Foreign Affairs Committee on April 14th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 29 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, February 12, 2026, the committee is meeting on Syria's political transition.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

Before we continue, I would like to ask all in-person participants to consult the guidelines written on the cards on the table. These measures are in place to help prevent audio and feedback incidents, and to protect the health and safety of everyone, including our interpreters. You will also notice a QR code on the card, which links to a short awareness video.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic. Please mute yourself when you are not speaking. For those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen, you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation: floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

I remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair. For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses.

Joining us from the International Crisis Group is Noah Bonsey, senior adviser for Syria. He is joining us by video conference. From the People's Democratic Party of Turkey, we have Hisyar Ozsoy, former deputy chair and member of Parliament, joining us by video conference. From the Syrian Women's Political Movement, we have Muzna Dureid, co-founder, also joining us by video conference.

Up to five minutes will be given for opening remarks. After which, we will proceed to rounds of questions from the members.

I now invite Mr. Bonsey to make an opening statement of up to five minutes.

[Noah Bonsey, Senior Advisor for Syria, International Crisis Group]

Thank you for having me today. It's an honour to join you all.

Sixteen months in, Syria's transition is going better than could reasonably have been expected, given the extremely difficult circumstances in which it is taking place. However, there have been tragic setbacks along the way, and the challenges ahead are immense. Achieving durable stability will require further course adjustments by the country's new leadership and increased support from the international community.

First is the good news. Syria's people and new leadership have, to a great extent, managed to hold their country together. That's no small feat, given what they have lived through. Over 14 years of civil war, hundreds of thousands of Syrians were killed and more than 13 million were displaced. That's more than half of the country's pre-war population, and it includes some six million who became refugees outside of the country.

The former Assad regime ruled and fought with extreme brutality, and it deliberately exploited fault lines between communities in this diverse country. Extremists among rebel ranks did too, contributing to a vicious cycle of polarization and radicalization on both sides of the conflict. In late 2024, as opposition forces advanced and the Assad regime collapsed, many wondered if the country would fragment or plunge into new cycles of civil war. That hasn't happened, thanks to the incredible resilience of Syria's people and commendable, albeit incomplete, steps by Syria's new leadership to steer toward reconciliation rather than vengeance.

I'll speak in a moment to challenges and shortcomings, but it's worth underlining that Syria's abrupt shift from horrific, seemingly intractable civil war to a post-war transition is itself a massive collective accomplishment. As a result, Syrians are beginning to return home. Some 1.5 million have travelled back to Syria from abroad, and another 1.8 million Syrians displaced within the country have returned to their homes.

The new leadership's success thus far in building international credibility has been a key factor generating positive momentum and mitigating concerns about their jihadist roots. The pragmatic foreign policy pursued by President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shaibani has notched some critical wins. These include sanctions relief from the U.S., Canada and other western countries; the removal of terrorist designations previously imposed by the UN Security Council; and the forging of a broad, diverse network of constructive diplomatic relations, including key support from western countries in the gulf, while reducing tensions with Russia and China.

These successes have helped stabilize the transitional government, even as it struggles with limited bandwidth and insufficient diversity—a point I'll address further in a moment—but there have also been deeply painful failures, particularly during the first eight months of the transition. More than 1,300 people, mostly Alawites, were killed in March 2025 when government forces, responding to insurgent attacks, committed massacres against civilians—

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

I believe the sound has been cut off a few times now. We have to think about the health and safety of the interpreters. Unfortunately, we may have to reassess—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

We will suspend the meeting for a few minutes.

Mr. Bonsey, just to resolve these technical challenges, we will suspend for a few minutes to allow the technicians to fix the problem, because we're having lags with respect to your presentation.

Everything is clear now. You have about a minute to go, so you can conclude your remarks.

Thank you.

[Noah Bonsey]

While the discipline and behaviour of government forces have improved in subsequent months, it will take more than that to rebuild trust with many Syrians, particularly in minority communities.

Meanwhile, Syrian's humanitarian needs remain immense, and the international bandwidth for addressing them is diminishing. The UN estimates that more than 15 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian support, and the current regional war has exacerbated the challenge. Gulf states that Syria was relying upon to support and invest will now need to prioritize their own resilience. Looking ahead, finding ways to compensate for that expected shortfall must be an immediate priority for Damascus and its supporters in the international community.

