Foreign Affairs committee  Many trips—

Foreign Affairs committee  Okay, I will be fast. It goes by the action we may or may not take. If we take no action, and I agree that we are already taking action, if we don't continue those actions and reinforce some of them, we're going to disappear from the scene and the people who are active will take the prize.

Foreign Affairs committee  That word “neutrality” was a little bit too strong.

Foreign Affairs committee  If the decision of the government is to do all of that for the next period, and that's what we see at the end of my proposal, we should do those things. I agree that we should not send boots by the hundreds and things like that, but we should have logistics support and transport if we can, and so forth.

Foreign Affairs committee  In the paper recently, I saw that we had a plane and we had some of the logistics. I was very prudent in not saying total neutrality; I said it's quasi. I don't want us to be neutral. I want to go further than that. I could have used other words.

Foreign Affairs committee  There's no doubt that what's happening now will definitely determine if they are able to respect that calendar. I must admit that in countries where there has been conflict, it's always very challenging to respect election dates. I'm not saying it never happens on the right dates.

Foreign Affairs committee  As I said to one of your colleagues before the meeting, I'm a missionary for Africa in Canada. I think the mission is having a number of successes. I think I would not repeat exactly the same words on that one. I think in the last year or so, I definitely have felt a renewed interest in Africa by the Government of Canada.

Foreign Affairs committee  No.

Foreign Affairs committee  You're preaching to the converted. I'd like to have more missions. I'll tell you a short story. Ten years ago, we were exactly where Brazil was with 17 missions. We are now at 14, and they are at 32. All I'm saying is that I'd like to be like Brazil today. I don't know if we'll get there.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, good morning. I'll just give you my background in Africa. I think I am the only Canadian who has ever graduated from the University of Rwanda, so it goes a few years back, just a few years back, fortunately, but Africa has been a little bit in my blood since then.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll give you two examples. Madam Ramazani was here from Congo, and nous parlons la semaine passée about violence against women. I've been in RDC, and I see how tough it is. I think there are companies who are working in the same field and are trying to help and are making initiatives—and Canada should do more.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's right. These are the things that will help people. Who is the biggest backer of that? It's Lundin Mining of Vancouver. So the ramifications of what we do are everywhere. But without CIDA in many of those projects, they will not see the light of the day.

Foreign Affairs committee  I've heard about that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Is that a question? Can I answer it?

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, if we go in that direction, it will be the fourth place where we are going to hurt Africa, because we are going to be stopping a lot of good investment with good intentions and good deeds.