Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to present before this distinguished committee. Distinguished members of the committee, contrary to government claims, Canada does not have one of the strongest export control systems in the world. This is not a matter of opini

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Madame Laverdière. I would agree with that assessment. It would be beneficial for the minister himself or herself to have those hard limits on the discretion for arms export authorization. I want to clarify this point because I have the sense that perhaps we're foc

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank, you again, Madame Laverdière. That's a great question. First of all, I've heard this notion about retaining flexibility as being a key rationale for doing it through regulations because we need to be flexible in situations as circumstances change, etc. It's a seductive ar

Foreign Affairs committee  No. My position is that it would not be necessary to include such language. The best basis for this claim is the treaty itself, because there is nothing in the treaty that explicitly or implicitly indicates a threat to Canadians' lawful gun ownership.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much for that very good question. I wasn't here for the first hour, so I'm not sure what concerns were raised by the earlier witnesses. I do know from our conversations with other colleagues and like-minded organizations in Canada who have testified before this com

Foreign Affairs committee  Thanks for the question. Yes. I am aware that some sectors have concerns about the impact the Arms Trade Treaty may have in terms of the rights of legal, lawful gun owners in Canada. The first point I will make is that this is not a conversation that is exclusive to Canada. In t

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. My name is Cesar Jaramillo. I am the executive director of Project Ploughshares. Thank you very much to all members of the committee for the kind invitation to address you. I've given a title to my brief remarks, which is “Bill C-47: if left un