In conclusion, I'll briefly note a couple of additional points that I'm happy to address further in discussion.

First, the Syrian government took a bold step by participating in U.S.-mediated talks with Israel, which have stalled amid Israel's refusal to commit to withdrawing from the Syrian territory it has occupied since the fall of the Assad regime. In order to reduce the risk of escalation and to open a pathway to reintegrating Sweida within the Syrian state, it is important that Damascus remain committed to this track and that the U.S. continue to press Israel to engage constructively.

Second, the integration agreement between Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces ended weeks of clashes, averted what could have been an ugly fight in Kurdish areas and charted a pathway for inclusive local governance in the country's northeast. Both parties showed wisdom in reaching it and goodwill in implementing it thus far. If they continue that, it will serve as a major step forward for the country as a whole.

Finally, nationwide, it is also crucial that Syria move quickly to improve the inclusiveness of government structures at all levels, from local security forces to the cabinet. The government's performance and credibility will improve if it better incorporates Syria's rich diversity.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much for your statement.

I now invite Mr. Hisyar Ozsoy to make an opening statement of up to five minutes. Thank you.

[Hisyar Ozsoy, Former Deputy Chair and Member of Parliament, People's Democratic Party of Turkey]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for having me today. I will start where the previous speaker ended: on the question of minorities.

We think the approach of Canada and the broader international community to Syria should be guided by a clear lesson from recent developments. Unfortunately, we have observed that over the last year, whenever international legitimacy has been granted to the current leadership in Damascus, it has been used not to build inclusive governance but to centralize power and repress communities.

The United States and some European partners, together with Turkey, Qatar and the Saudis, are pursuing short-term stability through centralization, supporting a strong centre in Damascus in the hope of restoring order. In practice, however, centralization has produced a lot of repression. Kurdish regions remain under pressure. Alawite civilians have faced mass violence without accountability. Druze communities have suffered grave abuses, and the new Syrian authorities have already killed thousands of their own citizens, just as al-Assad was doing before. This centralization approach may reduce fragmentation in the short term, but it is also sowing the seeds of future conflict.

The agreement between the Kurds and Damascus signed on January 30 illustrates these risks. The agreement lacks international guarantees, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, and binding protections for autonomy and political inclusion. At the same time, U.S. policy has moved toward closer alignment with Ahmed al-Sharaa, encouraging integration into a centralized system without sufficient safeguards. This has deepened the perception that pluralist actors are being sidelined in Syria.

We think Canada should adopt a different premise, which is that the inclusion of minorities is not only a matter of principle but also a structural requirement for sustainable stability. Kurds, Druze, Alawites, Christians and secular Arabs—and particularly women—are not simply communities to be protected; they are essential political actors who can serve as a counterweight within the system. Their meaningful inclusion can check authoritarian centralism, limit the dominance of any single ideological force—in this case, Islamism—and restrain Islamist and fundamentalist tendencies. Without such balance, power will concentrate and repression will follow.

This is why decentralization is essential. A decentralized system would provide real autonomy and protection for vulnerable communities, reduce zero-sum struggles over control of Damascus, institutionalize power-sharing across regions and communities and create checks against authoritarian domination. Decentralization is not fragmentation. It is not separatism. It is a framework that allows diversity to function as a stabilizing force.

We believe and strongly suggest that international legitimacy, reconstruction support and normalization with Syria must be conditional. They should depend on democratic governance, decentralization of power, inclusion of minorities and secular actors, and accountability for abuses. Without these conditions, external support for the new regime in Syria will only reinforce the very dynamics that destabilize Syria.

Canada is well placed to help rebalance western policy. Working with European partners, particularly the U.K. and France, Canada can promote a more sustainable approach, one that recognizes that stability comes not from concentrating power but from distributing it in a way that creates balance and restraint.

In that context, we recommend that both Canada and the broader international community should condition all of their engagement with Syria on democratic and decentralized governance; advocate for international guarantees and monitoring mechanisms, especially for the implementation of the agreement with the Kurds; reject unconditional legitimacy for Damascus; support inclusive negotiations involving all major communities; and promote decentralization as the core constitutional framework for stability.

