Justice committee  Sure. Thank you for the question. The most important stakeholders in this, I think, are all the women and girls and people who are struggling in Afghanistan and who need help. It would be placing them at the heart of the discussion, finding solutions on how we as Canadians can

Justice committee  With respect to the donors who give us the money, we take that custodianship seriously, so if we feel that the money that is intended for women and girls, the people, is not going there, then we pull out, cease operations and find a different geographic area within the country or

Justice committee  Sure. I can begin. I think that if the bill, as it stands, became law, we would obviously do an analysis. The prudent approach in a lot of contexts would be to pause projects until we could get authorization. That might include projects in Palestine, and possibly in Yemen and Sy

Justice committee  Yes, and I want to mention that I think those names that just came up.... The onus right now is on the organizations to determine if they're listed and by what definition. I think that's problematic, because it's not coming from the government. I think one recommendation is for m

Justice committee  Yes. If the bill is law, then from a risk analysis standpoint, if we assess that some contexts have a significant influence from listed entities, then the prudent thing would be to pause and get that permission before we—

Justice committee  That's correct.

Justice committee  Yes, absolutely.

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. From our perspective, it's important that we understand that each agency makes its own legal and risk analysis and assessments. Even though Islamic Relief was still doing projects in Afghanistan, for us it's important that a lot of our colleagues in

Justice committee  Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Usama Khan. I'm the chief executive officer at Islamic Relief Canada, which is a member of the Humanitarian Coalition. Since 1999, Islamic Relief globally has been operational in Afghanistan, and throughout t

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. I think the analogy of giving people fish and teaching them how to fish applies. There are absolutely urgent needs in terms of search and rescue, in terms of providing tents. Last night it was -5°C in the region. Lots of people are being forced to sle

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. I can take a stab at it first. One of the factors, as Richard mentioned, is that the access for the Red Cross equivalent, which is the Red Crescent, is in Damascus-controlled regions. Multiple witnesses mentioned the displacement in northwest Syria, and, really, the need t

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the first thing is just recognizing what people there have gone through and looking at this issue from the eyes of that four- or five-year-old child, who is now 12 or 14, and has seen nothing but war and air strikes and displacement. I think for Canadians to understand t

Foreign Affairs committee  In any crisis, anybody who is a minority or marginalized is definitely impacted more. I can speak from our experience not just in Turkey and Syria but around the world. We definitely do not discriminate at all. There are strict criteria to look at the most vulnerable population

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you so much. Good afternoon, honourable chair and members of the committee. I just wanted to start off by thanking all of you for the really important work you do. I know recently you had a study on Bill S-211, and it's now awaiting third reading. We really appreciate all

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd just like to add that the funding Islamic Relief is getting from the matching through the Humanitarian Coalition and the government is focused on women and girls. It's providing 4,250 women in affected households with cash grants. It's making sure there are dignity kits and m