Foreign Affairs Committee on April 14th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much.

We go next to Monsieur Brunelle-Duceppe. You have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ozsoy. Your last comment was very interesting.

You said things are particularly dangerous because power has coalesced around the presidency. Some local political actors, Kurds and Druze, are currently in danger. Women's rights are another big issue.

Figuring out how to support a regime in transition, like Syria's, is always tricky. There's a chance such support could legitimize a power that continues to repress Kurds, Druze and women.

Is there anything the regime absolutely must not do if it wants to hold on to support from countries that want to help Syria through this transition? If so, what would that be?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

Here is the situation. We don't really have a mission or a mechanism with reports that are binding on the international community, unfortunately. What we need are two things. The first is monitoring mechanisms on the ground. What is really happening on the ground? We need to periodically gather facts about what is happening on the ground. If these developments are against international law—nowadays, actually, many people don't even comply with international law. Still, there's the issue of democratic governance, the issue of autonomy and the issue of women's rights.

When I said in my speech that any kind of support and legitimacy should only be granted based on conditionality, those conditions should be specified clearly. For example, when the U.S. Congress was trying to balance the U.S. administration, they came up with a discussion, a good debate, and actually set some conditions. If the Syrian president, the new regime, does this and that, we will continue our support, but there is no blank cheque; you can't just get our support and then go and kill some minorities in Syria.

In that sense, we need institutional monitoring mechanisms and periodic reports, and if the government is not scoring well, then there should be negotiations. There should be constant pressure on the government. To be honest, in terms of ideological and political orientation, the current president is pragmatic because he needs international legitimacy and support. However, in terms of his ideological and political orientation, to be honest, we don't trust him and we think he should do more to gain the trust of and legitimacy from the international community.

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

Thank you, Mr. Ozsoy.

Ms. Dureid, what can you tell us about women's participation in Syria's transition at this point?

[Muzna Dureid]

Unfortunately, women's participation is very low. We need to push for more Syrian women to get involved in politics. We need to pressure the government to ensure that women have a seat at the table. We need women of diverse backgrounds to ensure political and ethnic diversity. I think women's participation is a priority for Syria now.

We know that women aren't participating much. They're isolated. Canada has experience and is in a position to talk to the government and other partners. We have to make sure that women are active and have a seat at the political table so they can participate in the constitution, in parliament and everywhere.

Six women won parliamentary elections. We're still waiting for the president's third list to find out what the percentage of women in Parliament will be.

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

Mr. Bonsey, can you tell us whether the current crisis in the Middle East between Israel, Iran and the United States is having an impact on the transition in Syria?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Please give a brief response.

[Noah Bonsey]

Of course. The short answer is yes. Obviously, Syria is less impacted than places that have been drawn into the war directly. However, as I mentioned briefly in my remarks, obviously, the humanitarian needs are so high that more disruption, displacement and disorder in the region mean donors will be stretched thin. Crucially, Damascus has gambled on gulf support. The needs are immense. They have bet on having direct gulf support for the government, including the paying of state salaries, as well as investment in the broader economy.

We can all imagine that, in Riyadh, Doha and the Emirates, priorities are going to change as a result of this regional war. They'll be needing to spend more on their own defence and other domestic priorities. That will leave a huge gap that others are going to need to fill. Canada, obviously, has a major potential positive role to play here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much.

We'll start the next round of questions, beginning with MP Lianne Rood.

You have five minutes.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. My first question is for Mr. Ozsoy.

Canada claims to fight terrorism, yet we are engaging with a government that emerged from an Islamist armed movement while sidelining the very forces that helped defeat ISIS. How is that justifiable to Canadians?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

We are asking the same question about how a person who was listed as a terrorist two years ago is being welcomed in every major capital in the world—in Europe, the U.S. and Washington, D.C. We see that there is some pragmatism here. President Trump—whom I don't want to quote at all—said that this was the guy they could find.

That country really wants to rebuild. It's not just about the regime. It's about the people. We are talking about tens of millions of people who are trying to rebuild their country. In that sense, it is about engagement. Assad, al-Sharaa or some other person could be there, but somebody will be leading this transition. Some democratic-minded, secular and pro-women person would be ideal, but given the geography.... It is an unfortunate situation.

What the international community can do now, from the inside and outside, is to make sure that although the Islamist regime has authoritarian tendencies, there are checks and balances working to somehow put it on the right track. We know it is a very difficult situation, but if it is left to its own conditions, I suspect we would have a very dysfunctional and repressive political regime in Syria. Therefore, the engagement of the international community is necessary not for al-Sharaa but for the peoples of Syria—that whole multiplicity. Everybody is trying to come out of that war.

However, that support should be very carefully organized and conditional on some fundamental principles.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Bonsey, Canada has moved towards engagement with the Syrian authority linked to Ahmed al-Sharaa and removed Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham from its terrorist list.

Can you speak to what due diligence was conducted to determine that this leadership no longer poses an extremist threat, and is Canadian policy like this legitimizing former jihadist networks?

[Noah Bonsey]

Thank you for the question.

Others in the room can better speak to the specifics of Canadian policy, so I'll leave that aside.

The background of the current leadership in Damascus is well known and not in dispute. What we can say, based not on their words but on their actions over the years, is that they have evolved, very concretely, quite a long way along the ideological spectrum. They are still Islamists. I don't think they would dispute that. However, they have become much more pragmatic and also less totalitarian over time. They have shown that they respond to positive and negative incentives.

