International Trade committee  Hello. Thank you for having us here today. We're going to speak about two issues that are part of the committee's study from the perspective of our organization, which provides medical assistance to people affected by crises in more than 70 countries around the world. First, Ca

International Trade committee  The immediate answer to that is that we need countries that have secured doses of COVID vaccine to be committing to making donations of a certain percentage of the shipments they will be receiving. The world is, quite frankly, facing a massive inequity in access that's in motion

International Trade committee  Canada should not be taking doses from the COVAX facility as part of this round of dose distributions. It's appropriate for Canada to be a purchaser through the COVAX facility, but Canada also procured a large number of doses through bilateral agreements, and those have impeded C

International Trade committee  We would emphasize that Canada actually acted quite quickly in enacting domestic legislation that gave the Canadian government the ability to issue compulsory licences. This happened early on in the pandemic. This was prior to there being any vaccines or therapeutics that were ap

International Trade committee  Well, it's exactly that. Canada can simply support the passage of the waiver so that countries that are facing potential legal barriers have that risk removed. This is fundamentally what the TRIPS waiver is about: removing the legal risk of a company or a country pursuing domesti

Afghanistan committee  Thank you for having us at tonight's hearing. Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, is an international medical and humanitarian organization that has provided exclusively independent, impartial and neutral humanitarian assistance since 1971 in a manner cons

Afghanistan committee  I'm happy to answer the question. We maintain a line of dialogue with the Canadian government through Global Affairs Canada on a variety of different humanitarian crises, including in Afghanistan. As part of our mandate, we share information on unmet humanitarian needs and try t

Afghanistan committee  As I said, it's a very standard open dialogue with the sharing of press releases, the sharing of information on unmet humanitarian needs, on realities that we were seeing on the ground. There was dialogue with Global Affairs throughout the summer and the fall, and that's ongoing.

Afghanistan committee  I'll ask my colleague to answer that question, please.

Afghanistan committee  Certainly. We will make a written submission to the committee, but we want to emphasize—and I think several witnesses have spoken about this—the impact of sanctions and anti-terror laws and how these sanctions and anti-terror laws, as they apply in Afghanistan, need to be placed

Afghanistan committee  I want to reiterate that our activities in Afghanistan are privately funded, so our perspective on this is slightly different from organizations that are receiving Canadian government funding. MSF is unique in that situation and slightly different. However, with regard to Canada'

Afghanistan committee  Yes, we would agree. Obstacles need to be removed to ensure that humanitarian organizations are able to do their work and respond to needs on the ground.

Afghanistan committee  I will ask my colleague Ms. Flokstra to respond, please.

Afghanistan committee  Just so I understand your question, are you asking when was the last time we met with a minister?

Afghanistan committee  We haven't met with a minister, I don't believe, since the election. It would have been sometime in late 2021.