André Ouellet

[Haiti, June 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition asked a similar question some time ago, when he spoke out in favour of military intervention. We prefer a peaceful solution. We want to avoid killing people, if at all possible. There has already been too much of that in Haiti. We hope that we will be able to make the military listen to reason and persuade them to leave and let president Aristide come back to his country, but without endangering the lives of the Haitian people who are now very vulnerable, in a situation that could degenerate into armed conflict.

[Questions On The Order Paper, May 30th, 1994]

(a) Participants list is included. (b) The costs which are noted reflect budgeted costs. The actual expenditures have yet to be calculated since claims for all of the participants are not yet in. Our preliminary assessment is that the actual costs will be, for the most part, under budget.

Parliamentarians-$9,892.00 X 6. Ukraine specialists- $10,600 (Including travel to Ottawa for a briefing) X 7. Monitors (42 days)-$25,700 (Including travel to Ottawa for a briefing and professional fees) X 2.

(c) Total costs $184,952.00.

Canadian observers for legislative elections in Ukraine

March 27, 1994

Following observers were in Ukraine for the period March 21-31:

1. Mr. Jesse Flis, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, (LIB)-Mission Head

2. Ms. Carolyn Parrish (LIB)

3. Mr. André Caron (BQ)

4. Mr. John Loney (LIB)

5. Mr. Walter Lastewka (LIB)

6. Senator Marcel Prud'homme (IND)

7. Mr. Oleh Romaniew, President of the Ukraine-Canadian Congress

8. Ms. Alexandra Chycozij (Toronto, Ontario)

9. Mr. Myroslav Tracz (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

10. Mr. Victor Nachoneshny (Edmonton, Alberta)

11. Mr. Andrew Hluchowecky, Information Section, Ukraine-Canadian Congress (Ottawa, Ontario)

12. Ms. Patricia Sembaliuk, (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

13. Mr. Orest Dubas, Editor Ukraine-Canada Policy and Trade Monitor (Montreal, Quebec)

Following monitors were in Ukraine for the period from March 6 to April 16:

1. Mr. Bill Mukanik, federal Returning Officer

2. Mr. Don Slobodzian, former provincial Returning Officer (Alberta)

[Peacekeeping, May 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the hon. member that Canadian policy calls for the equitable sharing of peacekeeping costs by all member states of the UN.

I remind the hon. member that the U.S. administration has recently published a presidential decision, directive 25, which reaffirms that the U.S. intends to pay its full arrears in a timely manner. I believe this should be acknowledged as a substantial step forward.

We will be discussing with the Americans and with other countries the best way to make sure that all UN members pay their fair share of peacekeeping missions throughout the world.

[Foreign Affairs, May 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, from a distance, it is very difficult for Canada to enforce this embargo.

One of the best-known ways to get around the embargo is through the border with the Dominican Republic. We cannot enforce this embargo at the border with the Dominican Republic. However, we have told the authorities that, if they want, we will help establish a United Nations force that could enforce this embargo along the border with the Dominican Republic.

[Foreign Affairs, May 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, in the last few days, I met with Mr. Caputo, the official representative of the UN Secretary General for the Haitian question, to discuss initiatives that could be taken to reinforce the complete blockade of Haiti and prepare for the return of President Aristide as soon as possible.

Of course, this must be done in co-operation with other countries and Mr. Caputo will meet with representatives of Haiti's four friends to establish a common position.

[Olympic Games, May 12th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to announce that the Government of Canada will appoint as ambassador a career diplomat whose only mandate will be to help Quebec City in its bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The Department of Foreign Affairs will provide logistical and technical assistance to Quebec City, as we did in the past for other Canadian cities that wanted to host the Olympic Games. I am convinced that this ambassador, who will be appointed after consultations with Quebec City's organizing committee for 2002, will be an invaluable asset to Quebec City in its bid to host the Olympic Games.

[Haiti, May 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the hon. member that according to the Governors Island agreement, under the United Nations a mission of police officers was supposed to be sent to Haiti to assist the Haitian authorities in forming a police corps that could complement the work of the government in ensuring a stable democratic government in counterbalance to the influence of the military forces.

It is in this spirit of the Governors Island agreement that Canada has agreed to send RCMP officers to take part in this operation. Indeed, we will honour our commitment in this regard whenever the forces return.

We have not talked about sending military forces and this is not an option that we are considering at the moment.

[Haiti, May 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, as you know, the United Nations passed a resolution to impose a first set of sanctions against the military regime in Haiti. It has a period of time to comply and if it does not comply, full sanctions will be imposed against Haiti.

In the meantime diplomatic efforts are being made in order to obtain the co-operation of the Dominican Republic in order to ensure that the border is totally closed so that the military is not receiving products that it should not get because of the sanctions.

We have every reason to believe that the Dominican Republic is going to co-operate and adhere to the UN sanctions.

[Foreign Affairs, May 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the Leader of the Opposition that in our discussions yesterday with the U.S. ambassador to the UN, we reviewed a series of initiatives that have been taken in order to make sure that President Aristide returns to Haiti.

It is quite clear that if we want to follow the agreement of Governors Island, at some point there will have to be the return of police forces to assist in re-establishing democracy in Haiti.

I suspect that the hon. member is misinterpreting when he talks about forces. We are not talking about military forces. We are talking about police forces that should go back to Haiti. I draw this to his attention.

Clearly our objective is to implement the Governors Island agreement. Canada is fully supportive of this. We have been in the forefront in making sure that sanctions are applied and that total sanctions are imposed by the UN. We are quite pleased that diplomacy and our representations now have the full support of the American government.

[Foreign Affairs, May 10th, 1994]

He may call this zigzagging, but I can assure him that the Government of Canada is prepared to do whatever zigzagging it takes to get President Aristide back to his country. With our allies, and more specifically with Haiti's friends, we are pursuing a series of measures to convince the Haitian military that they cannot usurp the government, they cannot keep depriving the people of a democratic government, and that we will continue our efforts, first of all with measures we feel are effective, in other words, a total embargo, to bring back President Aristide.

If this approach is not successful, we will consider the next alternative. For the time being, we have not changed our position, and we continue to believe that total sanctions will be successful as a way to take power away from the military in that country.