Foreign Affairs committee  You've already given us that information in your testimony. Do you have anything else to add?

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses for being here today. I'd like to start with Mr. Tieku. You talked about the AU's “Agenda 2063”. You touched upon it at a very high level. Do you mind elaborating a bit on its strategy for us at this committee?

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that's really helpful. The point on education is really salient, especially since, from the testimony, we know that the average age on the continent is 18. You touched upon “Agenda 2063”. In terms of other strategies and frameworks—this is for all the witnesses—are there any that you want to highlight for us?

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a very good way of looping into the testimony we heard last time. Focusing on the five regional areas, do you think we should have a presence in each of them?

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the witnesses for being here today. I would like to focus on governance. Mr. Black, you can comment on this. There will be 13 elections coming up in Africa in 2024, to my knowledge. You said that Canada has played a unique role in the G7 in the past.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly. This is the committee of foreign affairs and international development. I would suggest that trade, especially, supports foreign affairs and whatnot. Mr. Kianza, can you explain how economic relations support diplomatic relations and build closer relationships between nations?

Foreign Affairs committee  So we did increase—

Foreign Affairs committee  That's helpful. In terms of UNRWA, just to set the record straight, my understanding on the dates is Mr. Hussen announced that we would be pausing future funding to UNRWA on December 6 and more recently in March. But don't take my dates here. Several weeks ago, if not months, Minister Hussen announced that we would pause future funding to UNRWA because of allegations of 12 employees who were involved in the October 7 attack.

Foreign Affairs committee  So we have no idea who committed those crimes of sexual violence. Do we have any idea?

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd like to thank the witnesses, Mr. Lévêque and his team, for being here. I would like to touch upon the minister's recent trip to Israel, the West Bank and the region. I took note of a number of tweets and social media posts about some of the accomplishments of the minister's trip.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Mr. Juneau, I'd like to ask you what we have learned about dealing with people who have a cloud over them, such as these individuals in northeast Syria. What have we learned in the last 20 years about how to deal with these individuals? I think, for example, of what some countries in the Middle East have done to de-radicalize people.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to start with Ms. Deif. You raised consular issues in a region of the world that we don't often talk about in this committee and in the public space. It brings me back to the cases of a number of Canadians years ago. These are cases like Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati, Muayyed Nureddin and Omar Khadr.

Black History Month  Mr. Speaker, February is Black History Month. All year round, but in this month in particular, we highlight the contributions of Black Canadians and Black excellence. In Pierrefonds—Dollard, we have a number of luminaries. Joan Lee is the president of the West Island Black Community Association.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for that. In my remaining time, I want to ask you about Canada's presence today over the last eight-plus years with respect to being involved in multilateral organizations like the UN, UNHCR, the G7, the G20, etc., and how that contrasted with the previous governments of the past and the work we're doing to actually be at that stage with other countries at multilateral fora.