Foreign Affairs committee  You're of course a far greater expert on international law than I am, Mr. Cotler, but I think probably everyone would be very reluctant to take any steps down that road in the absence of a UN Security Council mandate. It's the only international body that has this kind of respons

Foreign Affairs committee  You've put your finger on a very significant problem. I'll let Leslie talk a little about the work they're doing and maybe add a comment or two at the end.

Foreign Affairs committee  You're quite right: START would be one. The International Development Research Centre is also right now funding a project that tries to bring together various members of the opposition to start thinking about these very issues of governance and constitution-writing, and about wha

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll make just one very small remark: both sides have been willing to meet with the UN special envoy—both Mr. Annan and Mr. Brahimi—but what they aren't willing to do is negotiate with the other side, either directly or through him. But they are willing to meet with him. I just w

Foreign Affairs committee  In the absence of the UN Security Council agreement to adopt measures, frankly, all that can be done is the kind of moral pressure that we saw in the General Assembly resolution that was adopted a few weeks ago—I forget the date of it—calling on the regime to change its ways and

Foreign Affairs committee  The regime's actions caught everyone's attention, but that's one we know about. There is reason to believe that other such actions have taken place, but of course because the international media is not given access, not allowed into the country, not able to move around freely, th

Foreign Affairs committee  The information that is available to me indicates that it was components related to the radar system that you use to control an air defence system. It was addressed to the Syrian ministry of defence. As I say, Turkey undertook that action. They also, by the way, recently stoppe

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, it's very difficult to respond to your question, sir, without in fact venturing into controversy. In this part of the world, even the kinds of words one uses to describe problems can get you into difficulties, because they betray what some might allege are biases in your ap

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll let my colleague respond.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have any information on that specifically, but I can ask my colleagues to prepare a report, if you like. Leslie has some information.

Foreign Affairs committee  The contribution was $250,000.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't know. I can check how much their contributions were. To some extent, it depends on the mission budget. If half the budget was provided, perhaps only one other country contributed the same amount. I will check.

Foreign Affairs committee  I've heard of cluster munitions being used, but not at that particular place on the border with Turkey.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, indeed, there has been. In fact, this is one of the main strands of work of the Friends of the Syrian People grouping, in which Canada is participating, along with quite a large number of countries. One of the working groups of the Friends of the Syrian People.... The Friend

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me address the question about Turkey, and then I'll turn it over to Leslie. Turkey has been extremely concerned from the very beginning about what's going on in Syria. You may recall that in the early stages of the conflict they made pretty significant efforts to persuade Ba