Foreign Affairs Committee on March 3rd, 2022

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Yes, but we have a new group of witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

No, they are the same witnesses.

If we change groups of witnesses, we do indeed come back to a first round with six-minute turns, but if the witnesses do not change, it's a succession of identical turns of two and a half minutes each. This was negotiated by the whips, so I am bound by this rule.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

I thought that we had changed the dynamic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

No, these are the same witnesses and it is the same subject.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

For us to consider that there is a new panel of witnesses, we would have to add witnesses and not have one leave, is that right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Exactly.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

So, when a witness leaves the group, it's the same group of witnesses, but when a witness joins in, it's a new group of witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Yes. This was all negotiated by the whips.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

I see.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

You will have the opportunity to continue during your next two-and-a-half-minute turn.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Yes, but I'll tell you right now, Mr. Chair, that we will argue in favour of having two different groups of witnesses for the two hours.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

With the exception of the minister, it is the same group of witnesses, but it does happen that we have different witnesses.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you.

Ms. Idlout, go ahead, please, for two and a half minutes.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik. Thank you.

Since the enactment of the siege, access to medical aid has stopped in Tigray. According to Doctors Without Borders, 87% of Tigray's health care facilities have been destroyed by Ethiopian, Amhara and Eritrean forces. These medical centres were built over the last 30 years as a result of the previous government's development agenda and support from the international community. How will Canada contribute to rebuilding these facilities and ensuring that people from Tigray are receiving access to medical aid?

[Peter MacDougall]

I would just reiterate our ongoing concern regarding the conflict in Ethiopia. We have urged all parties to undertake a ceasefire and to negotiate for a political solution. We have made numerous statements and taken advocacy opportunities for humanitarian access. On this specific issue, the destruction of hospitals and health centres, I expect we would continue to contribute to those, perhaps indirectly or perhaps directly through our development programs, but I'd have to get you more detail on that in writing.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Okay. I'd appreciate that for sure, for Heather McPherson. I'll pivot to a topic that I asked about earlier about women. What steps will the Minister of Foreign Affairs' office take to prioritize Canada's feminist foreign policy?

[Peter MacDougall]

I can speak briefly about that, but that's really more the responsibility of the Minister of Foreign Affairs rather than the Minister of International Development. Certainly, I can say—and I think my colleagues will agree with me—that in all of our missions abroad and in all of our contacts apply a feminist foreign policy in all aspects of our diplomacy, and of course, as has been mentioned earlier, in our international assistance programming we apply a very rigorous approach to ensuring that gender equality is well integrated into all of our projects, development funding and humanitarian assistance.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Okay. I have a completely different question. Will the government be formally replying to Amnesty International's recent report on the Israeli-Palestine situation? Have you met or communicated with Amnesty regarding the report?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

I'm sorry, Mr. MacDougall, but could you give us just a brief answer, please?

Ms. Idlout, you'll have a chance to follow up in the next round as well.

[Peter MacDougall]

I will turn to Sandra McCardell on that, please.

[Sandra McCardell]

We don't intend to provide a reply to that report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Ms. Idlout.

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

Go ahead, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don't know if this information has been made public or available, so I apologize if it has. As you know, UN Resolution 1988 was passed by the United Nations in 2011, and it effectively banned dealing with the Taliban. More recently, late last year in December, UN Resolution 2615 was adopted in order to give an exemption to Resolution 1988. It will allow member states to figure out a way to get humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.

Can you tell us how you have implemented that here in Canada? What have you done to provide a pathway for Canadian humanitarian assistance to be provided to the people of Afghanistan, while at the same time ensuring that the money doesn't fall into the hands of the Taliban government?

[Peter MacDougall]

I'll start with a couple of responses and then I'll turn to my colleague, who is responsible for Asia-Pacific.

With respect to humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, the resolution now permits it. Our greater challenge has been the Criminal Code issue. As a result, on the humanitarian assistance side, we are really working with only a very limited number of partners, predominantly in the UN system. The usual organizations that you would know are the World Food Programme, OCHA, the UNHCR and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

They are able to give us a couple of things. Number one, they're able to give us assurances that our funding does not directly or indirectly benefit the Taliban. In some circumstances, they will do that by spending Canadian money outside the country.

I'll give you an example. Supplies—food and transport, for example, to buy UNICEF ready-to-eat kits and those kinds of things—can be procured outside of Afghanistan, so there would be no benefit occurring to the Taliban. Those are some of the kinds of workarounds that they do. They have also committed to us in writing in our agreements that they can accomplish this within the confines of the Criminal Code.

I'll ask Paul Thoppil if he'd like to add anything.