National Defence committee  First of all, let me say that the kind and courteous words you hear across a diplomatic table are not always 100% the case. We're not naive in terms of hearing some words from North Koreans and assuming that they absolutely consider us to be peaceful and friendly, but they are so

National Defence committee  Indeed the OSCE, which is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, is one of the network of multilateral institutions that are important in promoting European security and stability. Those are absent in the Asia context. The absence of those kinds of security inf

National Defence committee  Most certainly, we are committed to the kind of confidence-building measures that the OSCE provides in Europe. We would think that those would be very welcome in an Asian context as well.

National Defence committee  Well, I can't speak for the view in Pyongyang. I can only tell you that in the discussions that have taken place—they haven't been plentiful discussions, but there have been some with the North Korean regime—they tell us that they don't see us as a threat. That's what we are basi

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me preface my answer, if I could, with a brief comment for the rest of the committee, just to note that you are referring to the smallest subset possible of consular cases that Ms. Jeffrey referred to. She was talking about millions of Canadians abroad. We are talking about 2

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, indeed, it is the policy of the government. In fact, the Criminal Code gives the authority to the government to investigate and prosecute anyone who abducts a Canadian anywhere in the world. The responsibility to lead the investigation and to do any prosecution falls upon th

Foreign Affairs committee  As Ms. Jeffrey pointed out, we're not in a position to speak about the particularities of individual cases, but you are quite right that the question of misuse or mistreatment or torture is a major priority for us in terms of handling these cases. The one case that I can speak a

Foreign Affairs committee  No. In fact, the grounds for the Supreme Court decision were based on the fact that the visits that took place were not consular visits. They were Canadians who were there who participated in interrogations. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a consular case per se. But we did learn i

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not in a position to give you chapter and verse what happened in those years. It's not, strictly speaking, a consular case, so we didn't come equipped today to deal with that level of question. I would offer one further point, which is to say that at the time, we did request

Foreign Affairs committee  As has been noted many times this morning, every case is different in particular with regard to critical incidents. They are all unique, they're snowflakes, but they are unspeakable turmoils for the families involved and, obviously, the individuals. We try to work on the basis of

Foreign Affairs committee  What I said was that we have anecdotal evidence in the sense that we have isolated incidents where we have learned that money, from other parties, received by an organization through ransom contributed to its ability to launch further kidnap-for-ransom operations. However, in ter

Foreign Affairs committee  As I mentioned earlier on, we've had 20 such cases, unfortunately, over the last decade. In that time we've learned to work very well together with the RCMP, the military, and our intelligence services to refine how we approach these so-called critical incidents. Not in every si

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be with you here today to speak about Canada's involvement in peacekeeping. Though my presentation will include some historical context, I'll try to concentrate on what has changed from conventional peacekeeping and how Canada is working

National Defence committee  Let me begin by saying that, while you were in Iraq, I was ambassador to Iraq in 2010 to 2013, and I certainly noticed the same dynamic, the political complexity that you referred to. This reminds me, and I would like to make the point to the committee that, fundamentally, all of

National Defence committee  Well, first let me say that our commitment to a country like Mali or Iraq isn't defined by a period of time when we may have military or police deployed. Our commitment stands a much longer period of time, and in the case of Mali, we've been a major development assistance contrib