Saudi ambassador breaks silence

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CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016 $5.00
NEWS POLICY REVIEW
NEWS Q&A
NEWS FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Liberals’ defence
consultations offer
predictable results,
questionable
benefits, say critics
Saudi ambassador
breaks silence
MPs of all stripes
decry Turkish
government’s
reaction to
failed coup
BY MARCO VIGLIOTTI
BY CHELSEA NASH
Critics are accusing the Liberal
government of using ongoing public
consultations on defence policy to obscure
dissenting opinions and selectively choose
responses that correspond with their views
on the file.
NDP defence critic Randall Garrison
(Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, B.C.) said he
fears the government is using this broad,
poorly-defined consultation process
to ensure the responses it receives are
favourable to what it envisions for the
future of Canadian defence policy.
“They know what they already want to
do and [with the consultations] you can pick
selectively from what you’ve heard across the
country if there isn’t any way to systemize the
information,” he said in an interview.
In 2010, Turkish President (then prime
minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived at
Pearson International Airport in Toronto
ahead of the G20 summit at around
midnight, and was greeted by thenminister of state for foreign affairs Peter
Kent, something Mr. Kent later recounted
as a “nasty experience.”
Before the president’s cavalcade could
leave the airport for his downtown hotel,
Mr. Kent, Conservative MP for Thornhill,
Ont. was informed of a possible security
threat that the RCMP was investigating.
The party was instructed to wait in a
secure room at the airport until the RCMP
gave the all-clear.
“For a short period of time, the
president accepted our hospitality in the
secure room at the airport, but then he
became impatient, and angry, and accused
me of trying to humiliate him and threw
quite a tantrum,” Mr. Kent, who is the
Conservative Party’s foreign affairs critic,
told The Hill Times.
Continued on page 6
NEWS TRADE
Liberals’ expanded
Colombia human
rights report still
falls short: Rights
advocates
BY PETER MAZEREEUW
The Liberal government released its
first take on an annual report on human rights in Colombia last week, which
included an expanded section on human
rights issues in the country but still fell
short of the expectations of labour and human rights advocates.
The report, which has been criticized
every year since it was first released four
years ago for failing allegedly to seriously
examine any human rights concerns in Colombia, was delivered to the House on an
adjournment tabling day on July 20, to the
surprise of advocates accustomed to seeing
the report tabled in May.
Continued on page 13
Continued on page 7
NEWS IMMIGRATION
‘If there is some disagreement, I think we can discuss and find a solution for it,’ says Saudi
Ambassador Naif Bin Bandir AlSudairy of the criticism of the deal to sell Canadian-made armoured
vehicles to Saudi forces, in a July 20 interview at his embassy. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia
Envoy defends arms
deal, says media
producing ‘misleading
information.’
BY PETER MAZEREEUW
Saudi Arabia’s top official in Canada is
defending his country’s human rights
record and a controversial $15-billion sale
of Canadian-made armoured vehicles to
the Saudi Arabian National Guard, noting
that despite “misleading information” in the
media, he still believes the contract will
bring the two countries closer.
After a couple years under fire, Saudi
Arabia’s ambassador to Canada, who rarely
sits down for interviews with Canadian
reporters, spoke exclusively with The Hill
Times July 20 to weigh in on his country’s
place in the headlines and his job, which he
believes at least partly is to boost ties with
Canada and change “some of the wrong or
negative ideas about my country.”
Saudi Arabia’s use of Islamic law, sharia,
“needs a kind of special arrangement,
different than other places,” said Naif Bin
Bandir Alsudairy, after responding to
concerns about the country’s justice system,
which allows for public beheadings and saw
blogger Raif Badawi sentenced in 2014 to 10
years in jail and 1,000 lashes for insulting
Islam (though, under Western political
pressure, he’s only received 50 lashes). The
ambassador acknowledged, though, that
“we always review.”
Continued on page 3
Yazidi genocide
moves onto
McCallum’s plate
BY PETER MAZEREEUW
The whirlwind parliamentary study of the
plight ofYazidis and other vulnerable groups
has finished, and the witnesses and committee
members are looking to Immigration Minister
John McCallum to make the next move.
The emotional and often partisan study by
the House Immigration Committee included
calls from survivors of theYazidi genocide,
community advocates, and opposition MPs
for the government to take special action to
help persecutedYazidis—a minority religious
group targeted for genocide by ISIL (also
known as ISIS, Daesh, and Islamic State)—in
Iraq and the surrounding territories.
Continued on page 4
2
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
FEATURE BUZZ
HEARD
ON
THE
HILL
Pakistan spreads sweetness with mango tasting
B Y M AR C O V I G L I OT T I
Canadian politicos try
their hands as Pokémon
trainers, Trudeau
announces Canadian
olympic flag-bearer
Canadian politicians are
not immune to the spells of
smash mobile hit Pokemon
Go. NDP MP Erin Weir poses
next to a Cubone in Regina’s
Cathedral neighbourhood
(left), while Conservative MP
Michelle Rempel showcases
her in-game avatar (right).
Ripe mangoes imported from Pakistan for a special
tasting at the high commissioner’s residence on
July 22.
Mr. AlSaudairy tries some of the mango
drink being offered.
The Hill Times photographs
by Sam Garcia
Pakistani High Commissioner Tariq Azim
Khan with Saudi Ambassador Naif Bin Bandir
AlSudairy.
Cheers! Mr. Khan, left, toasts with his guests, Malaysian
High Commissioner Aminahtun Karim Shaharudin, second
from left, and her spouse, far right, A.G. Shaharudin, and
Global Affairs Canada's Rosaline Kwan.
Photographs courtesy of the Twitter
accounts of Erin Weir and Michelle
Rempel
P
okémon Go, the augmented reality mobile game based on the hugely popular
fantasy series, has become an international
phenomenon since its release earlier this
month, drawing millions of users, including some Canadian politicians.
In the game, players can capture, battle,
and train fictional Pokémon creatures,
who appear on screens as if inhabiting
real-world domains by using a device’s
camera and GPS functions. The game has
won plaudits from some for encouraging
physical activity and interaction between
players, as users must physically travel
to obtain Pokémon or compete in virtual
competitions.
But it has also become a source of
controversy. Critics worry about Pokémon
being placed in high-risk or extremely
sensitives areas, and are voicing concerns
that the game encourages trespassing on
private property. The RCMP released a
statement on its Twitter account warning
Pokémon Go players to be mindful of their
surroundings and follow all laws.
“A Pokemon on private property is
NOT an invitation to enter. Respect others
as you #CatchEmAll,” the agency wrote in
a post.
As elsewhere, Pokémon fever appears
to have spread to the Hill, with some Canadian politicos taking to social media
to share their experiences capturing the
virtual denizens.
Chief among them, Conservative MP
Michelle Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill, Alta.),
who has been touting her skills as an amateur Pokémon trainer on Twitter.
In an interview with CTV News, uploaded online on July 20, Ms. Rempel said
she had caught 75 “different species” of
Pokémon and was a Level 18 trainer —an
impressive feat considering that the game
was released on July 6 in the United States
and July 17 in Canada. (Some Canadian
players were able to access the game prior
to its official release in the country.)
When asked what her favourite character
was, Ms. Rempel mentioned she had captured
an Aerodactyl, one of the rarer Pokémon.
She also noted that numerous Pokémon
were hanging around on Parliament Hill,
proceeding to then capture one loitering next to the Centennial Flame.
Other MPs are also having fun “interacting” with the virtual arrivals.
NDP MP Erin Weir (Regina-Lewvan,
Sask.) tweeted some photos of himself
greeting Pokémon that have cropped up
in his riding. He posted a photo of himself
posing next to a Cubone in a parking lot in
Regina’s Cathedral neighbourhood and another one showing him with a Diglett in
front of his constituency office.
Conservative MP and leadership candidate Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka,
Ont.) can also be counted as a fan, posting a
picture of himself attempting to catch a Bulbasaur while attending the U.S. Republican
Party convention this past week in Cleveland.
Mr. Clement said he attended to represent Canadian interests and in his capacity
as deputy chairman of the International
Democrat Union, a global alliance of
centre-right political parties.
Meanwhile, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson
was also recently spotted playing Pokémon
Go at downtown’s Confederation Park,
CFRA News reported.
One MP and potential party leader,
though, jumped on the Pokémon bandwagon in a more novel way.
Conservative leadership hopeful Maxime Bernier (Beauce, Que.) playfully tweeted of photo himself studying the menu at a
restaurant on Ottawa’s Sparks Street with
the caption, “The legendary freedom Pokémon is at the Ottawa Bier Market today.
Will you be able to catch him? #cdnpoli.”
The photo also mimicked the gameplay
style of Pokémon Go.
Continued on page 19
Japanese Ambassador Kenjiro Monji, left, with Mr. Khan, Ms. Shaharudin, and Chinese Ambassador Luo
Zhaohui.
Peru honours air force members
General Carlos Chavez Cateriano, left, with
Colonel Jose Antonio Garcia Morgan, and his
spouse, Diana León Vasquez, at the reception on
July 22 to mark Air Force Day in Peru.
Mr. Garcia with Peruvian Ambassador
Marcela López Bravo.
Second Annual Defence and Security Summer Social
Outgoing Korean Defence Attaché Colonel Jang
Min Choi, Astrid Neuland, business development
executive of Thales Canada, and Angela Son, the
colonel’s spouse at the July 13 event.
André LaFrance, chief operations officer and cofounder of the ALRM Group, greets Mr. Choi.
Photographs
courtesy of
Ulle Baum
Paul Fortin, director of business development for Borden Ladner Gervais's Asia
Pacific Operations, raises a glass to celebrate the departing Korean couple.
3
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEWS Q&A
Saudi envoy defends arms deal, says
media producing ‘misleading information’
‘We still believe
that this contract
will bring the two
countries closer,’
says Saudi Arabia’s
ambassador, in a
rare interview.
Continued from page 1
The ambassador, who also
leads the Ottawa Diplomatic
Association, said he expects to
welcome the head of the Saudi
Human Rights Commission to
Canada next month to further
explain the country’s views.
The following interview has
been edited for length and style.
Why is Saudi Arabia an important ally for Canada?
“Well, because we share the
same values, and of course Saudi
Arabia and Canada want to see the
world more safe and more stable.”
How do you think that close relations with Saudi Arabia is going
to help Canada to create more
stable world?
“I think Canada is a very important partner to Saudi Arabia
and the G20, [and] United Nations. And Canada is very much
involved in the region to bring
security and stability in the whole
region: in Iraq, Syria, all places
that are not stable.
