Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, undoubtedly there are a certain number of countries that are grave violators of international human rights that continue to be very strong allies of Canada. It's interesting that prior to the case of the alleged extrajudicial execution on Canadian soil involving a Canadian Sikh man, we had been pleading with this government for years to scrutinize India's human rights record and to engage at the UN Human Rights Council around attacks against religious minorities in India, intimidation, harassment, extrajudicial killings, etc., but unfortunately that didn't come to fruition until this issue landed on our soil, which will often happen if we don't take preventive steps to address human rights violations—even those that are committed by our allies.

Foreign Affairs committee  It was very welcome that you pushed forward a motion that got accepted around arms sales to Israel, and I think it's incredibly important to constantly assess risks to have an arms control regime that's rooted in human rights and in risks. Essentially the ICJ decision on plausible genocide underscores the need for Canada to review arms sales to Israel to ensure that they're suspended—since there's impunity for grave crimes that are being committed—and that should be the case across the board.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. I think what's clear is that there is very little political will on certain consular files. The government essentially wants to simply manage the file and not actually solve it. Where there is no political will on the part of this government to repatriate Canadians with suspected ISIS ties, especially the men, that message has trickled down to every layer of Global Affairs.

Foreign Affairs committee  We simply do not appear to be a principled and impartial actor, so we lose our credibility to engage. We lose our ability to highlight laws of war violations in other conflicts. We lose our leverage with states, and we also, most importantly, let down victims. We will see this, for example, when the Human Rights Council session happens in a couple of weeks.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and honourable members, for inviting me to discuss Canada's diplomatic capacity in these very turbulent and unpredictable times. This study could not be timelier. It will not come as a surprise that I will focus on human rights, which I believe should constitute the moral backbone of Canadian diplomacy.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's a very difficult question. No country comes to mind right now in terms of a real improvement in the human rights situation of that country. I think I'll have to get back to you with information on that and what the factors were that perhaps led to it. You often see elections potentially resulting in new governments that are possibly less repressive, but none come to mind at the moment, I'm afraid.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think with respect to Russia, even prior to the conflict we did see wide-reaching sanctions that were imposed by the Canadian government on Russian officials who have committed widespread human rights abuses, on officials who are corrupt, and on officials who are linked to Crimea and the conflict.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for your question. I'm not going to go over a list of the actions that the government has taken at the Human Rights Council. There are a number of actions, but it is still a struggle for the government to take on country situations. That is just a fact. There have been a number of country situations, but there are certainly not enough.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. Let's just say that even in those cases it was a tremendous effort and struggle to encourage Global Affairs. They finally, eventually did join a joint statement at the HRC on Egypt, but it was extremely difficult to get them there, because, especially with allies—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. I guess there are a number of things. We often struggle as international human rights activists to convince the Government of Canada and Global Affairs to be outspoken at the United Nations Human Rights Council on country-specific situations. There's only really a subset of countries that the Canadian government engages on at the Human Rights Council.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'll just say that we see this as well with the global declaration on arbitrary detention, which was done very specifically—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm fine. That's all I had to say on that.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for your question. We're seeing this again and again. What we've seen in the case of Ukraine, for example, right now is how the Canadian government can use very effectively every tool in its tool kit, whether it's sanctions, asset freezes or accountability at the International Criminal Court, to really push forward and condemn the human rights abuses that are occurring.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, we're seeing the same trend. I mentioned India and Israel, as well, in terms of allies of Canada and the kinds of concerns we have around those countries. The backslide in human rights is something we're seeing across the board. We're seeing some positive elements in an increase in the mobilization of human rights defenders, in the use of social media to promote human rights and in the use of investigative technology to document those abuses.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm afraid I can't really speak to that in detail.