Let me conclude by re-emphasizing that granting legitimacy to the new regime in Syria without conditions enables centralization and repression and ultimately fuels instability.

Stability in Syria, to repeat, will not come from concentrating power in Damascus. It will come from building a system in which diverse communities act as a counterweight, keeping authoritarian and fundamentalist tendencies in check. I urge Canadian policy-makers to help make that balance possible.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much for your statement.

I now invite Ms. Muzna Dureid to make her opening statement of up to five minutes.

[Muzna Dureid, Co-Founder, The Syrian Women's Political Movement]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me to testify today.

My name is Muzna Dureid. I'm a Syrian Canadian woman, a mother and a former refugee. I grew up in al-Qadam, in Damascus, a neighbourhood that was systematically wiped out by the Assad regime and its allies. My family endured five years of siege, bombardment, mass killing, forced detention and displacement.

I arrived in Canada in 2016 as an asylum seeker, young, alone and without a plan, seeking only safety and the chance to reunite with my family. I rebuilt my life in Canada from scratch while continuing to advocate for Syria through civil society work focused on women's rights, displacement and humanitarian response. I'm grateful for what Canada offered me.

Today, I appear before you to speak about what Canada can offer Syria.

Assad's fall gave millions of Syrians something they had not felt in over a decade: hope. Syria now stands at a deeply fragile crossroads. More than three million refugees and displaced persons have returned home. Tens of thousands walked free, but hundreds of thousands remain missing.

A transitional government was set to lead the country, which was devastated by war, repression and institutional collapse, yet Syria's transition remains profoundly vulnerable. The northeast is not stable. Israeli bombardment and unlawful external interventions continue. There's still no legislative body. Sectarian massacres were committed in Sweida and on the coast by undisciplined pro-government groups. Armed groups continue to resist integration into a unified state, and more than 80% of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line.

This is the reality Canada must engage with, not the Syria of yesterday's headlines.

I'm here because I choose to support Syria's transition not out of political agreement with its new authorities but because this sensitive moment requires collaboration across different actors. Supporting a transition is not the same as endorsing it. Canada should move toward direct, principled political engagement with Syria's new authorities in coordination with allies and with a clear expectation.

Other Five Eyes partners and G7 countries have already moved by opening embassies, establishing direct co-operation and trade, and shaping the political space. Canada should not remain absent while that space is being formed by others. Diplomatic engagement is not naivety. It's not endorsement. It's a recognition of reality and a decision to use presence to influence outcomes.

Canada has in the past engaged political actors who emerged from armed backgrounds. History teaches us that transitions are messy and that yesterday's armed actor can, under the right conditions, become part of tomorrow's political settlement.

There are four priorities for Canadian action.

First, Canada should support an inclusive political transition. Women, minorities, civil society representatives and Syrians from across the country must have a meaningful role in shaping the constitution, new institutions and national reconciliation.

Second, Canada should support accountability and transitional justice. Syria cannot build a durable future on recycled impunity. That means supporting the national transitional justice commission and related actors working to establish credible accountability and a clear break from the abuses of the past.

Third, Canada should invest in state-building and civilian recovery, not only humanitarian relief. Functioning institutions, education, local services and security sector reform are what will determine whether this transition holds.

Fourth, Canada should draw on the expertise of Syrian Canadians. Canada is home to one of the most capable Syrian diasporas in the world, including individuals with deep expertise in policy, law, technology and humanitarian response. This is an underutilized asset. Strengthened diplomatic and consular relations would create mutual benefits for both countries. I note that four current Syrian cabinet ministers and an ambassador to the UN hold Canadian citizenship and direct ties to Canada.

In conclusion, Syria's transition must be inclusive, accountable, rights-based and led by Syrians themselves. If successful, it could serve as a testament to the power of international co-operation and a beacon of hope for those emerging from destruction.

The question before this committee is not whether Syria's transition is perfect. It's not. Engagement is not a gift we give when a transition succeeds. It is one of the tools that helps a transition succeed.

The real question is whether this fragile opening is worth engaging, strengthening and helping to shape before it collapses—and I believe it is.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much for your presentation.

