Finance committee  Mr. Chair, my name is Olivier Nicoloff. I am the Director, Democracy, Commonwealth and Francophonie Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. On April 3, the Government of Canada announced its intention to close Rights and Democracy as part of its ef

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I would say we are dealing today with a situation, with a world that is quite different from the one we knew in 1988 when Rights and Democracy was established. You're talking about the role that NGOs can play abroad. In fact, NGOs are much more active

Finance committee  Thank you for your comments about our work. It's appreciated. I would say that the capacity that we have at DFAIT to work with different NGOs is now much bigger than it used to be in the past. In many cases we're working with Canadian NGOs, but we're working also directly with o

Finance committee  For this year it's too early to say as we are looking to the closure and the commitment the organization still has. As for next year, this will depend on how far we may be able to go with a proposal we can make to the minister, and the decisions the minister will make regarding t

Finance committee  Rapidly, I can think of two significant changes, and they're linked to the influence NGOs have today. We're working very strongly on the question of the role civil society should play in any society. As we know, most of the repressive regimes do not give any possibility for their

Finance committee  Its total is about $9.8 million, yes, half and half between DFAIT and—

Finance committee  Not at this stage, no.

Finance committee  Thank you for this question. We're working with a wide range of organizations. We're working with the Parliamentary Centre, with International IDEA. There is an extended range of different organizations we can work with. The minister has also indicated that some of the functio

Finance committee  Thank you again for the question. One thing I would like to make specific is that Rights and Democracy was an arm's length organization from the government, so in that sense it would not represent the Government of Canada. It's too early at this stage for me to be able to say th

Finance committee  It could have happened. They were not talking on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Finance committee  Thank you. I don't have a specific example in mind, but Rights and Democracy was operating within a mandate that was established by the legislation and guidance of its board of directors. So for its operation, the director and his staff were reporting to its board and not to the

Finance committee  It would be difficult for me, really, to speak on behalf of the director of Rights and Democracy, Mr. Gérard Latulippe. I know he wanted to focus more on the democracy mandates of the organization, as opposed to human rights, and also on taking Rights and Democracy more toward th

Finance committee  I don't think it's for me to answer that question. We will obviously make recommendations to the minister, and the minister will take the decision, which we will be responsible for implementing.

Finance committee  Thank you. I haven't personally heard very specific reaction. This is really very much a world in transition. It was known that Rights and Democracy had its share of problems. The minister made very specific reference to that and felt that it was really time now to move behind th

Finance committee  Well, the difficulties with Rights and Democracy can certainly be associated with the relationship between the board of directors and the actual staff and management. To say there were no problems before I think would be.... There were also difficulties in the past. I mean, in an