Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Feb. 7th, 2013

[Neil Reeder]

That is a good question. Once again, I suggest that you invite Mr. Kergin to make a presentation because he sat on the commission as a Canadian representative. He met with groups across the country and he knows a lot about how the people of Honduras feel.

I personally feel that the reconciliation process is under way, but there have still been a lot of tensions since 2009. It is interesting to see that one of the presidential candidates is the spouse of former President Zelaya who created a new political party, which is the third political party in the Honduran system. She is now running for president in November. He cannot run for president, but she can. That is something else to look at. The polls are showing that there is some support for her.

We are seeing that the groups in favour of Mr. Zelaya at the time—rural people, union members, academics—have started to form a coalition to support Ms. Zelaya. I think that's a good thing because it shows the ability of the system to accept another party and another movement that are sort of representing those who were involved in the 2009 tensions. That shows a living democracy that can be flexible and make room for the viewpoints of the groups that were behind Manuel Zelaya during the 2009 crisis.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Do I still have some time, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Your time is up, but I will give you a few more minutes.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

In your report, you talked about CIDA and education. Can CIDA, with its educational programs, play the heavy—pardon the expression—in the face of the gangs and the drug trafficking, which represent a parallel and easy economy?

How can CIDA become a real force, given those drug cartels and criminals?

[Neil Reeder]

I suggest that you invite the people from CIDA. It is difficult for me to say a lot about that. I have noted some things about their activities, but I am reluctant to make any comments about their approach.

It is true that education and food safety are key factors in Honduras. I have seen this with the World Food Programme that offers daily hot meals to young children in early grades. We have seen the impact of a healthy hot meal with refried beans or just beans, rice and a small piece of meat. I am mentioning this simply because we are supporting the program through the World Food Programme. This program has a direct impact on school performance. In fact, the children come to school because they do not have anything to eat at home. Once they are at school, they are sure to at least get one good hot meal during the day. The parents are happy because they know that, if they cannot offer their children a hot meal at home, their children will get one at school.

That also has an impact on children staying in school. They have good results in school because they eat. They are more alert, more active and they have better grades. So this modest program is a great success. We feel that it is very positive. Children stay in school because they know that they will get a hot meal during the day. In Canada, we do not really think about that, but it is very important in those countries.

So I encourage you to discuss those sorts of issues with CIDA officials.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

I've let some of these other questions go on a lot longer, and I cut off poor Mr. Sweet precisely on time earlier, so I'll let him ask one last question.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

It will be very straightforward. There are 15 other partners with Canada in Honduras. Do we need to encourage them to have an equal kind of investment? I'm certain the U.S. is one of them, and I think they're doing a lot of heavy lifting. Or are all the partners pretty well at the same level of investment?

[Neil Reeder]

I would say the EU is dominant in terms of their development program just because of their budgets. The United States is very important as well. It also includes World Bank and others so that you have the IDB, Inter-American Development Bank. I think the resources are good, and there's good collaboration, and Canada has generally played a leadership role in the G-16 on a number of things.

The other important point is the G-16 works with the government to establish its development goals, its development plan, and to criticize when things aren't going right. It's one of those rare countries where you see the donors really step up and make comments not so much on political decisions, but on budget decisions, development priorities, human rights abuses. We would go in during the coup period as a group to express concerns about human rights incidents that came to our attention. It's a very dynamic group. It's primarily focused on the development agenda, but when required it will pick up other themes, including themes of governance and respect for human rights.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Reeder.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

We're going to have to leave things there. We thank the witnesses, then I have to kick you out because we're going in camera. I have to kick everybody else in the room out, too, except of course the members.

We'll suspend for a moment.

[Proceedings continue in camera]