Honourable Chair and distinguished members of the subcommittee, friends and colleagues, thank you for this opportunity.
On August 15, 2021, my team and I were painting a mural on the walls of Kabul's governor's office when the Taliban entered the capital. Some of those colleagues, after years of waiting, have finally found refuge in Canada, which I'm very grateful for.
In the three weeks that followed, before the Taliban had even announced the government, they painted over more than 2,000 murals that ArtLords had created across Afghanistan over the previous seven years. Seven years of work was erased in three weeks.
It was deliberate. They were dragging Afghanistan and 20 years of democracy and development back into the dark. I am an artivist and the president of ArtLords, a movement that began on the walls of Kabul and that has since worked with communities in more than 20 countries to reclaim public space, defend dignity and amplify voices through art.
I also speak to you as someone who has witnessed first-hand what happens when democracy collapses. The Taliban did not only dismantle institutions—they erased voices. Artists, journalists and civil society leaders were silenced, displaced or forced into hiding.
This is not an Afghan story. It is part of a global pattern.
Authoritarian regimes are no longer operating in isolation. They share surveillance tools, coordinate across borders to silence dissidents in exile and learn from one another faster than democracies do. Meanwhile, those defending democracy remain fragmented, underfunded and at risk.
The world order itself is shifting. The assumptions that once anchored global stability are no longer certain, and middle powers like Canada are being asked to lead in new ways. This moment requires more than reaffirming values. It requires rethinking how we support those on the front lines.
From our experience, I would offer three reflections.
First, human rights defenders are not beneficiaries. They are partners. What we too often see instead is short-term project funding that prioritizes compliance over impact and creates distance between those designing solutions and those living the reality. The most effective responses we have often witnessed are locally led, trust-based and flexible. They invest in people, not just projects.
Second, protection must go beyond emergency response. For many artists and activists, the threat is not a single moment of crisis. It's constant. My colleagues who eventually reached Canada needed far more than a flight. They needed legal status, time to rebuild, mental health support after years of trauma and the means to keep working. For an artivist, the silence after evacuation can become its own form of erasure. Too often, international protection systems end at the airport. If we protect individuals but fail to sustain their ecosystems, we lose the very movements we aim to support.
Third, culture and storytelling are not secondary. They are central to democratic resilience. Authoritarian systems understand the power of narrative. That's why they target artists first. Through our work, we have seen how art creates space in which dialogue becomes possible, dignity is restored and communities begin to imagine alternatives again. If democracy is to be defended, it must be felt, seen and experienced—and not just legislated.
In this context, Canada has a unique opportunity. Canada's strength lies in its credibility, its diversity and its ability to bridge the global north and global south.
As is highlighted in the brief submitted to this subcommittee, Canada can lead not only by imposing models but also by convening, connecting and enabling partnerships rooted in mutual respect and shared learning.
I would encourage three areas of action.
The first is to expand long-term flexible funding mechanisms, modelled on instruments like the Equality Fund and Lifeline, which reach grassroots actors directly, with timelines measured in years, not just months.
The second is to build a Canadian rapid response capacity for human rights defenders under threat, combining risk analysis, legal pathways, digital security and trusted partners on the ground and deployable in days, not months.
The third is to create standing spaces in which artists, activists and policy-makers collaborate as equals, bringing frontline defenders into the design of the policies meant to protect them, not only into their delivery. Ultimately, democracy is defended not only in parliaments: It is defended in classrooms, in communities and on the walls of cities where people still choose to speak, even when it's dangerous.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.