Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In a surprising statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has announced that Canada will no longer tie Canadian foreign assistance to a country's human rights record. In so doing, the government is casting aside the policy announced at the 1991 Commonwealth Summit in Zimbabwe and later reaffirmed at the Francophone Summit in Dakar, a policy which ties Canadian foreign assistance to respect for human rights.
Are we to understand from the minister's statement that the government had a sudden change of heart and decided that from now on business comes first, even if it means willingly ignoring systematic human rights abuse in countries under dictatorial rule, just to establish trade relations with these countries?