Foreign Affairs committee  I can say that Canada and Canadians have been involved in that regard for some time. The one action that I'm most aware of comes through an Ottawa-based group called the Institute on Governance, which had for many years, even ongoing now, a contract with the UNDP to support the I

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much for that question. In the long term, I don't believe that Iraq will be in need of external assistance, because it is a wealthy country. Under normal circumstances, it's a country that can provide for all its own needs. Under the current circumstances, it does

Foreign Affairs committee  Again, I don't want to speak for the Russian government. As you and everyone know, Russia has played a significant and visible role in terms of supporting the government of President Assad in Syria, and that's obviously not an approach that we would share. We have been encouragi

Foreign Affairs committee  We believe they pose a threat not only in Iraq and Syria but also to the whole region. Indeed globally, they're a threat to all of us. I remind the committee that ISIL is an extremist Sunni group whose goal is the establishment of a single transnational Islamic state based on sh

Foreign Affairs committee  Kurdistan for many years, including during the time I served there, between 2010 and 2013, was a place of refuge for thousands and thousands of Iraqis who felt they needed a haven. That's only been augmented by the recent crisis. I don't know that I would characterize one commun

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't know that I want to speak for the entire Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. As you can see here, there are many different players. I would just like to keep it to the fact that there is constant consultation, but I'm not going to address every single de

Foreign Affairs committee  There's a high degree of consultation and coordination right across the government. But as I've said, ultimately it's for ministers and the Prime Minister to set the strategic direction.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like to come back to the point of how we got here. You mentioned the point in the speech where we talked about how the previous government under Prime Minister al-Maliki had marginalized and in fact created the conditions for a good percentage of the population to be feel

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't want to characterize Turkey's role; I think it's for them to do so. They are an important player in the Middle East. They're certainly part of a broader effort to bring a successful resolution to this problem. In terms of characterizing how big or small a role they're pl

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me first speak to the question of the strategic goal, which I would defer to the Prime Minister, who pretty much laid it out clearly. Let me just remind you of what he said. He said that we intend to “significantly degrade the capabilities of ISIL” to halt its spread in the r

Foreign Affairs committee  The second question is one that, with all due respect, I'd like to allow ministers to speak to on Thursday. It's at that meeting that the focus will be on the military dimension. Today we're prepared to speak to all the non-military aspects of our activities. In terms of Syria,

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd like to be able to give you a lot of detail, but this is a meeting that the Russians are not offering a lot of information on.

Foreign Affairs committee  They're trying to maintain a lot of discretion around the event, so I don't have a lot to speak to you about. A track 1.5 would be different than the traditional government-to-government style negotiation where you have official government representatives from a number of state

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't want to speak for the Russian government, but my assumption is that they're working to end the violence and promote some form of reconciliation—

Foreign Affairs committee  —that could lead to an end to the crisis.