line is that we need to be ready for the economic fallout of this conflict on a number of countries that are still fragile, either from internal instability or from the impact of COVID. Quite frankly, this is happening at a terrible time for all kinds of reasons, but certainly, for a number of countries, they will find themselves really precariously positioned. I couldn't agree more with that observation.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much for that.

Now, if I could turn the attention to Ukraine itself, the international community is currently asking for unfettered humanitarian access to Ukraine. Could you unpack that for us and tell us what our vision or the vision of our allies is of that unfettered access? How likely is it that we will see some progress on that front?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Could we have just a brief answer, please, in the interest of time?

[Sandra McCardell]

Sure.

Unfettered access means exactly how it sounds. We believe that humanitarian agencies should be able to get to the people in need. This is a question that is beginning to emerge across Ukraine. We'll be working closely with our UN partners, who are very experienced in working in difficult environments and are well placed, as are other groups like the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross. We will be supporting them. We'll be working with our like-minded partners to put pressure to ensure that humanitarian access gets to the people who need it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Mr. Ehsassi.

Over to you, Mr. Bergeron. You have two and a half minutes.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First, I want to revisit the issue of military assistance to Ukraine. Mr. Rae indicated that everything had to be done in co‑operation with NATO members, and I completely understand that. However, a number of NATO members have made much more significant contributions when it comes to lethal weapons.

Why does Canada not want to join them, at least not yet?

[Sandra McCardell]

Mr. Chair, I will turn to Heidi Hulan to speak to that question.

[Heidi Hulan]

I think we talked about this the last time the committee met with officials from Global Affairs Canada on this subject, and I just want to reiterate what we discussed at that time, which was that we respond to what is happening in the country in many, many ways, because there are many, many needs. Some of those needs are lethal. The Ukrainians have asked for certain forms of lethal assistance, and we have provided some lethal assistance, but they have also asked for things like body armour, military medical support and those sorts of things, and that's what our announcement this weekend focused on. We envisaged the $25 million being spent on body armour, helmets, gear, gas masks, the kinds of things that are really needed in an acute conventional conflict, which is what this is.

I think I'll leave my answer there. I'd be happy to take more questions on this. Thanks.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Ms. Hulan, thank you for clarifying that.

It's clear that the Baltic states and Finland, the target of thinly veiled threats from Russia, are concerned.

In your assessment, are those concerns justified?

[Heidi Hulan]

I think it's fair to say that Russian behaviour right now is, generally speaking, extremely provocative and destabilizing, whether it's in relation to the nuclear issues that you have raised here at committee today, or in relation to opposition figures in country, or in relation to Ukraine's right to exist as a country.

I don't know precisely which comments you're referring to in relation to Finland, but I will just say that we take all aggressive behaviour and words extremely seriously indeed and we work with our partners on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Ms. Hulan.

Thank you, Mr. Bergeron.

Mr. Davies, go ahead for two and a half minutes, please.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

I have a question, Mr. Chair.

Don't we get six minutes in this round?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Bergeron, when we have just one panel, for the second, third and fourth rounds, members are given the prescribed time for questioning, in other words two and a half minutes.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Rest assured, Mr. Chair, I'm writing that down.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you.

Mr. Davies, go ahead for two and a half minutes, please.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

It's been noted by some keen observers that there is a complete absence of women at the talks in Belarus today, which leads me to focus my next question on women.

Can officials from GAC inform the committee how we are supporting women in Ukraine, including the women's organizations that have been funded by Canada to date?

[Sandra McCardell]

I'll start, and then I'll pass it on to my colleague Heidi Hulan, who is responsible for our peace and stabilization operations program.

Since 2014, we have been working really diligently on supporting women through our development programs. There has been a keen focus on developing women's capacity to play a political role and an economic role in Ukraine, with support in rural areas, so I would say we are also disappointed but perhaps not entirely surprised to see that there are no women present.

I'll turn it over to Heidi, who can talk about some of the work we're doing with destabilization. I would note as well that back in December we had our ambassador for women, peace and security over there to push on exactly this issue.

Heidi, I'll turn it over to you.