Foreign Affairs committee  I think that in the world out there, there's no getting away from the fact that if you want your ideas to carry influence and weight.... There are fantastic ideas coming out of Canada on these issues.

Foreign Affairs committee  The last time I was in Ottawa, I had a very good day trying to have a debate and generate ideas on how to improve the position of women and girls in these countries. As David said, those are the most vulnerable people. Always, where you go, you're particularly struck by the vulne

Foreign Affairs committee  That is correct. Fifty years ago, Lester B. Pearson had a terrific insight. It would be great if more countries acted on it.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. I'm happy to add a couple of points to what Ambassador Rae has just said. Obviously, we're not happy to be in a position where we can't pay our own staff, the teachers, the health workers and others who provide these services to Palestinians. We would be very grateful for

Foreign Affairs committee  I would just give a few examples of what Ambassador Rae has just said. I was speaking this morning to a group of people in Burkina Faso who had been forced to flee their homes at gunpoint, basically, by terrorist organizations and are now living in a camp for displaced people tha

Foreign Affairs committee  Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to talk to you all today. A lot of what I want to do is amplify what Ambassador Rae has just said so compellingly. I hope it's not inappropriate for me to congratulate you on being so well represented

Foreign Affairs committee  On your first question, I guess the heyday of the responsibility to protect concept and doctrine was the 1990s, and things have definitely eroded since then. The only way we'll see that turn around is if the member states in the United Nations collectively decide they want to cha

Foreign Affairs committee  I was in Haiti in July, visiting the work of the humanitarian agencies. Some months ago, after the latest typhoon hit Haiti, I provided money from the central emergency response fund—which is a fund of $550 million a year that I manage, including with contributions from Canada—to

Foreign Affairs committee  The earlier example I was giving was in respect to Venezuela, and to repeat, I haven't seen a case of alleged diversion in respect to Venezuela. Of course, it's very common to run into problems with terrorist groups trying to steal assistance or governments trying to misdirect it

Foreign Affairs committee  Part of what you're asking me gets me somewhat out of my lane, actually, given my set of responsibilities. If you don't mind, I'll reply in respect of the discharge of my responsibilities. As I said earlier, the single biggest problem that causes humanitarian suffering is confli

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me say, to start with, that I think there's scope for lots of donors to provide more assistance. I think there is scope, actually, for Canada, like others, to do a bit more than is being done at the moment. As some of you will be aware, there's a UN commitment that was establ

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. Well, obviously, it's part of the reality within which we work. It's not, by the way, completely new. If you look over the history of the United Nations, you see that there are quite often periods when these kinds of tensions have been evident, and when the Security Council

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll try to be a bit brief, Mr. Chairman. I understand the point. First, as I said at the beginning, our message is that we ask all of the parties to separate the humanitarian needs of the people from their political dispute. We try to reassure everybody that the aid agencies op

Foreign Affairs committee  We would absolutely be able to do more if we had more resources. That's absolutely what we feel. We do have substantial capacity on the ground. From my own office, for example, I've been able to bring more people in to assess the needs, to understand what the priorities are, an

Foreign Affairs committee  We are, and that's the truth of it. It's because of what we see on the ground. I can give you two examples. In 2017, we were trying to stave off what could potentially have been a huge famine in Somalia. The proximate cause of that, or the biggest proximate cause, was the drough