“So we believe that Canada
can do a lot to help countries in
the region to bring peace and
security and stability.”
A lot of the discussion in Canada
in relation to Saudi Arabia over
the past year has had to do with
the General Dynamics contract
to sell LAV armoured vehicles to
Saudi authorities. What do you
want to say to people who criticize this deal and are concerned
that Saudi authorities could use
this equipment against civilians?
“I think misleading information has been put in the media.
“When we signed this contract,
we thought this will strengthen
the relationship between Saudi
Arabia and Canada, and it will
bring more co-operation. You
know, more than 3,000 people
are working on this contract in
London, Ont., and more than 100
companies are doing some of the
spare parts and manufacturingrelated items.
“Usually when people have
more business, more work together, they have more understanding.
And they will be closer. So we still
believe that this contract will bring
the two countries closer. If there is
some disagreement, I think we can
discuss and find a solution for it.”
What about the criticism of Saudi
Arabia’s human rights record, the
fact that there have been reports
that equipment made in Canada
and other Western countries has
been used to perpetrate violence
against civilians?
Saudi Arabia’s
ambassador to
Canada, Naif
Bin Bandir
Alsudairy, says
he expects
to welcome
the head of
the Saudi
Human Rights
Commission to
Canada next
month.
“I think this is not right. Saudi
Arabia is a member of the UN
Human Rights Council in Geneva.
When you get the membership
in this very important council, it
gives you an indication that the
Saudi authorities are complying
with a high standard of human
rights regulation. And Minister
Dion, during his visit to Saudi
Arabia last month, invited the
president of the Saudi Human
Rights Commission, Dr. Bandar
bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, to visit
Canada in the near future. And of
course we will arrange a meeting
with the media to explain how we
think about human rights.”
The Hill Times
photograph by
Sam Garcia
During the time that this controversy in Canada over the arms
sale has gone on, how would you
describe your conversations with
Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion?
“I think it’s very constructive. I
always listen to him, and I always
see him, and we continue our dialogue over how to improve and to
strengthen the relations between
Saudi Arabia and Canada. And I
really admire him.”
The embassy had been planning
a cultural festival to take place
in Ottawa this summer, but at the
last minute it was delayed. Why
was it delayed?
“Actually it was not delayed,
it was rescheduled, because we
thought that by rescheduling
we could prepare the event in
the right way. And we think that
Canada is a very important country, and if we want to do this kind
of event we want it to be something to be proud of. And another
reason, also, we thought that 2017
is going to be a very important
year for Ottawa, because of the
celebration of the 150th anniversary of Confederation. This was a
recommendation by high officials
in the Ottawa mayor’s office.”
Do you see it as being part of
your job to improve the way regular Canadians see Saudi Arabia,
the way they think about it? If so,
how is it that you have been trying to do that?
“Of course, no one is perfect.
And our job is to work very hard
to improve the relations and to
change also some of the wrong or
negative ideas about my country
and about Saudis in general.
“But at the same time, we have
to understand that Saudi Arabia
is the heart of the Islamic world.
Mecca and Medina, the two holy
mosques, are in Saudi Arabia.
Muslim people all around the
world, over two billion Muslim
people, they are facing Mecca
fives times every day for praying.
This gives you an indication of
how important Saudi Arabia is,
regardless of oil.
“We have over 30,000 students
here in Canada, huge contracts
with Canadian companies like
General Dynamics, Manitoba
Hydro, Bombardier, SNC Lavalin.
Lately we just bought part of the
Canadian Wheat Board. But put
this all to the side, and see how
important Saudi Arabia is for the
Islamic world.”
Saudi Arabia has been helping
to fund private Islamic schools
in Canada for the past few years.
Why are you doing that?
“Saudi Arabia is helping, it’s
part of the plan to help Muslim
people all over the world, not only
in Canada.
“If we want to make any
donation to any organization in
Canada, we go and do it through
the Canadian authorities.”
What do you see as being the
Saudi Embassy’s role when it
comes to interacting with Muslims in Canada?
“They are our brothers, Muslim brothers. You remember the
event that we had for the Syrian
refugees [where the Gulf Cooperation Council missions to Canada
donated $31,000 to United Way
Ottawa for its work resettling
Syrian refugees]. Anything that
will bring happiness to people,
any kind of people. Of course
Muslim and Arab people from our
region, we care about. We try to
be involved, and to help.”
A lot of the press in Canada
about Saudi Arabia concerns the
Saudi justice system. The case of
jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi
has been in the headlines a lot.
The restrictions on women and
treatment of political dissidents
are sore subjects in Canada. Do
you expect that the Saudi government will change the way that it
goes about dealing with women,
dealing with political dissidents,
the way it’s handing the Raif
Badawi case? Or do you expect
that it’s going to continue on the
path that it has been?
“Let me ask you a question:
do you think that Canada in the
future, or any other country, if they
have some kind of pressure from
abroad, they will change their judicial system? Do you accept that?”
I suppose it depends on who the
partner was and why.
“Same thing. Of course, we
always review. And I think this
question, you can address directly
to Dr. Bandar bin Mohammed AlAiban, the president of the Saudi
Human Rights Commission when
he visits Canada, I think next
month.”
Do you see Saudi Arabia as becoming a more liberalized country in the future in general?
“Saudi Arabia has a different
perspective about liberal or not
liberal. Saudi Arabia is based in
Islamic sharia law. This needs a
kind of special arrangement, different than other places. Always,
we need to see how the people,
if they like the values, in any
country.”
There were some pages from a 9/11
report commissioned in the United
States that just recently were
made public. There are reports that
those documents show that the
Saudi government was helping to
financially support mosques and
other institutions in the United
States that were spreading ideas of
Islamic radicalism. Do you believe
that that was the case? If so, is that
still an issue?
“Nothing in those pages is
against Saudi Arabia. I saw them.
You know Mr. Adel bin Ahmed
Al-Jubeir, the foreign affairs min-
ister of Saudi Arabia, made a very
clear statement two days ago: he
said we are very happy that they
released these pages because this
is proof that Saudi Arabia had
nothing to do with 9/11.
“Even if 15 of these 19 people
who attacked in 9/11 are from
Saudi Arabia, 15 people or 100, or
200 people from a country of 30
million...Every society has fanatical, crazy people. We feel sorry,
and we are very much concerned
that we don’t see more crazy people in any society, in Saudi Arabia
or elsewhere. But this is human
nature, that you have people who
believe in violence. Muslim people,
the word of Islam means peace.
Saudi Arabia believes in peace,
and we believe that we should
solve all our problems between
each other, between nations, by
peace. Not by violence or war.”
What do you see as being your
biggest priority for the next year
as ambassador here?
“My job here has two parts:
one part, to strengthen the relations with our Canadian friends.
The second part, to serve Saudi
citizens who live here in Canada,
students, businessmen, and tourists. We work very hard, we have
a very big embassy, to reach out
with our Canadian friends, to improve the relations, to have more
in common. We exchange high
official visits.
“Next year, we will have a
GCC strategic dialogue meeting here in Canada, hopefully
in Ottawa, between the six GCC
ministers and Minister Dion.”
[email protected]
@PJMazereeuw
4
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEWS IMMIGRATION
Yazidi genocide moves onto McCallum’s plate
What happened and
what comes next
after the heated
summer study on
vulnerable people
wraps up.
Continued from page 1
The Liberal-majority Immigration Committee asked Mr. McCallum (Markham-Thornhill, Ont.) to
“accelerate” asylum applications
by Yazidis fleeing the violence,
and to “create and implement
special measures to facilitate
Canada’s response” in a letter
sent through Liberal MP Borys
Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre,
Ont.), the committee chair.
“We’re asking the government
to use existing tools that are available in order to fulfill what the
United Nations has called for” for
the Yazidi population, said Liberal
MP Peter Fragiskatos (London
North Centre, Ont.), who temporarily replaced Liberal MP Shaun
Chen (Scarborough North, Ont.) on
the committee during the study.
Conservative MP Michelle
Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill, Alta.),
a committee member and her
party’s immigration critic, sent
her own letter to Mr. McCallum
calling for the government to
once again exempt Syrian and
Iraqi refugees from an annual cap
on privately-sponsored refugees
coming into Canada, and to
examine using a special section of the federal Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act to
bring asylum-seekers to Canada
quicker.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), a committee
member and her party’s immigration critic, sent her own
letter to Mr. McCallum. Both Ms.
Kwan and Ms. Rempel called on
the minister to use that special
provision in the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act, section
25, to immediately resettle vulnerable people to Canada, and to
begin tracking refugees by ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, so as to show how successful
the government is at bringing in
those under the greatest threat.
Mr. McCallum declined to
be interviewed on the subject
through spokesperson Félix Corriveau, who wrote in an emailed
statement that “the minister’s
schedule will not allow him to
answer your questions.”
The committee will issue a
formal report to the minister once
Parliament resumes in the fall.
UN refugee agency, UN
convention under fire
The Liberal government faces
numerous obstacles to the type
of quick, large-scale action urged
by the committee members and
advocates for persecuted minority
groups in the Middle East, South
Sudan, Myanmar, and elsewhere.
For one, it has already run up
a significant bill during a deficit
year for its ongoing admission
and resettlement of 25,000 government-assisted Syrian refugees,
and has committed nearly $1
billion to support those refugees
over six years.
Mr. McCallum told Bloomberg
last week that his government
was having trouble bringing in
refugees fast enough to meet
the demand of Canadians who
wish to privately sponsor their
resettlement. However, there was
concern among the leaders of
some of Canada’s largest cities that they would not have the
resources to deal with the large
influx of Syrian refugees as the
government hit the stride of its
mass resettlement effort earlier
this year.
The government faces a more
technical barrier to the resettlement of Yazidis and other persecuted groups. Many of those
people are living in camps or
other places of temporary refuge
within the borders of their home
country. Under the wording of
the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, upon which Canadian law
is based, those people are not
considered to be refugees as they
have not left their country.
Canada currently relies upon
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
the UN’s refugee agency, to help
it select refugees for resettlement, and that agency does not
have the mandate to deal with
internally displaced people, David
Manicom, the associate assistant
deputy minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship
Canada, told the committee.
Canada and the international
community should look at reopening the UN Refugee Convention to address that issue, said Mr.
Fragiskatos.
However, Mr. Manicom said
doing so would be too risky, as
some signatories to the convention wish to narrow, not expand,
their responsibility to refugees
under that convention.
To bring in internally displaced
people from hard-to-reach areas,
the government may have to follow
in the footsteps of Germany, which
resettled more than a 1,000 persecuted Yazidis following the ISIL
attack in 2014 by working with
third-party humanitarian groups
instead, Mr. Manicom said.