I now turn to questions from members, beginning with MP Ziad Aboultaif.

You have six minutes.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Ms. Dureid, Mr. Ozsoy and Mr. Bonsey, welcome to the committee and thanks for participating today.

Mr. Ozsoy, in March 2025, Syria enacted constitutional guarantees protecting minorities and the freedom of all Syrians, yet in thousands of reported cases, minorities, including Alawites, Druze, Kurds and Christians, have faced humiliation, displacement, murder and injury in addition to the kidnapping and raping of women and girls.

To what degree has Syria been effective in abiding by constitutional guarantees and defending the freedom of Syrian minorities?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

Thank you.

Now we are in a transitional process. Honestly, we can't actually talk about the rule of law. The president is issuing some decrees from time to time, and they are passing as laws. The constitutional process is probably going to take five to seven years—we don't know.

What we have seen so far on the ground is that those kinds of guarantees have not provided the minorities with safety for their lives. Everybody is scared.

The idea is that everybody, both the communities in Syria and the international community, really has to work together. I totally agree with Muzna Dureid, the previous speaker. We all need to collaborate on this. It's a very difficult transition.

At the same time, we have not been able to see the government there, which is receiving some kind of international legitimacy and support, help include those historically persecuted communities in the process of governance. Unfortunately, the experience on the ground for the Alawites, Druze and Kurds has not been good, I should say. The words are there. Statements sometimes come from Damascus, which should be appreciated and encouraged, about the rights of minorities of women. In reality, unfortunately, there have been severe consequences for all of these communities.

They want to negotiate a fair deal with Damascus. To my understanding, nobody's opposed to the international community working with Mr. Sharaa in Damascus now. How is it going to work? Is it going to be a centralized and Islamist government repressing all of the communities, the secular forces and the women?

In that context, I would like to just repeat that, yes, Syria's transition should be supported in any way possible, but at the same time, that support should be clearly conditional to make sure that an inclusive and democratic structure emerges in Syria.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you. That leads me to a second question.

A United Nations commission of inquiry reported in August 2025 that massacres and war crimes took place across Syria in March 2025. The report found that some of the perpetrators were pro-government fighters.

To what extent do you believe the interim Syrian government was involved?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

We really don't have a lot of facts on the ground, because it's so difficult for the journalists and other people to go and really do fact-finding missions. Definitely, some of them were encouraged by the government and, I should say, the tribes in particular. We know many of them were sympathetic to the government. Some Turkish proxies were also quite active, particularly in the coastal areas where the Alawite people were massacred. We know that.

It is also true that Mr. Sharaa is not in full control of all of those militias and armed groups. At the same time, he is the president of the country, and he needs to find a way to stop those kinds of massacres. It is—

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

We're talking about the United Nations commission's report, and that's serious. They took the time, they went on the ground and they met with vulnerable people, displaced people. People were killed. The towns were burned. Women were taken and were raped...and girls. This is very a credible and serious report, isn't it?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

Yes, definitely, that is true. I think what they depicted there is very limited. I mean, most recently, when the attacks on the two neighbourhoods in Aleppo happened, we saw how women were killed and thrown from the balconies. None of that came to the attention of the international community. It's not just.... All kinds of atrocities, honestly, are happening there.

Whether the government in Damascus cannot or maybe is not willing to...somehow that government is also seeking to repress those communities in the process of centralizing power. It is not just some crazy people trying to kill each other. It is a process of the centralization of power and the destruction of those communities who actually don't feel safe vis-à-vis the new regime.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

As a quick question, what methods are available to hold the government responsible or accountable for the actions?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

I mean, when it comes to the international community.... That's what I tried to stress in my speech. Syria is a country that is totally devastated. Its people were killed—over 500,000 people by the most conservative estimates—and tens of millions of people left the country. There's no economy, no security and no safety. It is in ruins.

Of course, the Syrian government and people cannot repair the damage just by themselves, so any kind of international support is needed. Legitimacy, reconstruction funds and normalization, I totally agree with these, but all of this should happen in a conditional way. Make sure that the regime in Syria is not going to be another repressive, authoritarian, centralized regime.

