Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd separate it out. As I said, I have a real concern about the staff and the continuing credibility of Rights and Democracy when you have Mr. Latulippe, that kind of man, as president and Mr. Braun as chairman. I think some immediate action is needed to change the chairperson. I

Foreign Affairs committee  You used plural there and referred to both of us. I take a position, but I'm trying to be non-partisan about it, and I mean that. I had on my board a distinguished Conservative, a former MLA from Alberta. He was known for his human rights. He was on my board. Never once did he

Foreign Affairs committee  No.

Foreign Affairs committee  No.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think I mentioned that I've spent the last three months in London, England, and I came back just for this hearing and will be returning there. Coming from London, I can tell you from personal contacts, including with a number of international NGOs, that there are government and

Foreign Affairs committee  Can I add just one point to this? I think the situation requires some immediate action. I deeply believe this. I believe the wrong person is president and the seriously wrong person is chair. You have a wonderful staff, who only did what they could do, I believe, in rebelling a

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I do agree, however— I would add one additional thing on this appointment process that maybe the committee could consider. I think Mr. Harper had promised, consistent with the proposals made by a number of parties, when he first became Prime Minister to have a very differe

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't hesitate in saying yes, but I want to be clear on how that can be expressed. You can have political interference in an agency that's supposed to be independent on human rights, such as the centre, in one of two ways. In one, a minister or a prime minister says that before

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. It's good to be back. I'm pleased to come before you today, and particularly pleased in that context to see some former colleagues from all parties with whom I enjoyed working when I was a member of the House of Commons. Unfortunately, the occasion for my

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My impression, and I want to stress “impression”, is that it's the latter, and we can play games with ourselves. It certainly was my experience from the centre in Montreal, looking at most of what we were then doing in China, too. We have these wonderful conferences, people go ov

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  What about the other one, on economic and social development?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Concerning a multilateral approach, I think politically it would not be wise for us to do this in conjunction with the U.S. The quickest way to get a no from Castro and the Cubans I think would be to involve the Americans. It's entirely a tactical question here, because they have

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To pick up on one point, about the problematic aspect of such a conference giving advantage to the Cubans, I think the advantage of such a conference, if they agreed to do it, is that it enables Canada not only to talk about our own rights problems internally—we need some improve

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I just want to use this opportunity. There was one idea I forgot to mention, a practical proposal. One of the things that almost happened when I was at the centre in Montreal in 1990 was a joint public conference on political, civil, social, and economic rights, with half the pa