Government officials are planning a fact-finding mission to
Erbil in northern Iraq for the fall,
he said.
Ms. Rempel and some of the
witnesses before the committee
urged the government to allow
third-party groups to recommend
vulnerable people for resettlement in areas where Canada is
not able to process applications.
Murad Ismael, an executive
with the Yazidi advocacy group
Yazda, criticized the UNHCR for
what he said was discrimination
against Yazidis who had made
it to the refugee camps by local
Muslim UNHCR employees.
The UNHCR did not respond
to that allegation when reached
by The Hill Times.
In years past, the government
could bring internally displaced
people who did not qualify as
refugees to Canada using a program called the Source Country
Class of Humanitarian-protected
Persons Abroad.
However, that program was
repealed after the government
ran into political and logisti-
Immigration Minister John McCallum and his cabinet colleagues are under pressure to repeat the government’s
headline-grabbing Syrian refugee resettlement initiative for other persecuted groups, particularly Yazidis from northern
Iraq. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright
cal problems making use of the
program, said Mr. Manicom.
Controversy erupted each time a
country was added to or removed
to the list of “source countries” in
which people were being persecuted, and the governments of
those countries would not always
co-operate with Canadian efforts
to help resettle people after their
country had been added to the
list, he said.
Section 25
Canada’s government should
use section 25 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
to bring over thousands of the
most vulnerable or traumatized
internally displaced Yazidi people
immediately, said Ms. Rempel, Ms.
Kwan, and some of the committee
witnesses, including Nadia Murad,
a Yazidi woman who escaped from
ISIL captivity and has toured the
world alerting political leaders to
the genocide facing her people.
Section 25 allows the federal
immigration minister to provide a
shortcut to permanent residency for
people in special cases where he or
she judges that“humanitarian and
compassionate grounds”warrants it.
The government would be
legally able to use Section 25 to
resettle persecuted Yazidis from
the Middle East, Mr. Manicom
told the committee, adding that
did not necessarily mean the
government would or would not
logistically be able to do so.
Section 25 has been used
almost exclusively by the government in the past to give permanent resident status to people
already in Canada who would
otherwise be forced to leave the
country, Mr. Manicom said.
Ms. Rempel and Ms. Kwan also
called on the government to begin
tracking the ethnic, religious, and
sexual orientation of refugees
resettled in Canada, in order for
the government to be able to gauge
how many members of those
vulnerable groups were being
recommended by the UNHCR and
successfully resettled in Canada.
The previous Conservative
government had, for a period of a
few months last year, ordered the
IRCC to do just that, Mr. Manicom
told the committee. However, there
was no automated way to do so,
and Canadian officials had to track
those figures using written case
notes. The department ceased to
do so when the new government
began its major effort to resettle
Syrian refugees, he said.
Tracking the success of resettling people persecuted for religious beliefs, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation is more difficult than
it may seem, Mr. Manicom told the
committee. People may fall into
several categories for which they
could be persecuted, and tracking
all of those categories would not
always paint an accurate picture
of why a person was resettled, he
said, using as an example a person
who was gay but being persecuted
for political expression.
Comprehensive tracking of all
possible causes for persecution
would also require more resources, Mr. Manicom said.
[email protected]
@PJMazereeuw
THE WEEK AHEAD: ELECTORAL
REFORM COMMITTEE MEETS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27
• The House Special Committee on Electoral Reform will
have its 10th meeting on this topic from 9:30 a.m.
to 12 p.m. in Centre Block, Room 237-C. It will hear
from Henry Milner, a senior researcher and chair in
electoral studies at the Université de Montréal; Alex
Himelfarb, former clerk of the Privy Council, 20022006; and André Blais, political science professor
at the Université de Montréal. This meeting will be
televised.
• The House Special Committee on Electoral Reform
will meet again from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Centre Block,
Room 237-C (to be televised). It will hear from
the Institute for Research on Public Policy research
director Leslie Seidle; University of Toronto professor
emeritus Larry LeDuc; and Université du Québec à
Montréal dean of the Faculty of Political Science and
Law Hugo Cyr.
THURSDAY, JULY 28
• The House Special Committee on Electoral Reform
will meet from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Centre Block,
Room 237-C (to be televised). It will hear from York
University associate professor of political science
Dennis Pilon; Queen’s University associate professor
of political studies Jonathan Rose; and the president
of the Institute on Governance Maryantonett Flumian.
Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam
Monsef, right, appearing before the
House Special Electoral Reform Committee July 6. This week the committee is
hearing from several academics. The Hill
Times photograph by Jake Wright
• The House Government Operations and Estimates
Committee will meet from 2 to 4 p.m. in Centre Block,
Room 253-D (to be televised), for an emergency
meeting to discuss the situation surrounding the
Phoenix Payroll System. Witnesses, likely to include
departmental officials, are to be confirmed.
5
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEWS Q&A
Nadia Murad, voice of a genocide
Nadia Murad,
centre, urges
Canada’s
government
to do more to
help Yazidis
suffering in
camps for
refugees and
internally
displaced
people in
the Middle
East during a
July 19 press
conference
with
Conservative
immigration
critic Michelle
Rempel, left.
‘As long as the
justice is not
established,
especially for the
women and girls,
I will continue
doing this,’ says this
Yazidi woman who
told MPs how she
endured rape and
abuse at the hands
of ISIL in Iraq.
BY PETER MAZEREEUW
The Hill Times
photograph by
Sam Garcia
“I
cannot stop.”
Nadia Murad looks tired,
sitting across the table with her
co-campaigner and translator,
Murad Ismael.
The Nobel Peace Prize nominee is about 20 minutes into a
July 21 interview at The Hill
Times office in Ottawa, another
stop on her world tour of media
outlets, national legislatures, and
high political offices.
Two days before, Ms. Murad, who is in her early 20s, sat
before the House Immigration
Committee and told yet another
room full of strangers about the
day armed members of ISIL (the
militant group calling itself the
Islamic State, and also known
as ISIS and Daesh) came to her
village in northern Iraq, gathered
the residents together, executed
the men—including six of her
brothers—and assigned the young
women, including herself, into
sexual slavery. She watched their
faces as Mr. Ismael translated the
details of her rapes and beatings
over several months of captivity
in 2014 before she managed to
escape her captors.
In The Hill Times office, the
soft-spoken Ms. Murad, who is
being tailed by a documentary
film crew, is measured and unflinching as she describes the motivation that has taken her around
the world in the past eight months
with Mr. Ismael and Yazda, an
advocacy group for Yazidis, who
were targeted by ISIL for what
the UN and Canada’s government
have called a genocide.
Yazidis are a Kurdish minority
group who practice an ancient religion that shares many elements
with Christianity and Islam, but
they are regarded as “infidels” by
the Islamist militants in Iraq.
Ms. Murad has testified to the
UN in Geneva and UN Security
Council in New York, to the president of Egypt, to governments
in more than a dozen countries,
and to countless journalists since
deciding to leave her temporary
home as an asylum-seeker in
Germany late last year.
The following interview has
been edited for length and style.
You’ve told the story of your captivity many times before, including to the Immigration Committee in Canada’s Parliament. What
happened between the time when
you arrived in Germany and
began your tour around the world
to tell your story. How did you
decide to do this?
“When I was rescued from the
enslavement under Daesh, there
was no way for me to go and
testify and talk about this.
“Then when I was at the camp,
they came and said this program
had been set up by the German
government, and they were trying
to take 1,000 Yazidi women and
girls to Germany, and whoever
was interested could go and register for that program.
“We were three sisters, and my
brother told us, ‘It is very difficult
to take care of all of you, I would
like some of you to go. And once
our conditions are better, you can
come back.’
“In September, I came to
Germany, and was resettled in
Heilbronn with my sister and nine
other Yazidi families.
“I felt homesick, and I felt very
unhappy being in Germany at
first, and I told my brother that
I wished to go back. My brother
told me that it was better that I
stayed there to receive [medical]
treatment, and then come back.
“It was about the end of October when they allowed me to go
to school. And then in November
a Yazidi activist approached me
and asked me if I was willing to
testify before the United Nations
in Geneva. And I said, ‘Yes, I will
do it.’
“After I went back to Germany
after testifying, and they found
the mass grave where my mother
was killed. At that time I had a
very difficult time, and I asked my
family to go back. They told me,
‘Even if you come back, the mass
grave is not accessible, and you
cannot be there.’
“In December, a Yazidi who
is working for Yazda called me
and asked if I was going to testify
before the UN Security Council.
“I’ve always, since I returned
from captivity, taken every opportunity to tell my story, even
when I was at the camp. Every
time a newspaper or anyone approached, I would tell them about
what happened. I really wanted to
tell the story to all the countries,
but especially I wanted to tell
the Muslim world, and the Arab
world about this, because ISIS
was telling us that they were committing these crimes in the name
of Islam. So I wanted to know
from the Muslims themselves,
whether Daesh was a Muslim
group or was not.
“I came to the U.S. in December 2015. And then in December
2015 I met with Murad for the
first time. I told my story, and
then based on what I told him, he
wrote my speech and the next day
I presented before the Security
Council.
“It was a surprise that my testimony was well received. It was
not like what I did in Geneva. This
testimony at the Security Council reached many places, and it
received a lot of media attention and international attention.
After the testimony, I met with
the foreign minister of the U.S.
[John Kerry], I met with [White
House National Security Adviser]
Susan Rice at the White House.
And then many more meetings
became available.”
Seventeen countries so far, is that
right?
“I have to count them…”
[She smiles for a second, for
the only time during the interview, and lists off as many as she
can with her interpreter. They
settle on 16, then remember Switzerland.]
“Yes, 17 countries.”
What was going through your
mind before you gave your
speech to the UN Security Council in New York?
“The first thing that went
through my mind was, what was
in my speech, and what was not
in my speech. Because I wanted
to say everything that happened.
I wanted them to know what was
happening.”
Does it get any easier telling the
story of the terrible things that
happened to you and your family
the more often that you do it?
“When I remember their faces,
when they were committing
crimes against us; when I remember, not just raping us, but also
insulting us and laughing at us as
they were doing it;...when I talk, I
imagine these crimes.
“In a way, I feel happy exposing these crimes and telling the
world what happened. But at
the same time, continuing to tell
the story while things don’t get
changed, it’s very painful. It’s
very painful to talk about the
girls in captivity, especially. And
nobody has attempted to rescue
them yet.”
Have there been any times during
your travels when you’ve had
doubts, or thought you wanted to
be finished with it and return to
Germany or somewhere else to
call home?
“No.
