Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can answer one aspect of that, and that relates to the RRM, the rapid response mechanism, which was established in 2018 by Canada in the context of the G7 to ensure that we were monitoring disinformation and other online threats to our democracy. We've certainly been looking at

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chair, it's a very good question. We are certainly working very hard to ensure that the funds that do go into Afghanistan from Canada through other organizations get to the people who need them. As we have spoken about before, the organizations that we work with—UN organizat

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chair, I'm afraid that this is probably more in the purview of the Minister of Agriculture. This is not my area of expertise. I apologize. I don't have the answers to those questions.

Afghanistan committee  I guess what I would say, Mr. Chair, and I'll ask my—

Afghanistan committee  What I would say is that we actually have a mechanism like that already. We have an emergency watch and response centre set up at Global Affairs Canada, and this is the point where we coordinate the response to international emergencies. We stand up an emergency response team whe

Afghanistan committee  I'll pass the floor to Mr. Thoppil, if you don't mind, Mr. Chair.

Afghanistan committee  I'm afraid I wasn't involved in the details of the Syria effort at the time. I'm not quite sure how the biometrics were done at that point, so I can't speak to that, I'm afraid. If the other officials on the line can, they'd be most welcome to jump in.

Afghanistan committee  Just so that you're aware, Mr. Chair, the comparison I was making was in terms of the safe passage issue.

Afghanistan committee  Maybe I could just make a point about the comparison with Syria. I think one of the issues that helped us enormously in the Syrian situation was that all of the individuals we were trying to bring to Canada were already outside of Syria. It wasn't the kind of context that existed

Afghanistan committee  Maybe I can go back to the last question the member asked. In terms of a lead department, Global Affairs Canada does have the lead for international consular situations and emergencies like this. There is a lead established under Canadian law. In terms of lessons learned, we alw

Afghanistan committee  Sure. I'll start and then pass it once again to Mr. Thoppil. As Minister Joly mentioned, there has been an enormous amount of engagement with neighbouring countries. Of course, Pakistan has played a particular role because of the long border between the two countries and the fac

Afghanistan committee  I'd be happy to start, and then I'll ask my colleague Julie Sunday to jump in. Both of us were very much engaged during the actual evacuation period. There are maybe two points that I would make. One is that the collaboration between National Defence, IRCC and Global Affairs Can

Afghanistan committee  What I can say with respect to ministerial engagement is particularly around Global Affairs Canada's minister's engagement. I have to say that I and Mr. Thoppil, Ms. Sunday, as well as other Government of Canada officials, briefed the minister at the time, Minister Garneau, on a

Afghanistan committee  As the minister said, this is something we're engaged intensively in with allies, and with the Taliban through our representative in Doha. I would also say that we're working very hard with humanitarian partners to ensure that our humanitarian assistance is actually getting to th

Afghanistan committee  Perhaps I'll start and then pass the floor to Paul. I think it's fair to say that we probably have conversations about biometrics on a weekly basis. As the minister said, the issue of biometric collection, particularly inside Afghanistan, is a real challenge. We can collect biom