The previous one was secular, and this one may be Islamist, but the nature of power is important. Is it going to be a decentralized democratic government, including all kinds of communities, not just ethnic and sectarian communities but women and secular forces in society—or not? If the current president of the country and the people around him are not willing to have a democratic government, then of course the international community should have reservations. That is why I say any engagement should be strictly conditional.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much.

We next go to MP Vandenbeld. You have six minutes.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses.

Each of you really spoke about the theme that the democratic transition that's happening in Syria really needs to respect diversity, respect rights and build an inclusive democracy. I would like to delve a bit into that.

I'll start with you, Ms. Dureid, but I'd also like to hear from Mr. Ozsoy later about the Kurdish communities in particular. Ms. Dureid, you have done a lot of work around women, peace and security. We know and we've seen globally that when women are not just beneficiaries of aid but are actually at the table, participating, and have a real role in the governance process, the peace and the stability last longer. I wonder whether you could tell us what you think Canada can do, given that we now have our third national action plan on women, peace and security, and Canada has a lot of expertise in this area.

Is this where Canada might have a niche, where we could provide support to the women in Syria in this regard?

[Muzna Dureid]

Thank you for this important question.

Actually Canada was supporting the Syrian women’s political movement, which is like the one I'm part of, over the last seven years, which helped us to achieve a lot. The only woman minister in the cabinet now, Hind Kabawat, is co-founder of our movement. The fruit of all of the investment that Canada did in the past now is visible for everyone. What's needed now is to continue to support civil society and initiatives that support women's participation and also to put pressure on both the society and the government to increase women's participation, but also to engage with the government in terms of advising and supporting the government, for example, to remove all of the reservations on the CEDAW convention and to support the national action plan on peace and security. It's also to learn from other Arab countries, most likely Jordan, that have achieved a lot on this file.

There's a lot for Canada to do, but if you don't engage with the government, you can't also pressure a government to do something specific, specifically when it comes to women's participation, because historically in Syria we have women who have been marginalized by the law and by the society. Now it's time to see women in government, leading the change of the law in Syria and changing the social norms as well.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you very much. There's some very good advice there.

I'd like to turn to Mr. Ozsoy.

You talked about the opportunity in decentralization and some of the danger in too much centralization. We know that there are, as you mentioned, many minority groups. The Kurdish community in particular is divided because it exists in so many countries. We see examples where Kurds have self-governance and autonomy. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what it would look like to ensure that we have that kind of inclusive governance, decentralization, and we don't bake into future structures some of the fault lines that you talked about that would then cause it to fracture.

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

Thank you for this great question. There are two things. One, yes, the Kurds live in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. In Iraq, they have a federal structure that's recognized internationally and also by the constitution, of course, of Iraq.

In Syria, the Kurds demand some degree of autonomy. This is not, as I said in my speech, separatism. It is to make sure that they have structures of self-governance within Syria, within a decentralized Syria, and they are trying to make their contributions while the regime in Damascus is trying to undermine any kind of decentralization. That is the central problem, central question. The same goes with the Druze or the Alevis.

I want to also say one more thing about the question of women. I think that is going to be the very character of the emerging regime in Syria. You see, the whole western world was mesmerized by gorgeous—I am being a little bit sarcastic here—Kurdish women who were fighting ISIS. They helped greatly to defeat ISIS. They were fighters, actually. I mean, the YPG. Even fashion magazines put them on their cover pages and were showing that. Now ISIS is defeated, Assad is gone and those Kurdish women who fought against ISIS want to be integrated into the new Syrian army. They are being told that there is no place for women in the army, and they should go back to their homes or their kitchens. Do you see how it works here?

This is the case of the Kurdish women who are trying to integrate—not to separate but to integrate—in an autonomous way, as themselves, as the people who fought against ISIS. The Kurds, the women and other minorities, unfortunately, are perceived by the central government as threats and not as interlocutors to talk to and work together to rebuild the country. The fall of Assad is a golden opportunity for all peoples of Syria. They can come together, work together and build something, but if those people in Damascus want to impose a strong centralized agenda on everybody else, we suspect new conflicts will emerge in the future. In that particular context, I think special attention should be paid to the situation of Kurdish women and Kurdish fighters.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you.

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

Now they are doing diplomacy to get support so they can negotiate with the central government.