“I cannot stop, because even
if I stop, these crimes will not be
stopped. And the sadness that I
live and go through will not be
over.”
Are you planning to continue...for
how long, do you know?
“As long as justice is not established, especially for the women
and girls, I will continue doing
this.”
Of all of the governments you’ve
spoken to in those 17 countries,
and the UN, have you seen any
meaningful action taken yet by
any of them?
“There has been some good
news. For example, the U.S. government, the U.K. parliament, the
Canadian government, the United
Nations, all of them have come
out with a statement saying that
what happened was a genocide
against my people.”
What can a country as far away
as Canada do to help the Yazidi
people who are still in northern
Iraq?
“We would like Canada to,
just as they received the [Syrian]
refugees, to receive also Yazidi
refugees. Especially the victims,
the direct victims: women,
orphans, widows. All those who
became enslaved. We would like
them to give a quota, or to bring
a number of these people in. We
also would like Canada to play a
role in recognizing the genocide
and accountability, in the International Criminal Court. We also
would like Canada to help with
humanitarian aid.”
How did you first come into contact with Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel, with
whom you held the press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday?
“It happened about a month
ago with [Conservative leader]
Rona Ambrose, I was introduced
with her team in New York. We
were invited to come and speak
when the resolution, the recognition of the genocide was debated
by the Canadian Parliament.”
Murad Ismael: “Nadia and I
were supposed to come here for
that debate, and we applied for
Nadia’s visa. It took longer; we
couldn’t come. But then this invitation came...and Michelle, she
also offered to do a press conference after we came here. But our
first contact in Canada was Ms.
Rona Ambrose.”
What do you think will happen
to the Yazidi people if the world
doesn’t take more action?
“For us, for the Yazidis, what
we see and what we feel is that
days from now, there will be the
second anniversary of the Yazidi
genocide. We still have 3,200
women and children in captivity.
“They have not been helped.
There has been no operation to
rescue them.
“For the liberated areas of
Sinjar, 35 mass graves have been
found. They have not even been
documented or investigated.
There has been only some yellow
tape around it.
“About 40 Yazidi temples
were destroyed. And those who
survived, those who escaped from
captivity, the orphans, the widows
who lost their husbands, there
has been no help offered to them.
“There are epidemics and
diseases, in thousands of cases,
along the Yazidi camps. I would
say that up to two-thirds of the Yazidi population is going through
collective trauma.
“For a small community to
suffer all this...if the international
community doesn’t do anything
for this small community, the
Yazidi community will not exist.
Our question is now whether the
international community will do
something. And the question that
we ask is whether the Yazidis will
exist or not?
“Despite all this, we still have
hope. Every morning we wake
up. On every hour, we count on
the humanity that will not allow
a peaceful community to suffer
this.”
[email protected]
@PJMazereeuw
6
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEWS DEFENCE
Liberals’ defence consultations
offer predictable results,
questionable benefits, say critics
Opposition MPs
are accusing the
government of using
the consultation
process as rubber
stamp.
Continued from page 1
He called parliamentary
committees a more effective and
transparent process to collect
information and put forward
recommendations, with meetings
publicly televised and a report on
the proceedings usually required.
Jordan Owens, spokesperson
for Defence Minister Harjit
Sajjan (Vancouver South, B.C.),
disputed these claims, saying
the government is “committed
to engaging with Canadians” on
impactful decisions.
“Throughout the consultation
process, we have encouraged
Canadians to join the
conversation and provide their
feedback and views on the future
of Canada’s defence policy,” she
said in an emailed statement.
“We are particularly
encouraged that MPs of all parties
have been actively engaging with
their constituents on the issues
that matter to Canadians.”
The Liberal government
launched public consultations
on its promised review of
national defence policy in April,
with roundtable meetings with
experts and key stakeholders
scheduled in cities across the
country. Parliamentarians were
also urged to host town hall
meetings with constituents.
The review website says it
will chiefly focus on the main
challenges to Canada’s security,
the role of the Canadian Armed
Forces in addressing current
threats and challenges; and the
resources and capabilities needed
to carry out the CAF mandate.
Feedback from the public
will be accepted until the end
of the month, with the new
policy expected to be introduced
sometime in 2017, according to
National Defence.
The government has also said
it has invited the Senate and
House committees on national
defence to study issues of
relevance to the policy review.
However, Mr. Garrison raised
concerns about the government’s
failure to explain how the responses
solicited from the consultations will
be compiled and how it will inform
the policy-making process.
“You need to have an explanation
of how it will be used, how is it part
of the decision-making. And we’ve
never had that from the minister or
anyone involved in the consultation
process,”he said.
“So if you say you’re going
to consult people, what are you
going to do with that?”
Ms. Owens, though, said input
from the consultation process and
Conservative defence critic James Bezan (left) said voters he has spoken with expressed concerned that the Liberal
government will ignore responses from the ongoing public consultations on defence policy that run counter to its stated views,
while his NDP counterpart Randall Garrison (right) worries that the Trudeau government used the process to make it easier to
selectively choose responses that suit their needs. Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon (centre), however, is expressing optimism
about the consultations and applauds the government for engaging with Canadians. The Hill Times photographs by Jake Wright
conversations with experts and
allies will“feed into the policy review
process and be reflected within the
final policy document,”which will
then be approved by Cabinet before
being publicly released.
Mr. Garrison also criticized
the government for continuing to
make big pronouncements about
military commitments and defence
policy prior to the completion
of the review, which he argued
raised serious questions about the
usefulness of the process.
Most notably, the Liberals
have committed to steady
increases to the defence budget,
increasing the size of the military
and bolstering involvement in UNled peacekeeping missions. They
have also repeatedly promised
to transform the military into a
leaner and more agile organization,
though have yet to provide details
on what that would entail or how it
would be accomplished.
Tony Battista, CEO of
the Conference of Defence
Associations Institute, a securityfocused think-tank, levelled
similar criticisms, accusing the
government of rushing to action
before the conclusion of the
consultation process.
“The government seems
prepared to make policy
announcements irrespective
of the outcome of the...public
consultation process,” he said in
an interview.
Ms. Owens countered that
the government has taken action
on “a number of files that required
our immediate attention.”
Mr. Battista argued that while
public consultations can prove
very useful, the process introduced
by the government is “muddled”
and confusing, citing issues with
the invited presenters, location
of roundtable discussions, and
avenues for public feedback.
The process the Liberals used to
recruit speakers is“opaque,”he said,
with certain participants and groups
brought in because of their expertise
but others seemingly called upon to
create the“appearance of a multitude
of viewpoints irrespective of their...
submissions.”
Mr. Battista also objected
to the options available for
participation outside of the
roundtable discussions or MPhosted town halls.
Those who wish to share
their views electronically can do
so through several discussion
forums on the policy review
website or anonymously via an
online workbook.
No email address for the
department is immediately
provided, though one is made
available on page 28 of the
consultation document, Mr. Battista
said, adding he’s unsure about how
helpful or informative it will be.
Liberals report support for
government at consultations
Dozens of Liberal MPs
have held consultations on the
defence policy review, with
more scheduled over the next
month. Conservative and NDP
parliamentarians have also
hosted consultations, as well as
several community and advocacy
groups. Green Party Leader
Elizabeth May has also hosted an
event in her Victoria-area riding.
Two Liberal MPs who
have held consultations say
constituents appear to be largely
supportive of the direction etched
out by the Trudeau government
on the defence file.
Karen McCrimmon (KanataCarleton, Ont.) and Anthony
Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming,
Ont.) both said that speakers
at their consultations indicated
support for strengthening
Canada’s commitment to the
United Nations and NATO; a
larger role in peacekeeping
missions; and streamlining the
procurement process.
They also said that
strong objections were not voiced
to the Trudeau government’s
decision to withdraw Canada
from the air mission against the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Mr. Rota, whose riding includes
CFB North Bay, a military base that
is the centre of NORAD operations
in Canada, said that attendees
urged the federal government to
make smarter military purchases
instead of simply replacing aging
equipment.
“Develop certain areas of
speciality that work well within
our geography, climate and our
needs as a country,” he said of
the response from the some 35
constituents at the event, hosted
in North Bay.
“Let’s not limit ourselves to
those niche areas, but really
concentrate on them.”
He also said attendees called
for longer-term military budgets
free from political interference.
Mr. Rota said he has been in
regular contact with Minister Sajjan
about the local base since the
Liberals assumed office, and that he
would follow-up with him to discuss
the response from the event.
Ms. McCrimmon, a military
veteran, said her constituents urged
Canada to focus on preserving the
peace, modernizing equipment, and
protecting the country’s far north.
They also supported the need
for a comprehensive review to
ensure the country is focusing on
current and future threats, she said.
“[We have to] make sure
whatever we do is a reflection is
the current realities we are dealing
with,” Ms. McCrimmon said,
adding that constituents expressed
confidence in the ability to address
military challenges through
technological advancements.
Ms. McCrimmon’s riding,
which covers a vast section of
Ottawa’s far-west, is a technology
hub, she noted.
Both MPs stressed the importance
of reaching out to the public to
discuss defence policy.
“I think we need to engage as
many people as we can,” said Ms.
McCrimmon.
The Conservatives, however,
expressed skepticism that the
consultations would wield any
influence with the government.
Conservative defence
critic James Bezan (SelkirkInterlake-Eastman, Man.) said
constituents he met with voiced
concerns about the decision to pull
out of the anti-ISIS mission and
hints that the government would
sign-on to additional peacekeeping
missions in Africa and abroad.
Although the Liberals called for
the consultations, he said there was
little optimism that the responses
would affect government policy.
“What I’m hearing
is people are concerned that
this is predetermined, that the
government is going to go ahead
and make decisions regardless of
what may came through the policy
review, or [that] the defence policy
review...will support the things
that they’re already doing,” Mr.
Bezan said.
Conservative MP Arnold Viersen
(Peace River-Westlock, Alta.) said
he’s hosted five consultations
meetings across his sprawling
northern Alberta riding, and while
they were well-attended, he felt that
it wasn’t “something necessarily
people were interested in.”
While most attendees were
well-informed, the overwhelming
sentiment was that the consultations
would have little impact on the
development of the government’s
defence policy, he added.
The Conservative Party has
also launched its own parallel
consultations on the defence
policy review. Participants can
submit feedback by responding
to a 10-question form available
on the party’s website.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
7
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEWS FOREIGN AFFAIRS
MPs of all stripes decry Turkish
government’s reaction to failed coup
Conservative foreign
affairs critic Peter
Kent, left, Liberal
MP and chair of
the Canada-Turkey
Parliamentary
Friendship Group
Judy Sgro, and
Turkish Ambassador
Selçuk Ünal. Mr.
