Deepak Obhrai

[March 20th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank the hon. member for Hamilton East—Stoney Creek for raising this issue. It has been followed very closely and with great intensity by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as numerous departmental officials in Ottawa and Beijing who are responsible for consular services and diplomatic relations with China.

I can assure the hon. member that the government will not stop pursuing the issue until satisfactory answers are received from the Chinese government regarding the rights and well-being of Canadian citizens in China.

Canada and China share important political, economic and social ties. Canada remains committed to strengthening this bilateral relationship. Given this relationship, our primary goal will always be to protect the interests of Canadians and to hold steadfast on our values. We understand China's considerable and growing importance to Canada and the world, both politically and economically, but we will not compromise our values.

For these reasons we remain committed to full and constructive relations with the government of the People's Republic of China whenever our interests are at stake. We will continue to push forward an open, honest and constructive dialogue aimed at the betterment of our relations.

Canada is engaged in a number of important discussions with China on a wide variety of matters complemented by high level visits. The Prime Minister met with the Chinese president in Vietnam. The Minister of Foreign Affairs met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Li on three occasions last year. The ministers of Agriculture and Natural Resources made official visits to China last year, and the ministers of International Trade and Finance have already visited this year.

Canada welcomed China's minister of labour last year. Parliamentary delegations visited China last year as well as twice this year. These ministerial and parliamentary contacts, as well as senior exchanges from the Canadian provinces, the private sector, municipalities and academia serve to entrench the growing practical cooperation between our two governments.

With regard to the case of Mr. Celil, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have both raised this case during their meetings with Chinese officials. During every one of the visits I mentioned earlier, Mr. Celil's case was raised at every opportunity.

Senior foreign affairs staff met with the Chinese ambassador and reaffirmed our requirement for access to and information about Mr. Celil. Senior bureaucrats and diplomatic staff continue to use every opportunity to raise this case with their Chinese counterparts. This will continue until we receive a satisfactory response from the Chinese government.

I would like to assure the hon. member that we are making every effort to obtain access to Mr. Celil in China. He is a Canadian and we will use every opportunity and every means we deem appropriate to confirm Mr. Celil's well-being to ensue that he is afforded due process and that his rights are respected.

[Foreign Affairs, February 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to report that Canada signed on to the agreement in Oslo, Norway to ban cluster bombs. Canada participated in it and now will work with that process to ensure that it becomes an international treaty.

[Foreign Affairs, February 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this assertion is absolutely ridiculous.

During the Liberal regime, when President Bush visited Canada, it was in the same spot as it is now. Due to security reasons and other things, that is the right spot for those medals. The assertions the member is making that it is a decision being made by the Conservative government is absolute nonsense.

[Foreign Affairs, February 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, February 19 the Minister of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the act of terrorism which saw two bombs explode aboard the Samjhauta Express, a train bound from India to Pakistan. Canada considers this attack to be a deplorable act of violence against innocent civilians and extends its sympathies to the families of the victims.

We are pleased that the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met as scheduled in New Delhi on February 21, showing that the peace process would not be derailed by terrorist attacks of this kind. We believe sustained action is necessary to undermine militants who wish to derail the peace process and use violence to advance their political goals.

The South Asian region is a priority sector for Canada's new Conservative government. I will spend the next three weeks in Pakistan and India and I look forward to working toward strengthening our political and economic relations.

[Development Assistance Accountability Act, February 20th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this subject goes to my heart. When I was a member of Parliament on the opposition side, I was the international development critic and also a member of the standing committee.

I do not mean to say that the essence of the bill and the intention of the member who presented it are wrong, but what really surprises me is that for 13 years the Liberals were in government and could have done all these things they are talking about today. None of them that I can remember sat over here talking about international development assistance. None of them came and told the CIDA ministers about what they are now asking this government to do. We can all make rhetorical statements and we can all make statements about this, but let us look at the record for a minute.

CIDA is a recognized and well respected body around the world. When we went with the member for Halifax to the Scandinavian countries with all the other donor countries, CIDA was recognized as one of the those efficient bodies that does give good aid out there.

The member for Halifax has just stated that we spend $3.1 billion of CIDA money. With all these things, CIDA has acquired a lot, but yes, there is always room for improvement, and today that is what we should discuss: room for improvement.

The problem here is that nobody is talking about the merits or demerits of the bill. They are talking about international development. They are talking about Africa. Both the member for Scarborough—Guildwood and the member for Halifax talked about their visits to Kenya.

That is the country where I grew up. That is the country where I spent most of my life. I have seen CIDA things there. Today they are talking about all this poverty out there. Yes, there is poverty out there, but there are many reasons why there is poverty out there. And yes, CIDA has been working for a long time, but those members stand here and now say that they are so stunned about all these things that are happening in Africa.

Yes, we have been working out there, but that is not the message of this bill. We understand that international development assistance can be delivered effectively. That is what we want to do. We are going to need more transparency, but we want to build on what we have achieved over many years and on what CIDA has done out there in working with Canadian NGOs.

We have excellent expertise here in Canada from the NGO community and from all the other communities that are involved in international development assistance. We need to ensure that we help them become more effective in what they need, but in what we are hearing here tonight, that is not the issue. The problem with this bill is that this is a flawed bill. This bill does not achieve the objective of what the members are saying here today about making poverty history.

Yes, we have been involved in making poverty history. I remember that it was the Conservative government that worked very hard to get Mr. Mandela out and free. Canada has been in the forefront in making poverty history. We all want to make poverty history, but that is not what this bill will do. That is why I want every listener to understand why this government is opposing this bill. This bill is not being opposed because its intent is wrong. This bill is being opposed because it is a flawed bill.

