Foreign Affairs Committee on March 3rd, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Mr. Bergeron.

Thank you very much, Minister Sajjan.

I will now turn the floor over to Ms. Idlout.

Welcome to the committee. It's great to have you. The floor is yours for six minutes. Please go ahead.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik.

I am here in place of my colleague, member of Parliament Heather McPherson, who is currently in the Ukraine. I am not as familiar with this area as I'd like to be, but I think naturally we are all very interested in what's going on with the Ukraine and specifically with the women there.

I have three very quick questions, the first one being this: Can you please confirm the status of funding for the Ukrainian Women's Fund in Kyiv?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I just want to say that all the funding we provide and the work that we do always goes through our feminine assistance policy to make sure that, regardless of the situation, we look at how it impacts women. I'll let the assistant deputy minister get ready to provide the details on that.

I'll give you an example. There is a concern right now because, as you know, the majority of the men are staying to fight, and the women and children, especially the elderly and young children, are moving to the border. The department is working on how we can assist with making sure, not only that support is going to be provided, the protection of women, but also that there are organizations specialized in these types of situations.

The bigger concern is the women who are inside Ukraine. This, depending on the situation, will be far more problematic, but the United Nations is on the ground and we are working through them. Also, with local organizations, depending on the severity of the fighting, connection or disconnection can occur with them. That's why we're working through them, and the plan that we had in place is to continue to focus on this. Anything that we do always goes through our feminine international assistance lens.

Peter, do you want to provide more details on that?

[Peter MacDougall, Deputy Minister of International Development and Assistant Deputy Minister, Global Issues and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

I'll pass to my colleague who is responsible for Europe and the Middle East, Sandra McCardell.

[Sandra McCardell, Assistant Deputy Minister, Europe, Arctic, Middle East and Maghreb, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

I can confirm that, for the non-governmental organizations on the ground in Ukraine, we set out weeks ago to ensure that they had the flexibility to pivot their programming, both on priorities and on geographic area, given the fluidity of what was taking place on the ground.

Specifically on the Ukrainian Women's Fund, they are still active, but they have moved into areas where they can work and where it is safe for them to work. Part of that is that they've given the funding to communities, but given them more flexibility to be able to use it.

What I can say is that they are there. They have needed to adjust to the changing circumstances on the ground, but they have flexibility and are still responding to needs of women.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik.

What kinds of increases can we expect to see in Canada's aid budget to give the feminist international assistance policy the funding it needs to succeed?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

It is in the mandate letter that the Prime Minister has given me. He also included, in our government's throne speech, increasing our international development funding. I am very proud to say that the work that has started is having a significant impact. Where—

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I'm sorry. Can you describe what kinds of increases we can expect?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

We are creating a plan that will go out to 2030. There will be opportunities. We haven't fully developed them yet, because the mandate letter was just written and the budget is coming up. Over time, we will, but the plan is to increase it.

How we do it is going to be equally important. We want to make sure that the.... It's not just the increase in dollars, but how we spend those dollars is going to have a significant impact. We want to make sure that the sustainable development goals are met through our feminist international assistance policy. We'll have more to say on this as time goes on.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I'm wondering if the minister has heard from the Ukrainian Women's Fund about what their specific needs are. How will the government be pushing for women to be included in the talks when it comes to ensuring that their needs are being met.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

As Sandra mentioned earlier, in times of crisis, rather than us trying to determine from Ottawa what exactly needs to be done, we want to provide the funding early on and give them the flexibility to be able to adjust. That's what they're doing. If more is needed, we'll figure out different ways.

We're monitoring the situation very closely. Our team is in contact. In fact, we have a team on the ground to help coordinate some of the work. “On the ground” is not inside Ukraine, but outside so that they can work with the United Nations and many other organizations to try to do what they can. Our job, when a gap is identified, is to try to fill it as quickly as possible.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik.

We've been hearing ideas in today's debate about ways we can support Ukraine. Through the talks you have had with groups over there, can you give us a description of what's been shared with you and your offices about what the needs of Ukrainian women are at the moment?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Give a brief answer, in the interests of time, Minister. Thank you very much.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

The necessities of life are extremely important. That's everything from making sure they get food and medicine, and we have programs in place for.... Imagine the atrocities that the people are witnessing. We're making sure that they have the mental health support as well.

Our team will continually work to look at what those needs are. Keep in mind that those organizations on the ground are the ones that will get those details, and we will then move as quickly as possible to provide the support. That's why that $100 million was very important to provide that flexibility.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Ms. Idlout, thank you very much.

Minister, thank you.

We will now go to our second round of questions. The first allocation of five minutes goes back to Mr. Genuis.

Please go ahead.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to pick up, Minister, on the discussion about the feminist international assistance policy. From my perspective, one of the critical aspects of this needs to be addressing sexual violence and, in particular, as part of our engagement and development, confronting instances where international organizations, potential partners or recipients of assistance from Canada, haven't taken these issues seriously enough. There is the potential for significant power imbalances in those situations, not unlike what could exist in the military. We've seen some of that, sadly, here in Canada.

I'll start with a question about UNRWA. In 2019, a confidential report from the UN Ethics Office was leaked to The Associated Press. The report identified serious sexual misconduct allegations against managers at UNRWA. At the time, this UN agency promised to review these so-called “management-related matters”—their words—and report back.

There hasn't been any news since on the status of the report. It's been three years. This is a recipient of Canadian development assistance. Could you update us on the status of the review happening at UNRWA?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

First of all, to your first question regarding the challenges we face around the world, this is a challenge around the world and we have seen the challenges here in Canada.

From my own personal background, being from a very small village, I've seen it first-hand through my mom and some of the challenges she had to go through because my dad was here. She had to raise her kids and go outside to get water when you don't have water in the house. Those are things my family is particularly attuned to.

With respect to the report itself, I'm not aware of this report so I will ask Peter if he has any further information on this.

[Peter MacDougall]

Again, I will turn to my colleague for the Middle East. Sandra I believe worked on that report, but I will let her fill in the details.

[Sandra McCardell]

Thanks very much.

We have been working very closely with UNRWA on a number of issues to improve and strengthen their management. That report is certainly something they are going to need to act on. At the time, there were changes that took place in the management structure and there were codes of behaviour that were put in place at the time. As you will recall, there was a change in management in UNRWA following that report.

I'm happy to provide more details on that if it would be of value to you.

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

Were individuals held accountable for their actions specifically pertaining to sexual misconduct?

[Sandra McCardell]

UNRWA undertook an investigation and established afterwards appropriate measures in response to that report.

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

But were individuals held accountable? If you don't know, you can report back later to the committee, but if the answer is no, then I would like to hear that outright.

Were individuals held accountable for actions related to sexual misconduct?

[Sandra McCardell]

UNRWA undertook a review. Regarding specific individuals, I will need to get back to the committee. I know there were consequences. I can provide details at a later date.

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

Thank you very much.

I want to go back to the minister with respect to the World Health Organization. Over 40 women from the DRC have come forward to speak about sexual exploitation they experienced from representatives of the World Health Organization during the Ebola crisis. This was during the 2018 to 2020 period.

What actions have you taken to hold the WHO accountable for this and to ensure the same things are not happening in the context of the COVID crisis?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

In fact, in my first meeting with Dr. Tedros I had raised this issue with him. We know this is a much wider issue as well, but I wanted to raise it particularly with him because their organization plays the very important role of building confidence in organizations. That confidence is important for the work they do.

He assured me that action has been taken. As we continue our work and the opportunities come to travel into this area, this is something I will continue to raise.