Kent and Ms. Sgro
suggest there could
be consequences
for the relationship
between Canada and
Turkey if what they
described as the
Turkish government’s
post-coup pattern
of intimidation
continues. The Hill
If crackdown
continues, it could
be ‘a very major
impediment’ to
Canada-Turkey
ties, says friendship
group chair and
Liberal MP Sgro.
Continued from page 1
He said he saw a “very lessthan-gracious personality in the
president on that occasion.”
“There is an arrogance that he
displays when he defends some
of these less-than-democratic
moments in his country, both
pre-coup and post-coup,” Mr. Kent
said, while discussing the current
and future relations between
Turkey and Canada with The
Hill Times last week, days after
Turkey announced a three-month
state of emergency.
With the recent arrest of a
Turkish-Canadian citizen in Turkey,
the post-coup-attempt activities of
the Turkish government hit close to
home for Canadians, and Members
of Parliament of all political
stripes are not holding back their
criticism.
The Turkish government has
been widely criticized by Western
governments, including the
European Union, which it wishes
to join, for a crackdown after a
failed coup by members of the
military on July 15, which has
targeted more than 60,000 people,
including academics, judges,
public servants, and journalists.
The president has mused about
bringing back the death penalty,
which Turkey scrapped in 2004 to
help it join the European Union.
“I don’t think this is a partisan
issue at all, but across parties,
we should express at any
opportunity to the president and
to the representatives [of] Turkey
in Canada, our concern over the
rule of law, freedom of speech,
freedom of association, and the
obvious, serious encroachment
of civil and human rights in
the last week,” said Mr. Kent,
speaking before the detainment
of Calgary man Davud Hanci was
reported.
Liberal MP Judy Sgro (Humber
River-Black Creek, Ont.) told
The Hill Times she was “alarmed”
at the behaviour of the Turkish
government in the aftermath of
the attempted coup. NDP foreign
affairs critic Hélène Laverdière also
expressed her displeasure to The
Hill Times, and her party issued a
statement on Monday saying New
Democrats are “alarmed” at the
situation unfolding in Turkey.
Ms. Sgro said that if President
Erdogan continues with these
methods, it will be “a very major
impediment” to the future of
Canada-Turkey relations.
Ms. Sgro, who chairs the CanadaTurkey Parliamentary Friendship
Group, said she expected the Turkish
government to be a“mature enough
democracy”to have responded
in a better, more measured way
than it has. She said she is hearing
Times file photos
from many Turkish-Canadians and
Canadians with Turkish background
that they are fearful for their families
still in Turkey.
She said what Canada needs
to do now is “continue the
conversation about the impact
of their actions and what it can
[mean] long term.” Canada should
not overreact today, she said, but
needs to carefully think through
the steps needed to restore peace
in Turkey, “so that we all can move
forward to build a better world.”
When asked what she
imagined these long-term impacts
might look like, she said she
didn’t want to suggest them, but
continued to say “they can be very
significant if you’re talking about
trade or our relationship overall,
with NATO, and so on.”
Both Turkey and Canada
are members of the NATO
military alliance and the G20. The
Conservative government
had started exploratory talks
with Turkey toward possibly
negotiating a trade deal, but the
talks have since fizzled.
Turkish Ambassador to Canada
Selçuk Ünal dismissed concerns
about his country’s current state of
emergency. He said the measures
being taken are justified because
they are in Turkey’s constitution,
and that “we all have to really
understand the seriousness of
this attempted coup. It has been
reported, but I don’t know if it is
really well understood.”
“Because there were many
civilians allegedly involved in
this, or [who] aided these coup
plotters, that was a necessity, as
the government has announced,
that there will be temporary
restrictions on some government
employees, or the ones in the
state universities; that’s why
that is the starting point,” he told
The Hill Times in an interview
Monday morning.
Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish
imam who is in self-imposed exile
from Turkey in Pennsylvania,
has been accused by President
Erdogan of instigating the coup
attempt. Mr. Hanci has been
accused of being affiliated with the
Gülen movement. Mr. Gülen has
denied involvement in the coup.
Family and friends of Mr. Hanci
say he’s innocent.
Turkey “would like to see
more solidarity messages [from
Canada], and of course regarding
the elements of this group here,
we would like to see more cooperation,” Mr. Ünal said.
The Canadian Press reported
that Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion
last week said:“About the Gulen
movement...we have received
requests before the coup and after
from the government of Turkey
about the movement that is existing
in Canada, and we have asked for
evidence because otherwise the
Canadian justice system cannot
address an issue on the basis of
allegations.”
Mr. Kent said Turkey wants to be
a member of the Western, democratic
family.“But, the post-coup behaviour
raises great concerns about President
Erdogan’s commitment to rule of
law, democratic process, and human
rights.”
Turkey is an important ally, Ms.
Sgro said,“and we would like them
to continue to be just that, but that
becomes more and more difficult
every day they talk about rounding
up thousands more innocent
people without any evidence of
any wrongdoing, and talking about
introducing the death penalty.”
Mr. Dion issued a statement on
July 20, the same day the Turkish
government announced the state
of emergency, that said Canada is
very concerned with the reports
of troubling behaviour of Mr.
Erdogan’s government.
“The rule of law and respect
for due process in the conduct of
investigations are integral to the
democratic principles that, last
Friday night, prompted thousands
of Turks to flood into the streets to
protect. It is important that these
same democratic principles and
values guide the government’s
actions in the coming months,”
read the statement.
Additionally, Mr. Ünal was
called in to Global Affairs to be
questioned about the arrest of Mr.
Hanci, according to a report from
the Canadian Press.
“Human rights is something
that Canada stands for, and so
did Turkey, we thought,” said
Ms. Sgro. “You’re not respecting
human rights if you’re rounding
up thousands of people, highly
educated people, people in the
judiciary, for heaven’s sake, and
intimidating Canadians abroad,”
she went on, referring to the
recent detainment of Mr. Hanci.
“Anybody who didn’t have to
same eye colour as the president
appears to be being labelled a
terrorist. I don’t think that’s the
most productive way to handle
these types of issues,” said Ms. Sgro.
[email protected]
@chels_nash
8
Editor Kate Malloy
Deputy Editor Derek Abma
Managing Editor Kristen Shane
Deputy Editor Peter Mazereeuw
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
Assistant Deputy Editor Abbas Rana
Online Editor, Power & Influence Editor Ally Foster
Publishers Anne Marie Creskey,
Jim Creskey, Ross Dickson
General Manager, CFO Andrew Morrow
EDITORIAL REAL ESTATE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
No easy solution in housing crisis
The average price of a house sold
he British Columbia government’s
in Canada rose 13 per cent to a record
decision to institute a 15 per cent
T
high of $509,460 in May, despite
tax on foreign home buyers in the
Vancouver region reads like smart
politics.
Wealthy foreign buyers, largely
from fast-growing markets in Asia,
are the easiest of targets in the
increasingly heated debate about
soaring prices in the Lower Mainland.
They are the safest to blame because
they don’t live here and, as the
narrative goes, are absentee owners
who simply use their purchases to
stash their immense wealth.
Their actual impact, however, is far
more elusive, with successive studies
failing to paint a clear picture.
Some blame foreigners for driving
the surging prices; others dispute
their impact.
It’s a compelling debate, but it’s a
distraction.
The real issue at the heart of
Canada’s real estate struggles
is generational.
First-time buyers are increasingly
struggling to find that seemingly
fabled reasonably priced starter
home, as surging prices put home
ownership out of reach for a
generation incessantly lectured about
its necessity. These pressures have also
pushed rental prices skyward.
Older homeowners, who likely
purchased their first property decades
ago when prices were lower and
starting salaries more robust, are faring
far better.
If they reside in a big city, the value
of their home has likely skyrocketed
in a trend that shows little sign of
abating.
unemployment sitting at nearly seven
per cent. In the Vancouver region, the
benchmark price of a detached home now
sits at $1.4-million. The average price of
a new house in the Greater Toronto Area
has also soared above $1 million.
In an economic landscape marked
by stagnant wages and sky-high real
estate prices, seemingly detached from
economic pressures, homeownership
has become even more vital.
So what are governments left to do?
Hike interest rates?
Demand larger down payments?
The federal government is
preaching caution, warning that
any drastic change could seriously
deflate prices and erode the equity
Canadians have built in their homes.
Instead, the Liberals have promised to
invest millions to bolster the stock of
affordable housing units in the country.
It’s perhaps the safest route in a
crisis with no good solutions.
An interest rate hike could have
serious ramifications for overextended
homeowners, among others. Remember,
Canadians ended 2015 with a recordhigh debt burden, with households
having more than $1.65 in debt for every
dollar of annual disposable income,
according to Statistics Canada.
Meanwhile, requiring larger
down payments will only squeeze
out Canadians who cannot afford to
save such a large amount of money,
especially cash-strapped prospective
first-time buyers.
With choices like that, don’t expect
any easy solutions to this crisis.
Don’t just boost disaster
funding—minimize disasters
R
e: “Liberals promise plan to bolster
emergency preparedness as extreme
weather events surge,” (The Hill Times,
July 20, online). The report by office of the
parliamentary budget officer that Craig
Stewart cited found sharp jumps in federal
disaster payments. But Ontario barely appears. Between 2005 and 2014, it received
$9 per capita while Alberta received $427,
Manitoba $598, and Saskatchewan $722.
Why does Ontario need relatively minimal assistance? The report stresses differences in floodplain regulations. Ontario’s
70-year old Conservation Authorities Act requires land and water management integrated on a watershed basis. For decades, the 36
watershed agencies have excluded develop-
ment from floodplains, managed watersheds
to moderate floods, saved wetlands, planted
trees, maintained strategically placed dams,
monitored river flows, updated floodplain
mapping, and reviewed development plans.
A lesson for climate change: don’t just
boost disaster funding—minimize disasters
by integrating land and water management. And by planning for 100 per cent
renewable energy by 2050, switching subsidies from fossil fuel to green energy, setting
a carbon fee, judging energy projects for
emissions including downstream product
use, and paying our carbon debt to the
Global South. As soon as possible.
Elizabeth Snell
Guelph, Ont.
Divert military resources from offensive
action to emergency preparedness
e: “Liberals promise plan to bolster
would see some positive results: less war,
R
emergency preparedness as extreme
less destruction, and maybe even decreased
weather events surge” (The Hill Times, July
carbon emissions and better emergency
20, online). Sadly, since the world has been
fiddling while Rome burns, bolstering emergency preparedness is now vital.
Ironically, the military contributes
greatly to carbon emissions that cause
climate instability and therefore creates
further risk-multipliers around the world.
