Foreign Affairs committee  We don't have a number that we're confident to put out there publicly yet, because one of the things that was different from this wave of protests compared to earlier waves of protests we've often seen in Iran is that it was truly nationwide, including in a lot of small towns and

Foreign Affairs committee  We're certainly looking for governments, including the Canadian government, to be forceful and outspoken, and importantly, I would say, to do so in concert. We know that Iran is an example of a country where bilateral, one-on-one efforts by a particular state are, perhaps, not go

Foreign Affairs committee  We don't do a numeric ranking because it's impossible to do so. Academics have tried to see if there's a way you can take all the data and come up with a ranking, but it's impossible. We don't do so, so I won't say that it is the worst, that it's in the bottom 10 or the bottom 20

Foreign Affairs committee  I will just wrap up by referring to two other recommendation in the protection charter, each of which deals with issues that often get a bit overlooked when we consider the consular realm. The first is justice after release. Once freed and back to family and safety in Canada, und

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, committee members. It's always a pleasure to be in front of this committee. I very much welcome the opportunity to address you on this issue. I want to begin by highlighting to you that in the course of my 18 years now—I'm getting

International Trade committee  Absolutely.

International Trade committee  We do regularly highlight human rights concerns in Canada. In fact, next week, on February 6, we'll be releasing our annual “Human Rights Agenda for Canada”, which does raise serious concerns—

International Trade committee  —on a number of issues. Right at the top of the list, of course, would be indigenous rights, especially if we're thinking about an area where there is an implication around commercial activities, etc.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. The scale is obviously different, particularly with some countries, such as Colombia, where indigenous peoples are, in some instances, on the brink of extinction, but I also want to highlight here that when we talk about the need for human rights impact assessments of

International Trade committee  You may not be surprised to hear me say this. Obviously we don't have much to say about the trade-related aspects of their work, but we have repeatedly said with all of those of trade infrastructure arms of government, there's a need for greater attention to human rights in how t

International Trade committee  We have done a lot of that over the years. It's obviously nowhere near as extensive or comprehensive as it could be. We simply don't have the capacity to be engaged in that way, but we have over the years directly engaged with individual companies on their operations in countries

International Trade committee  I want to make it clear that we don't necessarily disagree fundamentally on some of the key aspects here. Amnesty International is not saying with respect to the Pacific Alliance—or really any trading proposal—don't do it, don't enter into trade, and don't have freer trade. We're

International Trade committee  I'll bridge back to Mr. Allison's question at the outset as to what the benefit might be of something that's multilateral as opposed to bilateral. The fact is that the only agreement of the four that exist that has any attention to human rights is the Colombia deal, and it's woef

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question, because that is very much on our minds. The human rights provisions in the free trade agreement we have with Colombia are unique. It's the only trade deal Canada has with those provisions included. It was an opportunity, but sadly in our view, at the

International Trade committee  That's not the nature of the concern.