Foreign Affairs committee  I'm a little hesitant to talk about the democracy in Thailand. I'm not so sure. They're having elections on March 24, so let's hope they are successful. I think there are always challenges. I don't think it always has to be a monarch. Some people say to me that Canada has a quee

Foreign Affairs committee  Canada is seen as a country with long-standing democratic principles, ones by which we have managed a diverse country, a multilingual country. You have so many challenges, of course, to address. However, I think, as my colleague said, being a country that was not a colonial power

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm going to provide a very specific example that I share very often when I am working in the field of women's political empowerment, which I know may seem odd, but in the international field if you can bring the perspective of different countries it's valued no matter your gende

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there are two reasons, which I think I talked a bit about in my written submission. Obviously, if you're going to invest in a country and democratic reform, it will take time. It will take more than one electoral cycle. You'll need to be building champions within Parliame

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Ms. Vandenbeld. It is good to see you again, even if it is halfway around the world. I thank you for bringing that up because it is true, and I think I raised this in my 2007 presentation as well. Even though the Canadian organizations are not out there and Canadian f

Foreign Affairs committee  I think this picks up on what my colleague was saying about civil society. I look at it as demand and supply side. You have, in the case of working with civil society, what's very important—building their capacity, having them advocate, having them collect and aggregate the voice

Foreign Affairs committee  The short answer is that my work is done for other organizations, multilateral organizations, mostly the UNDP, UN Women, and World Bank, so I'm able to distance myself from any of the political machinations happening in Ottawa. To me, what you're hitting on, though, is something

Foreign Affairs committee  Look, my point in my presentation was the same as it was in 2007, and I believe it was a different party in power then. My point is that Canada is non-existent to a great extent in the area in which I work—political governance. I don't think that has changed since I started doing

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairperson, and honourable members. Let me start by quickly setting the table as to my background, so you have an understanding of where I'm coming from through my presentation. I am a lawyer based in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia. I was an MLA in Nova Scotia for