The military is now contributing to the need
for the military.
Wouldn’t it be a better idea to divert
military resources from offensive action
to emergency preparedness? At least we
services for the extreme weather events that
are now inevitable.
However, increasing preparedness must
not come at the expense of mitigation. It is
crucial that we cease damaging the Earth’s
climate systems. The quickest way to take the
biggest bite out of the problem is with carbon
pricing. The fairest, most effective, and quickest way to price carbon is with a revenueneutral carbon fee and dividend policy.
Cathy Lacroix
Toronto, Ont.
Globalists the big losers with Brexit
A
popular revolution against globalism is
well underway globally and globalists
like George Soros with his political, financial, and media-elite friends are not happy.
Britain may well have struck the first blow
in a populist movement that could see more
European Union members have their own
referendums to leave, and the distinct possibility of the eventual unravelling of the EU.
The elitist overlords of the EU are discovering that taking away borders and superimposing manufactured civic identities
over once-proud nations and cultures with
their own rich and complex histories is not
working and runs contrary to basic human
psychology. The British rightly concluded
that any economic advantages they enjoyed
in the EU were more than offset by their
loss of freedom and sovereignty, and that
they were now at the mercy of unelectable
and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels.
The American version of Brexit is on
clear display in the United States election
campaign, with the surprising support for
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The dis-
EDITORIAL
SENIOR REPORTERS Tim Naumetz and Laura Ryckewaert
REPORTER, POWER & INFLUENCE ASSISTANT
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Dennis Gruending, Cory Hann, Tim Harper, Chantal Hébert,
Jenn Jefferys, David T. Jones, Joe Jordan, Warren Kinsella,
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Peckford, Kate Purchase, Tim Powers, Michael Qaqish,
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PRODUCTION
trust and contempt of ordinary Americans
for the political establishment has never
been greater.
The debate between elitism and populism is not new to Canada, and was in fact
what brought Preston Manning’s Reform
Party to Ottawa in 1993.
Justin Trudeau is currently riding high
in the polls but his decisions to ignore public opinion in fast-tracking Syrian refugees
into the country, pulling our jets out of the
fight against ISIS and opting for deficit
spending could come back to haunt him in
the 2019 election if he continues to ignore
the silent majority.
Jason Kenney was right with his congratulatory remark that Britain had chosen
“hope over fear.”Tony Clement’s comment
that Brexit was a “magnificent exercise in
democracy” was timely and a reminder to
the federal Liberals that ordinary citizens
in Canada want a say in electoral reform
through a referendum.
Gerald Hall
Nanoose Bay, B.C.
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9
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
GLOBAL AFFAIRS U.S. ELECTION
A glimpse of a Trump presidency
controlled machine-guns that respond to those attempts. There are
also landmines down in the ditch.
Why is it so lethal? Because long
experience has shown that the
only way to really close a border is
to kill people who try to cross it.
The “wall” is not yet finished in
July 2017, of course. It will take
several years to complete, at a cost
of $30 to $50 billion. Already, however, there are daily deaths among
the tens of thousands of Mexican
protesters who gather at the construction sites, and a few among
Mexican-American protesters on
the other side of the fence as well.
The Mexican government,
faced with economic disaster as
the millions of manufacturing
jobs created in Mexico to export
back to the United States evaporate, has broken diplomatic relations with Washington, as have
several other Latin American
nations. U.S. State Department
experts are worried that a radical
nationalist regime may come to
power in Mexico, but “establishment experts” are not welcome in
the new White House.
Negotiations for a Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership
between the U.S. and European
Union have been broken off, and
the Trans-Pacific Partnership will
never be ratified by Congress. The
legislation for double-digit tariffs
on foreign imports is still making
its way through Congress, as is the
bill to end the North American Free
Trade Agreement (which is causing
panic in Canada, about threequarters of whose exports go to the
United States).
The new laws will go through in
the end, and the most important casualty will be U.S.-China trade (as
Trump fully intends it to be). China
is already in a thinly disguised
recession, and the impact of the
new trade measures will turn it into
a political crisis that threatens the
survival of the Communist regime.
Beijing will certainly respond
by pushing forward with the
proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which
would include 16 nations of the
Asia-Pacific region but exclude
the United States. However, it
may also manufacture a military
confrontation with the United
States to distract popular discontent at home with a foreign threat.
The dispute over the South China
Sea would do nicely.
Japan, which is starting a major military build-up after Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe finally removed the anti-war Article 9 from
the constitution in March 2017,
will be at America’s side in this
confrontation, but its European
allies may not. Trump’s pro-Putin
posture has not gone down well in
the EU, which worries about Russia’s intentions, and his demands
that Europe’s NATO members pay
more of the alliance’s costs have
not helped either.
The European Union, still in
shock after Britain’s Brexit vote in
2016, has been further shaken by
the near-win of Marine Le Pen, the
leader of the far-right, anti-EU National Front, in the May run-off of
the French presidential elections.
The spectre of EU collapse comes
nearer, and Europe has no time for
America’s Asian quarrels.
In the United States, the economy is still chugging along despite
the stock-market crash of November 2016. Trump’s big increase in the
military budget, his huge expansion
of infrastructure spending (with
borrowed money) and the rise in
the minimum wage have kept the
machine turning over for the time
being. The effect of declaring a trade
war on the rest of the world is not
yet being felt at home, but it will be.
And it’s only July 2017. Trump
still has another three and a half
years in the White House.
Gwynne Dyer is a United
Kingdom-based independent
journalist.
The Hill Times
Latvia, and Lithuania—by noting that he would examine their
current military contributions to
NATO before committing to their
collective defence. Trump’s statements fly in the face of Article 5
of NATO’s founding treaty, which
guarantees a collective defence
against outside aggression for all
member nations, with no caveats
regarding individual defence
spending.
Canada should be particularly
alarmed at the very real possibility that this blowhard buffoon
could soon be elected as commander-in-chief of the world’s
largest military machine.
At present, Canada would be
considered one of the shirkers in
the NATO club, as we spend only
about one per cent of our GDP on
the Canadian Armed Forces. To
match Trump’s demands, Canada
would need to double its defence
budget from $20 billion to $40
billion annually. While this comes
as welcome music to the ears of
the war-mongering Colonel Blimp
Brigade, right-thinking Canadians
will realize that this would mean
forfeiting $20 billion from other
current government services.
The additional massive expenditure would also in no way
make Canada any safer. We are
blessed by geography to be surrounded on three sides by natural
ocean-sized moats. Our single
land border is with the U.S. and,
given the comparative military
strengths, that boundary will
remain unchallenged until such
time as a future U.S. administration chooses to adjust it.
Regarding the Baltic states,
Canada should also heed what
Trump is spouting. As part of
NATO’s ongoing propaganda
campaign to demonize Russia, it
was decided to stage a pre-emptive deterrent in the Baltic states.
Contrary to a prior agreement
with post-Soviet Russia, wherein
non-indigenous NATO troops
would not be based east of the
German border, Canada will be
part of a four-nation force leading
the deployment of combat troops
in the Baltic region.
As a sop to the Russians, these
soldiers will be patrolling the
Baltic borders on a permanent,
rotational basis.
Russia has rightly denounced
this new deployment as an unnecessary provocation, since, as full
NATO members, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are all guaranteed collective defence in the case
that Russia would be suicidal
enough to violate their borders.
That was of course the case
until The Donald boasted that, as
president, his U.S. military would
be checking out defence budget receipts before picking and
choosing which NATO members
to protect.
The 4,000 troops sent by NATO
to the Baltic states have been
described as a tripwire force,
with keen-eyed tactical analysts
predicting they would not last 60
hours in full combat with Vladimir Putin’s Legion of Doom. Under Article 5 of the NATO treaty,
that 60-hour window should have
been enough time for the Good
Old U.S.A. to unleash a full-sized
can of whoop-ass on these landcrazy Ruskies, and this would
result in a glorious Hollywood
ending.
In a Trump world, however, these shirkers in the Baltic
states—which now includes an
under-spending Canadian military contingent—can bet that the
U.S. cavalry will not be riding in
to save the day.
These are going to be very
interesting times indeed.
Scott Taylor is editor and
publisher of Esprit de Corps
magazine.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
With Trump elected
president, China
may manufacture
a military
confrontation with
the United States
to distract popular
discontent at home
with a foreign
threat, predicts
Gwynne Dyer. Photo
Let’s suppose it’s
July 2017 and Trump
has won the U.S.
election. The policy
shockwaves are
hitting Canada,
China, the EU,
and Mexico hard.
courtesy of Gage
Skidmore
GWYNNE DYER
L
ONDON, U.K.—Let us suppose that it is July 2017. Let
us suppose that Donald Trump,
nominated as the Republican
candidate for the United States
presidency exactly a year ago,
won the November election—
quite narrowly, perhaps, but the
polls are certainly suggesting that
such a thing is possible. So he
was inaugurated six months ago,
and has started to put his campaign promises into effect.
We may also assume that the
Republican Party retains control
of both houses of Congress. If it
doesn’t, then Trump’s ability to execute his plans would be seriously
circumscribed, but the surge of
support that gives Trump victory
would probably also give the Republicans a win in some close Senate races. The Republican majority
in the House of Representatives,
thanks to extensive gerrymandering, is practically fireproof.
Trump’s three most disruptive
campaign promises were also the
three that had the most appeal to
his core voters, and he is implementing them fast. They are: a
tariff on foreign imports of up to
45 per cent, an end to free trade
deals, and tight curbs on immigration—especially the famous
“wall” on the Mexican border
It won’t actually be a wall,
of course. It will be the kind of
high-tech barrier that countries
build when they are really serious
about closing a frontier. There
will be a ditch about three metres
deep and 10 metres wide extending for 3,000 kilometres along the
U.S.-Mexican border. It will have
a three-metre-high razor-wire
fence along the front edge of the
ditch, facing Mexico, and another
along the back edge.
The front fence has a highvoltage current running through it.
The back fence carries the video
and infra-red cameras and motionsensors that detect attempts to
cross the ditch, and the remotely
INSIDE DEFENCE U.S. ELECTION
In a Trump world,
Canada’s Baltic
force less protected
The U.S. cavalry will
not be riding in to
save the day if the
countries Trump calls
NATO freeloaders
don’t pay.
SCOTT TAYLOR
O
TTAWA—Now that the dust
has settled in Cleveland following the United States Republican
Party National Convention, it is
time for the world to start bracing
for the all-too-frightening prospect
of Donald Trump actually becoming the next American president.
For Mexicans, this means they
should start setting aside some
money now to build that wall Trump
insists he will install once elected.
