Evidence of meeting #41 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A video is available from Parliament.
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Unfortunately, in general, when it comes to special education and education for children with disabilities, complaints play a major role. That's how families receive services. Not everyone has easy and direct access. This is at odds with inclusive education.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
You said as much in your opening remarks.
How will this affect francophone children in the rest of Canada who need these services over the long term?
December 5th, 2023 / 11:55 a.m.
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Over the long term, they won't have the same access to education as all other children. The objectives of provincial legislation aren't being met for all children.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you.
Let's talk about the situation at the international level. You caught my attention when you said that the approach should definitely not be standardized. Obviously, the groups are neither standardized nor homogeneous.
Could you elaborate on this matter, by giving examples of good and bad approaches?
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Inclusive education is an excellent philosophy, if it can be implemented.
The issue is the lack of services and resources to make it work. I've heard of situations where children with intellectual disabilities, for example, end up in regular classes. However, they spend time in the school hallways, or they're made to do photocopies. They don't receive the same quality of education, even though they're in a regular class.
This education is called “inclusive,” but it isn't.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Given the country's issues, is Canada a major player on the international stage? Should it become one? If it is a major player, why can't it accomplish the work at home?
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
On the international stage, Canada has two obligations. It must implement the conventions at home and play a major role in international co‑operation. Canada can be a major player in the field of human rights, for the most part.
Here's what I see. There are resources for international development, which include specific resources for education. I see that the figures are quite low.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
I wasn't headed that way, but I'll go there.
I've met with representatives from a number of international development organizations. I often hear that Canada has good policies, particularly its feminist policy on the international stage. However, funding for international aid is only 0.29% or 0.30% of the gross domestic product, or GDP. The United Nations, or UN, wants countries such as Canada to contribute 0.7% of the GDP. At the same time, the average for countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co‑operation and Development, or OECD, is around 0.42% or 0.43% of the GDP.
Under the current Liberal government, the figures are actually lower. They're lower than under Stephen Harper's Conservative government, which is saying something.
How much does the underfunding of international aid affect Canadian programs at the international level?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
Excuse me. His time is finished, so could you give a quick answer, please?
I will give you 25 seconds.
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Canada has never given the equivalent of 0.7% of its GDP in international aid. Obviously, the fewer resources that we provide, the less we can implement the programs that we'd like to create.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
Now I will invite Ms. McPherson to take the floor for seven minutes.
Go ahead, please.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today, and thank you for sharing your expertise with us for this very important study.
I'm going to follow up on some of the questions that my colleague from the Bloc just asked with regard to development dollars. There are two things I'm interested in that I'd like some information on. One is data and data collection and the other is how we are allocating resources, because I think what we heard from everyone is that there needs to be more commitment and more resources allocated to inclusive education and, I would argue, to development writ large.
Similar to what my colleague just mentioned, Canada's commitment to 0.7% actually came from Lester B. Pearson. It is a Canadian commitment that we have never met under any government. We are very far from it right now. The impacts of COVID on our international development funding mean that this year there was, in fact, a 15% cut to our ODA, so we are not even heading in the right direction.
I would really like to hear perhaps from you, Ms. Paré, but also from our colleagues from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and from the Light for the World representatives, on how we start this conversation and get the Canadian government to recognize that there needs to be a bigger investment in development dollars for education, for inclusive education and for development writ large.
Perhaps I'll start in the room with you, Ms. Paré.
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Thank you.
I think there are two things. There's the number. How much of the GNP goes to international development and how much of that goes to education? From what I saw, the part that goes to education is number six out of eight sectors. We know that education should really be the number one investment. I think everybody agrees that it is the most important thing for children to be able to build successful societies and to be successful in life.
Maybe I missed part of your question.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
No. I would just highlight, too, that we do have a feminist international systems policy and we have been told that we have a feminist foreign policy, but nobody has seen it yet. Maybe you'd like to comment on the idea that these are core principles but we know that women and girls are disproportionately impacted.
Full Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Yes. I think Canada does play a great role, especially with gender-based analysis, which is now mainstream. We have also seen how it is important in terms of the education of children with disabilities, with intersectionalities and so on.
I would say that it's also important to bring other human rights aspects into that analysis to make it more intersectional and to include disability. I would say we should use human rights-based tools to make sure the programs we put in place and finance everywhere are inclusive of children with disabilities as well as others.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Part of the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act that is law in this country is that we are meant to use human rights as the lens through which we look at our development work.
Perhaps I can pass the microphone off to those online, if anyone else would like to contribute to those comments.
Manager, Technical Secretariat, United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Thank you so much for this very vital question.
There is definitely an opportunity for Canada to stand out in terms of pioneering what is meant in terms of investment in inclusive development and inclusive education. What we see from working towards increased investment on disability more broadly is that the main issue with government investment is that it has this specific small allocation of pots of money that go into disability, which is vitally needed; however, it's not the case across its broader investment. That is what we need on disability. It's been very clear that we need to adopt this cross approach where we are looking into mainstreaming investments to be inclusive. There is a lot of learning on Canada's approach on that and on gender more broadly. We need to see that happening.
As I was indicating, investments in climate change, investments in the care agenda and investments in gender equality more broadly need to see where disability is embedded into that, because that's the only way we can transform the whole development thinking to be inclusive. As I indicated earlier, inclusive education, to be foreseen in many countries across the globe, needs to be looked at more broadly. It's a cross-sectoral approach, so the broader the investment to be inclusive, the more we see children with disabilities enjoying their rights and access to education as others in those countries.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
Ms. McPherson, I have Ms. Sharma. It seems she would like to intervene on your question.
Ms. Sharma, you have the floor.
Senior Advisor, Advocacy and Engagement, International Disability Alliance
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to reiterate that human rights are indivisible, so we cannot really distinguish human rights among different identity groups. As Ola already said, we have to look at intersectionality. We commend Canada for having a feminist approach towards foreign policy. A feminist approach towards foreign policy cannot exclude women and girls with disabilities. I think that's important for all of us to really take note of.
I also would like to draw the attention of the honourable members of this committee and the House to the commitments that Canada made at the Global Disability Summit in 2022, where it committed to providing greater assistance to persons with disabilities in developing countries, including through international development assistance programming.
I think that Canada is a leader in international development programming that works on human rights and works on intersectionality. We would really like to see that continue, and we would like to see Canada being a champion of disability inclusion across the world.
Thank you so much.
Liberal
Director, Inclusive Education, Light for the World
Thank you.
I want to add that we really need to make sure that disability inclusion is a core criteria for access in development assistance for any program, be it education or health. This needs to be institutionalized. I think it's really important to take inspiration from USAID and other countries that have really got champions internally to focus on disability inclusion to spearhead intelligently to ensure institutional transformation around this and create awareness. I think that is one of the key steps to take to ensure that people are aware and champion this cause across all development assistance programs.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
Thank you, Ms. Baboo.
Mr. Faruqui, you have the floor. I'll give you one minute.