The member for Scarborough—Guildwood and the member for Halifax said they worked countless hours out there. I can tell members from being on that committee that they totally refused to listen to us. They totally refused to recognize that the ministers for CIDA and foreign affairs have gone out and made Canada proud of the contribution of international development assistance.

What we had there was one NGO group shepherding this thing, and even when the departmental officials came and outlined what was wrong with this bill and why this bill would create a tremendous number of problems, including a bureaucracy, and would have no transparency and would impact other areas of international development, the problem was that the members refused to listen.

The member for Scarborough—Guildwood just talked about the Senate report on Africa, which outlined that we need to do more in Africa, as was said. Yes, there are all those things, but the problem is that this bill will not do that.

There are other issues too. Let me tell the House about other areas in which Canada has been involved. Canada has been involved in the global partnership program, to which we have given $100 million. Canada has been involved in the global peace and security fund, in police training in Afghanistan and in investigating war crimes in Darfur.

Canada's international development assistance takes a bigger picture into account. This bill restricts all those things and creates another level of bureaucracy.

Those members have been members of Parliament for a long time and have been working for accountability as well. I am just flabbergasted that they did not recognize or are refusing to recognize what is wrong with this bill. Whatever they are trying to do will not be accomplished with this bill. That is why the Government of Canada is opposed to the bill.

The Government of Canada is not opposed to making poverty history. The Government of Canada is not opposed to making sure its aid dollars are more effectively spent. As a matter of fact, we have increased our aid budget by 8%. By the year 2010, it will be double the amount in 2001.

My colleague, the parliamentary secretary for international cooperation, outlined the problems with the bill. We wanted to work with the opposition to make the bill effective, but there was an attempt by the opposition to ram it through. When we ram through a bill, it becomes a flawed bill, which is why the Government of Canada cannot support the bill.

I would like to take this opportunity to say--

[Committees of the House, February 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in relation to Bill C-293, An Act respecting the provision of development assistance abroad. In accordance with its orders of reference of Wednesday, September 30, 2006, the committee has considered Bill C-293, and agreed on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 to report it with amendments.

[Sri Lanka, January 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada deeply regrets the return of active conflict in Sri Lanka and the consequences this has had for the safety of civilians. Canada has expressed these concerns to the Sri Lankan government.

The Sri Lankan president has created a commission of inquiry to investigate these reports. He has also agreed to the establishment of an international independent group of eminent persons to ensure that the work of the commission remains transparent, objective and credible.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs has accepted an invitation for Canada to participate in this initiative and has named Professor Bruce Matthews, a world renowned scholar and an expert on the nexus of religion, ethnicity and conflict in Sri Lanka, as the Canadian candidate to this group.

Canadian participation in the eminent persons group represents Canada's support for the Sri Lankan peace process through promotion of accountability and respect of human rights.

[January 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, again I tell my hon. friend that the Chinese government has assured us that it will abide by the international convention against torture and that it will not seek the death penalty for crimes allegedly committed in the territory of China.

We continue to seek reassurances from the highest level of the Chinese government regarding his continued well-being. We continue to raise this case at every opportunity.

Privacy concerns will not allow us to discuss the specifics of individual consular cases. Communications between sovereign states are confidential and we do not release this information.

[January 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank the hon. member for Mississauga South for raising this issue.

When Canadian citizens find themselves imprisoned in foreign lands, it is our responsibility to ensure that they are treated fairly and afforded due process.

Mr. Celil's case has indeed been in the forefront of our minds and it is being continuously raised in discussions with our Chinese counterparts. These efforts will not stop until we receive satisfactory assurances from the Chinese that they will afford Mr. Celil due process and that they will permit Canadian Embassy staff to visit him.

As the member already knows, the Prime Minister has raised this case personally with the Chinese President. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has raised this with his Chinese counterpart three times, the most recent being during the APEC meeting in Vietnam. At every given opportunity, whether it be an elected official or a Government of Canada employee, this issue is raised with the Chinese. We will continue to seek other means that we deem appropriate to acquire information about and access to Mr. Celil.

From the moment that we were advised of the possibility that Mr. Celil would be extradited from Uzbekistan to China, we advised the Chinese government of our interest in Mr. Celil's well-being as he is a Canadian citizen. They continue to insist that Mr. Celil is a Chinese citizen and subject to Chinese laws. China refuses to acknowledge his Canadian citizenship and maintains that Canada has no consular rights. They also refuse to advise us of the location of his incarceration or provide any information about his well-being.

However, the Chinese foreign minister has reassured the Minister of Foreign Affairs that they will abide by their commitments to the Uzbeki government made at the time of Mr. Celil's extradition. Those commitments were to abide by the international convention against torture and not to seek the death penalty for crimes allegedly committed in the territory of China. Chinese officials have advised us that their investigation continues, that no trial has taken place and that no sentence has been pronounced against Mr. Celil.

The Government of Canada will continue to engage the Chinese authorities to ensure that Mr. Celil's rights are upheld and respected. I can assure the hon. member that repeated representations have been made and will continue to be made to the Chinese authorities. In fact, in the first weeks of January of this year, the Minister of International Trade and the Minister of Finance visited China and raised Mr. Celil's case. At the same time, a parliamentary delegation consisting of MPs from both sides of the House raised this case on multiple occasions.

I can assure the member that Mr. Celil's case remains top priority for the Government of Canada, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs will continue to be involved personally in this case.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, December 11th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that the remaining questions be allowed to stand?