During his acceptance speech
last Thursday, Trump also set his
sights on the NATO alliance, particularly those countries that do not
spend the arbitrarily assigned two
per cent of their gross domestic
product (GDP) on military budgets.
Trump has bombastically
stated that such shirkers would
not automatically be guaranteed
U.S. military protection should he
be occupying the Oval Office next
January.
In particular, Trump singled
out the Baltic states—Estonia,
10
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
PLAIN SPEAK JUSTICE
Supreme Court,
like Parliament,
can accommodate
unilingual members
Language and
its nuances are
important, but they
shouldn’t be nonnegotiable when it
comes to who sits in
judgment of us.
TIM POWERS
T
he prime minister soon has
another important choice to
make. Justice Thomas Cromwell
will be stepping down from
the Supreme Court of Canada
on Sept. 1 and will need to be
replaced. This will be Justin
Trudeau’s first appointment to the
highest court in the land.
Cromwell’s seat on the court
by convention is designated as
an Atlantic Canadian place. Who
from the region will replace him?
Will Newfoundland and Labrador
finally get a representative on the
court?
Since Newfoundland and
Labrador joined Canada in 1949
they have never had anyone on
the top bench in the land. Sixtyseven years as part of the country
and no one from the Rock has
been deemed as qualified for the
role. While this omission hasn’t
led to rioting in the streets or the
premier flying flags at half-mast,
it still a source of frustration to
many.
Blood started to boil again
last week in the East when a
headline from the Globe and Mail
screamed out, “Newfoundland to
remain without a judge on Supreme Court.” If Newfoundlanders still got physical copies of the
Globe, as hard copies of the paper
aren’t delivered there any longer,
the province’s litter boxes would
have been well lined.
The Globe reported that “the
Liberals have decided no one from
the province fits its qualifications
for the country’s highest court –
and a lack of bilingual candidates
appears to be the stumbling
block.” The paper referenced that
the Justice department said at
least one judge on a lower court
is functionally bilingual and six
others are taking French lessons.
According to Globe justice
correspondent Sean Fine, despite
the prime minister setting up a
committee to identify someone
and the province publicly
advocating for a Newfoundlander
or Labradorian on the court, no
one fits the bill.
The only on-record comment
being made by the federal
government to date is that
no appointment process has
been announced yet. That is
tepid response for many in
Newfoundland and Labrador who
feel this is a matter of fairness. The
fairness argument is not likely to
win many supporters outside of
the province who will argue that
the bilingualism requirement is a
simple fact of life when seeking a
higher-level federal appointment,
be that as a judge or as director in
a federal department.
While it may be a fact of life,
should bilingualism or a lack thereof
be the make-or-break requirement
to sit on the court? This is more
problematic if used as a roadblock
in era where simultaneous
translation is readily available and
used by the parliamentarians who
make the laws.
Look, I am not looking to
start a language or cultural war.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have to make his first appointment to
the Supreme Court of Canada after Justice Thomas Cromwell steps down in
September. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Lord knows I wish my French
were better. But when it comes to
putting judges on the Supreme
Court I suspect I am not alone
in hoping for the appointment
of a jurist with significant legal
experience, sound judgment, and
a long record of success in his
or her profession. Integrity and
respect from various elements of
the legal community would also
be part of the pedigree.
What percentage of Supreme
Court matters are heard or
administered in French? Is it so
statistically significant that it
would impair a justice lacking
bilingual capacity? Hopefully, if in
fact “no appointment process” is
truly underway, these matters will
get addressed. Language and its
nuances are important, but they
shouldn’t be non-negotiable when it
comes to who sits in judgment of us.
Newfoundland and Labrador
has many top justices with long
and positive records. They should
not be dismissed for consideration
for a position on the Supreme
Court of Canada because they are
lacking bilingualism.
[email protected]
OPINION GREEN PARTY CONVENTION
Greens should vote
to revoke Jewish
National Fund
charitable status
Ottawa needs to
stop subsidizing
discriminatory
land covenants.
YVES ENGLER
D
espite a backlash evocative of
those who defended the Jim
Crow-era United States South,
Green Party members recently
voted in favour of a resolution
calling on Ottawa to stop subsidizing racist land covenants. In
August the Greens will make a
final decision on whether they
support the principles underlying
a half-century old Supreme Court
of Canada decision outlawing
discriminatory land-use policies.
Green Party member Corey
Levine has put forward a resolu-
tion calling on the party to pressure the Canada Revenue Agency
to revoke the Jewish National
Fund of Canada’s charitable
status. The Independent Jewish
Voices Canada activist crafted
a motion criticizing the JNF’s
“discrimination against non-Jews
in Israel through its bylaws which
prohibit the lease or sale of its
lands to non-Jews.”
In response to this exercise
in party democracy, B’nai Brith
Canada and the Centre for Israel
and Jewish Affairs asked their supporters to write party leader Elizabeth May about the motion, which
is seen by critics to be anti-Semitic.
The Jewish Defence League of
Canada, a far-right group, said it
would protest at the party’s August
convention in Ottawa.
Backlash aside, the Greens’
JNF resolution affirms a principle
enunciated by the Supreme Court
60 years ago. Into the 1950s, restrictive land covenants in many
exclusive neighbourhoods and
communities across Canada made
it impossible for Jews, blacks,
Chinese, aboriginals, and other
non-“whites” to buy property.
In 1948 Annie Noble decided
to sell a cottage in the exclusive
Beach O’ Pines subdivision on Lake
Huron to Bernie Wolf, who was Jewish. During the sale, Wolf’s lawyer
realized that the original deed for
the property contained the following clause: “The lands and premises
herein described shall never be
sold, assigned, transferred, leased,
rented or in any manner whatsoever alienated to, and shall never
be occupied or used in any manner
whatsoever by any person of the
Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic, Negro
or coloured race or blood, it being
the intention and purpose of the
Grantor, to restrict the ownership,
use, occupation and enjoyment of
the said recreational development,
including the lands and premises
herein described, to persons of the
white or Caucasian race.”
Noble and Wolf tried to get the
court to declare the restriction
invalid but they were opposed by
the Beach O’ Pines Protective Association and both a Toronto court
and the Ontario Court of Appeal
refused to invalidate the racist
covenant. But Noble and Wolf
pursued the case, with assistance
from the Canadian Jewish Congress, to the Supreme Court of
Canada. In a 6-to-1 decision, the
highest court reversed the lower
courts’ rulings and allowed Wolf
to purchase the property.
The publicity surrounding the
case prompted Ontario to pass a
law voiding racist land covenants
and in 2009 the federal government defined the Noble et al. v.
Alley Supreme Court case “an
event of national historic signifi-
B’nai Brith Canada
and the Centre for
Israel and Jewish
Affairs asked their
supporters to write
Green Party leader
Elizabeth May,
pictured in June,
about the motion
seeking to revoke the
Jewish National Fund
of Canada’s charitable
status, which is seen
by critics to be antiSemitic. The Hill Times
photograph by Jake Wright
cance” in the battle, according to
a local MP, “for human rights and
against discrimination on racial
and religious grounds in Canada.”
Six decades after the Supreme
Court delivered a blow to racist
property covenants, 62 per cent
of Green members have voted for
a resolution calling on Ottawa to
end its support for a charity that
discriminates in land use abroad.
An owner of about 13 per cent
of Israel’s land, JNF bylaws and
lease documents contain a restrictive covenant stating its property
will not be leased to non-Jews. A
1998 United Nations Committee
on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights report found it systematically discriminated against Palestinian citizens of Israel (Arab Israelis) who make up a fifth of the
population. According to the UN
report, JNF lands are “chartered
to benefit Jews exclusively,” which
has led to an “institutionalized
form of discrimination.” Echoing
the UN, a 2015 U.S. State Department report detailing “institution-
al and societal discrimination” in
Israel says JNF “statutes prohibit
sale or lease of land to non-Jews.”
The report notes that in response to a 2005 attorney general
ruling, the Israeli government
“agreed to compensate the JNF
for any land it leased to an Arab
by transferring an equal amount
of land from the Israel Lands Administration to the JNF.” But that
doesn’t change the fact that the
JNF’s bylaws are discriminatory.
Yet JNF Canada, which raised
$29 million in 2014, is a registered
charity. As such, it can provide
tax credits for donations, meaning that part of its budget effectively comes from public coffers.
The Green Party should ignore
the right-wing backlash and uphold the principle that discriminatory land-use policies are wrong.
Yves Engler is the author of
eight books. His latest is Canada
in Africa: 300 Years of Aid and
Exploitation.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
11
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEED TO KNOW U.S. ELECTION
Americans will find out Nov. 8
what kind of country they have
Clinton’s runningmate announcement
gave her campaign
a much-needed
energy burst.
LES WHITTINGTON
O
TTAWA—For the first time
in many months, Hillary
Clinton’s election campaign was
infused with a burst of energy as
she introduced running mate Tim
Kaine.
Standing behind the Virginia
senator during an appearance
in Florida, Clinton seemed
ecstatic, even relieved, to have
the personable, politically astute
Kaine on her team as she readies
for an electoral battle with no
known parameters or guideposts.
If it weren’t enough to have a
totally unpredictable and freeform Republican standard-bearer
in Donald Trump, the Democrats
headed into their convention in
Philadelphia under the shadow of
an email scandal over anti-Bernie
Sanders bias, searing internal
divisions, and hints of a stunning
international scandal involving
alleged Russian skulduggery to
help Trump.
In this unfolding political minefield, it’s easy to see why Clinton
would be happy to have an experienced, centrist vice-presidential
candidate by her side.
A former Virgina governor and
successful mayor, Kaine has never
lost an election. As the son of an
ironworker, a longtime civil rights
lawyer, a fluent Spanish speaker,
and a staunch Catholic, he should
help Clinton shore up support
among African-Americans,
Latinos, and swing-state voters.
While labelled boring by
some, his first speech in Miami on
Saturday as the Democrats’ vicepresidential candidate was so
compelling that commentators
were wondering what he could
possibly do for an encore in
his address to the Democratic
convention. In fact, Kaine may
be a better campaigner than
Clinton, which could in time raise
questions of a different order.
The choice of a centrist over
a leftist firebrand like Bernie
Sanders or Massachusetts
Senator Elizabeth Warren
of course disappointed the
Democrats’ burgeoning
progressive wing, which was
particularly concerned over
Kaine’s past support for freetrade deals and his wobbly
position on abortion rights.
But it’s obvious that the
Clinton team made the calculation that those on the left have nowhere else to go and will realize
that staying home on Nov. 8 risks
helping put Trump in office.