I don't think anyone would expect countries around the world to be trusting what's in the heart of any other actor on the international scene, let alone a former jihadist group. Nobody's going to trust what's in their hearts. We're going to judge based on actions. What al-Sharaa and those around him have shown is that they respond to positive and negative incentives, so I—

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much. I'm sorry. I'm going to move on. I just have a minute left here.

Mr. Ozsoy, Turkey, a NATO ally, has conducted repeated military operations in northern Syria, targeting Kurdish cities and Kurdish forces, including the SDF. Turkey's actions are seen as undermining regional stability and counterterrorism efforts. What consequences should be imposed in response?

[Hisyar Ozsoy]

I would say that Turkey has been violating international law.

I was a member of Parliament for eight years. I now have to live in Germany in exile. I can't go back to my country. The democratic record and human rights record of Turkey are very well known. Unfortunately, Europe, the U.S. and everybody else have turned a blind eye to the deterioration of human rights and democracy in Turkey.

Engagement is a must in Syria and in Turkey, but as we say, all engagement should be strictly based upon conditionality. If Turkey agrees to some democratic standards, that's good. If not, there should be consequences for it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much.

Next, we go to MP Steven Guilbeault.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank all our witnesses for being with us and sharing their experience and knowledge. Thank you very much.

Mr. Bonsey, I would like to pick up on the question from my colleague from the Bloc Québécois earlier. You had a brief amount of time to respond to what you feel are the broader implications of the regional conflict under transition. I'm offering you time to elaborate on the short answer you gave earlier.

[Noah Bonsey]

Thanks for that.

I really want to start with “humanitarian plus development”, because the material needs of Syria's population are just so massive. I mentioned earlier that there are 15 million people in need, according to UN estimates. That's the overwhelming majority of the country. That's almost everyone who lives there. Needs are immense.

Obviously, you're all familiar with the overall global constraining of international aid over the years, especially in light of changes by the Trump administration. When you add to that how thinly everyone will be stretched in light of the regional war, especially what's happening in neighbouring Lebanon.... Nearly 200,000 people have crossed from Lebanon to Syria during the current war. On top of that we all expect there will be a decline in gulf funding for the reasons I mentioned. Again, that was a big part of the bet in Damascus. You're simply left with massive needs that could stunt the entire recovery.

I think what we're all agreeing with here on the panel is that Syria needs engagement. Syria needs material support. Some of that support should be humanitarian and unconditional. People need to live.

Some of that support will be more development. Of course, Canada and other states will want to see certain things in response. How tangible or how conditional.... You will have political expectations for that support. I think that's understandable, but the scale needs to be massive in order for Syrians to be able to recover, for people to stay in their homes, to return to their homes and to build a new life for themselves.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you for that.

I have another question for you. How can Canada and like-minded countries balance our commitment to accountability for atrocities with the need to support progress towards social and political stability?

[Noah Bonsey]

Thanks. That's another great question.

There's no easy way to answer this because obviously you have tension here between crucial goals shared by all Syrians and.... In terms of this civil war, the dictatorship that led the country into the civil war, we're talking about egregious crimes of industrial scale—torture and collective punishment—committed by the regime, and egregious acts by other actors, including in the opposition, with of course, ISIS at the top of the list. The trauma, the scale and the intensity of what Syrians are looking to overcome demand a process for transitional justice. At the same time, moving on, keeping the country together and helping the country overcome its polarization and division requires making sure that the social fabric is maintained.

You see Damascus caught between these things. I know its supporters and critics in the international community are also caught. In other words, there's a tension between justice and people wanting to move on and pursue reconciliation. There's no easy answer.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you.

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Ms. Dureid, thank you for being with us and for your testimony.

In your remarks, you suggested that Canada should open an embassy. This isn't necessarily something the people we've heard from agree on.

In your opinion, what are the criteria that would justify doing that?

[Muzna Dureid]

Thank you for the question.

First, opening an embassy would signal Canada's intention to collaborate more with Syria and to be more active on the ground. It would also support Syrian civil society. Demand from Canadian and Syrian citizens would also have to be considered. The goal would be to make their lives easier because there's always war somewhere in the region, whether in Syria or in countries neighbouring Syria.

Syria is now more stable than it used to be. With war going on between the United States and Iran, Syria is more stable. There are lots of evacuations, and embassy staff in Syria have been transferred to Lebanon and Jordan. Syria is now being treated as a humanitarian evacuation partner for foreign citizens and embassy staff in other countries. The criteria are related to demand from citizens and the political will to co-operate with Syria.

The answer to both of your questions is yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you.

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, you're next. You have two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Bonsey, you talked about how the Trump administration made drastic cuts to the USAID humanitarian aid program. There's a crisis in the Middle East. Humanitarian aid from the Gulf countries to Syria is dwindling.

Unfortunately, European countries have followed suit and made severe cuts to humanitarian aid. Even Japan has slashed aid funding almost entirely. Canada is currently lagging behind on humanitarian aid. It cut $2.5 billion in the last budget while boosting national defence spending to $34 billion.

We just learned that there will be an economic update on April 28 in Ottawa. You have an opportunity right now to explain to the current government in Ottawa, which now has a majority, why humanitarian aid and international development are important, particularly for Syria.

Would you like to comment on that?