Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Bonjour, tout le monde. On behalf of the Canadian members of the Control Arms Coalition, first let me thank you for taking up this issue and for inviting us to appear as witnesses today. Oxfam works in 95 countries around the world. We've see

Foreign Affairs committee  Perhaps I can add that we hope it will cover all weapons and ammunition, components of weapon systems, and that it will be comprehensive. We hope the criteria will cover three key areas: it will take into account international human rights law, international humanitarian law rega

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't worry seriously about it, because frankly this is about the international trade in weapons; it's not about domestic regulation. I think Canada has actually provided useful clarification that it should not be about domestic ownership of guns, but it is about the internatio

Foreign Affairs committee  I confess I'm not a lawyer and an expert in the drafting of treaty negotiations, but I will say that the proposed solution of including preamble language sounds right to me, as long as it's clearly in the preamble and allows us to get beyond what we consider a misconception that

Foreign Affairs committee  As far as I know, but I'm not an expert on this.

Foreign Affairs committee  Most certainly. The weapons that we would consider to be for civilian use are commonly used by criminals in developing countries, and I would say in many countries. They're used by criminals and by terrorists. I think the Canadian government's approach that we heard about ear

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. I will make my comments in English, but I will be pleased to answer your questions in either official language. Oxfam is present in over 90 countries in the world, and has been present in Mali for many

Foreign Affairs committee  As you know, Canadian diplomats are not in the business of delivering humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian agencies do that, and United Nations agencies in particular.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly, if we're coordinating—your own intelligence and understanding of the situation would be limited if there aren't Canadian personnel providing that to you. We're doing our best to bring our partial understanding of the situation to you today. I don't know exactly—and p

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm referring to how the conflict itself has an impact on neighbouring countries. The most direct, obvious impact is when people cross the border and have to be taken care of. We have hundreds of thousands of people who had to flee their homes, who are now living in neighbouring

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, Oxfam certainly is providing assistance there. I believe I met colleagues with CARE—

Foreign Affairs committee  I believe the Canadian government provides support via the United Nations agencies.

Foreign Affairs committee  Once the conflict is over, when people are no longer killing each other, there will be a phase of reconstruction, of rehabilitation.

Foreign Affairs committee  Most people actually are pastoralists; they herd goats or other animals. So it's not exactly a farm, and many of them are nomadic. They will have lost many of their assets, which are their animals, because they don't have anywhere to sell them now and there is a shortage, of cour

Foreign Affairs committee  That may have a role. We've provided animals to people, veterinary services. That's something that Oxfam does regularly when people are recovering from a drought or a conflict. Once they've recovered, it's important to make sure that the markets are actually functioning, that is,