House of Commons Hansard #122 of the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was information.

Topics

Situation in EgyptEmergency Debate

10:50 p.m.

Conservative

Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Toronto Centre for his typically thoughtful intervention with which I would like to associate myself. I understand the member has recently published a book on the promotion of democratic principles and governance. I apologize that I have not had a chance to read it yet, but it is in my reading file. It is a very slim book, so it should not take too long.

Although the member makes thoughtful points, I would argue that we do have various programs in the field around the world to support democratic development. I have many friends who have been involved in those projects through the support of other governments, such as the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the Westminster Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. We know of many excellent examples.

I know that the foreign affairs committee of this place conducted a very thoughtful and thorough study of programs of this nature. I would underscore that the Conservative Party included in its platform in the last general election a commitment to the creation of a democracy project to advance democratic values around the world and appointed Tom Axworthy, who has been a strong champion of this concept as chairman of an advisory committee.

I believe that in principle we are of one accord on this objective of a greater Canadian role in democratic development. We have a unique role to play because we do not carry the stigma that our friends to the south do in some parts of the world. We do not carry the post-colonial baggage that our European allies do. We have a unique role that we can play and ought to play.

At the same time, for whoever sits on this side of the House, there is the very prosaic reality of a challenging fiscal situation. Every developed country is facing that. I do not know of any democratic country that is expanding efforts in these or similar areas as they deal with some very serious fiscal challenges, and we cannot ignore that. We can throw around rhetorical barbs but the reality is that every advanced economy in the world is facing a significant deficit and new investments in programming areas like this are simply difficult to manage at such a time of constraint.

I think the larger point raised by the member for Toronto Centre is entirely well taken. I hope that we can continue working toward the noble objective of a deeper, broader Canadian participation in democracy promotion programming around the world.

Situation in EgyptEmergency Debate

10:50 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I did not hear the minster's whole speech so he may have covered what I am going to ask. I wonder if he has addressed immigration in preparation of a poor outcome if a group in leadership targets a particular minority. I will not make any suggestions.

First, what would the normal process be as these types of world crises occur where there may be an influx of refugees or requests for refugee status?

Second, has the minister thought about, in this particular case, any preparation for that possibility?

Situation in EgyptEmergency Debate

10:50 p.m.

Conservative

Jason Kenney Conservative Calgary Southeast, AB

Madam Speaker, as I said, when our embassy is able to go fully back to work we will assess whether there are urgent cases in need of prioritizing. An example would be people who have been victims of violence. Let us say a Canadian citizen has a relative who has made application for family sponsorship and the relative had been subject to violence or is in some form of particular risk. In such cases, we would typically give priority consideration to those applications and accelerate them.

We have done that on a wide-scale basis in the wake of large natural disasters, such as the southeast Asian tsunami, the Pakistani earthquake, the Chinese earthquake in Sichuan, as well as the more recent typhoons in the Philippines. We have sometimes created special programs and additional resources to accelerate processing of applications, for example, family sponsorship in those cases.

This is a little different because the definition of a refugee in both our law and in international law is someone who has fled his or her country because of a well-founded fear of persecution on the grounds of religion, political opinion, gender, ethnicity, et cetera. People who might be on one side or the other of the political conflict in Egypt, but who are still in Egypt, are not considered refugees under our law. It is only if they flee and, if they were to flee in significant numbers, typically we would work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other countries to seek a durable settlement or solution for them. However, that is very hypothetical and I, frankly, hope that it does not come to that in Egypt, and I do not believe that it will

Situation in EgyptEmergency Debate

10:55 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

There being no further members rising for debate, the motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. The House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 10:56 p.m.)