Foreign Affairs committee  Well, that's certainly what people in governments are looking to justify in supporting this opposition leader. As I said, I understand that. However, it's not a normal healthy procedure internationally for our government or any other government to get involved in putting pressu

Foreign Affairs committee  The only point I would add to that is the question of regulating institutions or multinational corporations like Facebook, for example, to head off the future use of this kind of technology in a way that undermines our elections and other elections around the world by creating di

Foreign Affairs committee  Would you like to ask me a different question? That's an immensely complex issue. I've normally been on the side, in terms of international law and government, that whatever group happens to be in control of the major institutions—parliaments, courts, armies—whether we like tha

Foreign Affairs committee  I would agree with all of that.

Foreign Affairs committee  If you look at the Rights and Democracy act, you can see that very careful attention was paid to this question about the tenure of appointments, the accountability of the institution to Parliament—not just to the government—and the representation of non-Canadians on the board tha

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, that's what they were in the past and there was consultation between the government and opposition parties. The government still made the decision, but there was serious consultation with the leaders of opposition parties to try to make sure that the appointments that were

Foreign Affairs committee  The act creating Rights and Democracy had that as a requirement. There was an annual report that went to Parliament. The institute was audited by the Auditor General annually as well.

Foreign Affairs committee  It was a mix. Especially in the early years, when Joe Clark was foreign affairs minister, there was active emphasis on human rights in developing countries. The embassies collaborated with us and had their own independent assessments. When we would go into a country, or when I wo

Foreign Affairs committee  To look back on the foundations is good in this case, because the foundations were excellent. I didn't work on the committee at the time—I was party leader—but I can say it was a remarkable all-party report in the 1980s, with a lot of enthusiasm, which led to the creation of Ri

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it is. To be quite candid, I had discussions with Mr. Mulroney when he offered to appoint me as the founding president. For reasons everybody will understand, the board in a broad sense had to be accepting of me going into that position. There were very good and frank dis

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, and if I may say, my fellow colleagues or former colleagues, it's good to be back here, especially in consideration of such an important subject. I appreciate the opportunity of sharing some thoughts on how Canada can best support democratic development internationa

Electoral Reform committee  First of all, I think it could exist without changing the boundaries, but I don't think that would be preferable. I think that some modification in the boundaries for individual MPs would probably be desirable, but not necessary. Then you have the regional component. It depends

Electoral Reform committee  But you're not going to allow the answer.

Electoral Reform committee  Let me pick up on the dictatorial aspect of it. There have been, in academic literature on what has been going on since World War II, observations about the parliamentary system increasing centralization into the office of the prime minister, not just in our system in Canada bu

Electoral Reform committee  Well, I don't want to bore the committee with a repetition of what I've already said or what is in the brief about the values that are outlined in our own brief and by Professor Dawood. I agree with these as underlying values that should be respected. I also agree with the commen