Mr. Speaker, today I have the opportunity to rise to speak to the private member's motion put forward by my colleague from Etobicoke Centre on the establishment of a women, peace and security ambassador.
I am a former diplomat who spent the vast majority of my professional career representing Canada abroad consecutively and across governments of all stripes.
Canada has always stood for advancing the rights of women and girls and has certainly taken a number of actions to show the support of our great nation for them.
I will give some context as to the importance of this issue to me personally.
I was very fortunate from 2006 to 2008 to serve as the chargé d'affaires in El Salvador. El Salvador is a nation that has known war and strife. I was fortunate to be there for the 15-year celebration of peace. No one is more affected in a time of war, in a time when peace and security are lacking, than women and children. I am sure that the strife was absolutely devastating to witness at that time.
When I arrived in El Salvador as a representative of Canada 15 years after that time, El Salvador was still in the process of rebuilding. I was a part of that healing process, being there when we were working hard towards the millennium goals of the United Nations, something incredibly dear to my heart.
One of the issues that was important to us then was our work in regard to gangs and gang warfare, which was a terrible by-product of the civil war and that period of violence and strife in El Salvador.
Again, it was women and children were the most affected, and also the individuals we attempted to incorporate as part of our role as a nation in the rehabilitation of El Salvador through programs for women and children so that they would feel good about their place in society in this new era of peace and hopeful prosperity after the civil war. Children were affected, but it was certainly the women who played a pivotal role in my time there after the civil war.
In my capacity as a diplomat, I also had the opportunity to visit many prisons in El Salvador, as well as during my time in Argentina when we oversaw Paraguay. I recall going into these prisons and the individuals there who were attempting to reach out to me. As a woman, I felt a total lack of security in that environment.
I have had a career in this. This is an issue that is definitely very close to my heart.
ln the past, Canada has played a key role in establishing the foundations for a global initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's most vulnerable regions. A particular example of this was the maternal, newborn and child health initiative, MNCH, which was Canada's contribution to the G8 Muskoka initiative and the UN global strategy for women's and children's health.
This made-in-Canada initiative was implemented by the former Conservative government, and included $2.85 billion to achieve the overall goal of increased survival of mothers, newborns and children. The initiative focused on strengthening health systems, reducing the burden of disease, and improving nutrition. This initiative was not designed as a program.
I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Africa this summer, Kenya in fact, and see the incredible results of this program, which is being implemented in Africa as we speak. The Harper government did good work with the implementation of vitamin A drops.
Certainly the health and well being of women are so deeply tied to the well-being of a nation.
Rather than being a program, it was designed as a thematic initiative with a strategic framework that was implemented through many program strategies. Real action and real results were apparent.
What my colleague across the aisle has brought forward to the House, although very honourable in spirit, is a non-binding motion, with no mandate, no costing and no deliverables. When the government of the day champions equal opportunity, women both home and abroad expect action with real results that show all of humanity moving forward together.
The presentation of this motion is rather symbolic. It is symbolic, unfortunately, of what we have come to see of the Liberal government. lt includes a lot of talk and a lot of discussion on women, women's rights protection, yet it fails to take any concrete action as it is written. For these reasons, my hon. colleague from Calgary Nose Hill proposed amendments that would take this symbolic virtue signalling to something with binding actions.
As previously mentioned, the United Nations passed resolutions to address women's challenges in conflict situations and women's potential to influence peace and security. Within my former department, many of my colleagues are working within peace and stabilization operations with a special emphasis on safety and security of women and girls in conflict zones. I, myself, was a security officer twice in my career, first at the embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador and, second, as deputy consul general at our consulate in Dallas, Texas.
This branch, a division of Global Affairs Canada, is headed by a senior government official with over 60 brilliant non-partisan public servants devoted to advancing women and security in conflict. I ask how the Liberals believe a symbolic, non-binding action will advance this cause. From this we might potentially conclude that hiring an ambassador would be redundant.
I should add that having served as the deputy head of a mission, chargé d'affaires, not once but twice, I feel I have a lot to contribute in regard to this topic. I look forward to continuing this discussion.