Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of your last comment, I have nothing to say. It's up to the committee, as far as I'm concerned, to decide whether and how to conduct its own business, and I have nothing to say on that. When it comes to the Canadian Middle East foreign policy, sure, that's something aga

Foreign Affairs committee  I will attempt to answer those three questions. The first question has to do with the organizations. Within the Middle East there is a dispute among many players, unfortunately, about the existence of the State of Israel. It's the only state in the United Nations whose very exi

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. We do have a funny structure right now in the sense that we have an organization that is fully government funded, has its civil service salaries, purpose, unionization, but that thinks of itself in many ways as an NGO and wants to function as an NGO in terms of policy and di

Foreign Affairs committee  Obviously, this is very much a matter of concern to me. I came here saying the problem is that there's a dispute about the independence of the board from the staff. The board has to assert itself. I proposed a number of resolutions dealing with this issue. Of course, there's th

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of B'Tselem, I did a memorandum for the board, for the resolution that I presented at the board meeting of January 7, asking for repudiation of the grants. I have filed that memorandum with this committee. It talks about B'Tselem. I have it on my screen and I could read

Foreign Affairs committee  This is what I write. I said that its reports are politicized and tendentious. It identified casualties according to their activities at their moment of death, and therefore describes Palestinians, while not engaged in hostilities, as civilians. Among those listed in this categor

Foreign Affairs committee  We obviously disagree about the nature of the work of B'Tselem. I invite you to look at the writing and research that I've done on it, which, as I say, I filed with the committee. I'm happy to engage you further on this.

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, I will respond in English. Although I speak French, the interpreters speak it far better than I.

Foreign Affairs committee  An inquiry, yes, I agree. But we have an inquiry. Jacques Gauthier, when he was acting president, ordered an inquiry through Deloitte & Touche. The issue is not whether there should be an inquiry, but who is doing it and what its terms of reference are. What Deloitte &

Foreign Affairs committee  Since I addressed this issue, I certainly don't mind answering it. The performance review that was sent to the Privy Council was an advisory one; it wasn't constitutive, and the actual decisions on the performance review were made by the Privy Council. The decisions were about a

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me to appear. I was appointed to the board of Rights and Democracy in November 2009. My first board meeting was January 7 and 8, 2010. The evening of the first day of that meeting the president, Rémy Beauregard, tragically died of a h