Before the vice-presidential
pick, Sanders had already endorsed
Clinton. And he recognizes that
stopping Trump will in the end be
the overriding goal of his party.
Of Kaine, Sanders told CNN:
“Tim is an extremely bright guy,
a very nice guy. Are his political
views different than mine? Yes,
they are. He is more conservative
than I am.
“But compared to Donald
Trump, a guy who rejects science,
doesn’t even believe that climate
change is real, let alone that
we have to take bold action to
transform our energy system, a
Donald Trump who wants to give
hundreds of billions of dollars in
tax breaks to the top two-tenths of
one per cent, a Donald Trump who
goes around the country insulting
Mexicans and Latinos and
Muslims and women, veterans,
and African-Americans. Trust me,
on—on his worst, worst, worst day,
Tim Kaine is 100 times better than
Donald Trump will ever be.”
Clinton needs all the help
she can get. The combination of
her so far ho-hum performance
and the widespread dislike
and distrust of her among U.S.
voters has against all reasonable
expectations provided an opening
for Trump’s unprecedented
presidential quest.
Rather than the expected
attempt by Trump at the Republican convention to broaden his
support with a dose of moderation, the billionaire developer
reinforced his extremist appeals
to Americans’ fears, frustrations,
and resentments with a dark vision of the U.S. in decline, threatened by immigrants, criminals,
terrorists, and cheating foreign
governments.
Trump’s depiction of himself
in Cleveland as an authoritarian
law-and-order candidate and a
kind of American Caesar who
could instantly (and magically)
fix the economic, social, and
crime problems facing the
U.S. was a shocking affront to
America’s democratic traditions.
And then there’s his nightmarish vision of a country where millions of would-be immigrants are
being rounded up and deported,
where a wall is being built along
the Mexican border, where no one
from a country seen by Trump
as compromised by terrorism
(read Muslims) is allowed into the
United States, where support for
the U.S.’s allies hinges on their
financial contributions to NATO,
where U.S. trading partners are
held up for ransom, and where
civil rights take a back seat to
police enforcement.
Most stunning of all, however,
is the way this is all being debated in the U.S. on an equal footing
with the Democrats’ proposals to
broaden anti-trust laws, increase
the minimum wage, ease university graduates’ debt burdens, and
other more or less pragmatic,
gradualist approaches.
And while some Republicans
such as columnist George Will
and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake
have said they can’t stomach
Trump, it’s disturbing in the extreme to see how many GOP figures have set aside their qualms
and consciences in the name of
power at any cost.
Les Whittington is an Ottawa
journalist and a regular contributor to The Hill Times.
[email protected]
The Hill Time
OPINION TIM KAINE
A Tolkienesque look at the U.S. election
It felt like ‘Mount
Doom, here we
come,’ after last
week’s Republican
convention. But
then there was a
ray of sunlight.
JIM CRESKEY
O
TTAWA—Watching the Republican National Convention
from Canada was like gazing at
the ominous distant mountains
of Mordor from a peaceful round
doorway in Hobbiton.
The brew of hate and fear woven
into grim nationalist sentiments was
so potent that it got many Canadian
hobbits worrying that this sunny
Shire might one day have to defend
itself from a Donald Trump-led
Washington. How to prepare?
It would be a good start to reject
the idea that all Americans, especially all Republicans, are soulless foes.
Though orcish talk dominated the Cleveland presidential
convention, it was reassuring to
note that not every Republican
who filled the floor of delegates
thought and behaved like one of
J.R.R. Tolkien’s orcs.
Jim Wallis, who for decades has
been a voice of Christian evangelical
social justice for America’s poorest
people, wrote in his blog that he was
receiving messages from inside the
Republican convention.
They came, he said, from
“friends who are Christian, conservative, and Republican—feeling almost distraught about all
three of those core commitments.
One friend wrote me to say, ‘I am
close to losing it. The spirit is so
angry and hateful here.’”
The real danger is that Trumpism could easily and quietly slip
across the border, because it already has something of a foothold.
Canada, too, is at risk of having “politics treated as entertainment; cynicism about the political
process and public institutions,”
wrote the CBC’s Aaron Wherry.
He also included,“a diminished
media industry challenged to hold
politicians to account; a political
system that seems unresponsive to
the concerns of the public; a political culture that rewards polarization and extremes [and] the spectre
of exaggerated threats.”
Not exclusive to the Trump
campaign, the politics of fear
have to be challenged wherever
they are found.
But it was an especially dark
cloud that spread out from Cleveland following the Republican
convention. Trump’s reality-TV
marketing genius felt poised to
defeat the stiff and pedantically
rational Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s inapproachability factor
remained stuck in the red zone.
Even Michael Moore believed that
Trump could win because Hillary
Clinton could be beaten.
Back in Hobbiton, it seemed
like a case of “Mount Doom, here
we come”—until Tim Kaine showed
up on Saturday, speaking the Spanish he learned while volunteering
with the Jesuits in Honduras.
As Hillary Clinton’s newly announced running mate, Kaine did
in his Miami speech what Clinton
rarely accomplishes on her own.
He got the crowd chanting, “Hillary! Hillary!”
So likeable is the senator
from Virginia that, in a speech
impressive for its comfortable
and believable story telling, his
good vibes quickly rubbed off on
his ticket mate. Standing slightly
behind him on his right, she even
appeared to grow more relaxed
and approachable as he spoke.
Clinton, in her introduction
of Kaine, had to present him not
only as an accomplished potential
vice president but also as a man
who could make a competent
president. There may be more
truth in that than even Clinton
might care to admit.
Of course not every Democrat
thinks that Kaine is the saviour of
all things wholesome and civilized.
Two hours before Kaine gave
his Miami speech the “Bernie Delegates Network” began sending
out emails, calling Kaine “a loyal
servant of oligarchy.”
But anyone one who would
take a gap year from Harvard law
Virginia
Senator
and Hillary
Clinton’s
running
mate Tim
Kaine,
pictured in
June. Photo
courtesy U.S.
Department of
Education
school to teach trades like carpentry and iron working in Honduras,
as Kaine did, is a cut above the
ordinary rich man’s lap dog.
Honduras is now one of the
most dangerous countries in the
world. When Kaine worked there
in the 1980s it was caught up in
the militarization fostered by the
Ronald Reagan White House’s
war against the neighbouring
Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Today,
more than 60 per cent of the
population lives in poverty and
violence reigns.
No, Kaine may not be the
dream vice-president every
Sanders supporter is looking for.
Politically, he’s not Elizabeth Warren, but he brings a sea change
of approachability to the Democratic ticket.
Hillary Clinton’s likeability
reserve was running on near empty
before Kaine arrived. Overnight it
has improved to the degree that she
may now be able to beat the Trump
brand of slick negative marketing.
Marketing almost always
outsells rationality and logic. That
is why we eat so much junk food
and buy so many things we don’t
need. But in politics, as elsewhere,
marketing also has its limits.
There are times when a crappy
product can’t be sold, no matter
how slick the marketing.
The likable and comfortable
story telling in English and Spanish that Tim Kaine has brought to
the race can help overtake the marketing of Trump’s crappy product.
In the meantime Canadian
hobbits have just cause to worry
and hope—to worry that Trump
might get elected, and to hope
that he doesn’t.
Jim Creskey is the founding
editor and the publisher of The
Hill Times.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
12
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
OPINION CONSULAR AFFAIRS
Clockwise from top: Canadian permanent resident Khaled Al-Qazzaz is living in Egypt with his wife and family because
he has been barred from flying to Canada. Iranian-Canadian Saren Azer is wanted by Interpol for abducting his four
Canadian-born children. Canadian academic Homa Hoodfar is detained in Iran under unknown charges. Photos courtesy of
Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Minister Omar Alghabra is the Trudeau
government’s point man on consular affairs. The Hill Times photograph by Jake
Wright
freekhaledalqazzaz.com, Interpol, and Amanda Ghahremani
When a Canadian is not a Canadian
Canada needs a
better playbook
to help residents
and citizens in
trouble abroad.
GAR PARDY
O
TTAWA—When Khaled AlQazzaz decided in 2005 to
go back to Egypt with his wife,
Sarah Attia, little did he anticipate the dire circumstances he
would encounter.
A few years later, Egypt elected its first democratic government in its history, highlighting a
fitting end to months of turmoil.
Mr. Al-Qazzaz became a foreign
policy adviser to the new president, Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi carried the hopes of
millions of Canadians and others
around the world that this lynchpin country of the Middle East
was leading the way for others
in the region towards a brighter
future. The possibility of a Middle
Eastern political “spring” was the
hope of many.
The spring was a short one,
as the newly elected government
was overtaken by its own haste,
inexperience, and expectations,
generating conditions in which
the military was able to return to
power. Since then, the country is
mired in an Egyptian winter of
death, destruction, and decay.
President Morsi, along with
many of his aides and supporters including Mr. Al-Qazzaz,
was detained. Mr. Morsi remains
imprisoned.
Mr. Al-Qazzaz was imprisoned
for more than 500 days, but ongoing international support and representation led to his release in
January last year. Since then, he
has been prevented from leaving
Egypt and returning to Canada,
where he is a landed immigrant.
Mr. Al-Qazzaz’s situation is
not unique. There are tens of
thousands of Canadian residents
and citizens who return to their
countries of birth for a variety of
understandable reasons.
In recent weeks such Canadians have encountered serious
difficulties. In Bangladesh, a
student from a Canadian university remains detained apparently
for being an innocent victim of
a horrific murderous attack. A
Canadian father has tried to hide
in Iran in order to escape the
consequences of abducting his
four children. And a Canadian
academic with Iranian citizenship
is detained by security officials
for unexplained reasons.
Unlike historical migrations to Canada that involved
a one-way trip and the ending
of familial and other connections, people born abroad but
living in Canada now have more
chance to stay connected with
their homelands. Other migratory countries face a similar
situation. It is a common aspect
of modern migration with, for
many, a former life only several
air-hours away, or seconds for
direct communications.
Unfortunately, affected governments have had trouble adjusting,
and international law even more
so, to these increasingly common
aspects of international travel.
Many countries are not willing
to accept Canada has a legitimate
interest in ensuring such Canadians (or foreign-born residents)
are treated in accordance with
international norms and standards. Equally troubling is that
many countries are unwilling to
recognize the Canadian citizenship of those who hold it.
International law is weak to
non-existent in this area. While
there is an international convention on the provision of consular
services, its weak provisions offer
very little comfort in many of
these situations.
Equally, there are no specific international agreements or
understanding outside of broad
international human rights law
of the right of Canada and other
migratory-destination countries
to offer protection to persons who
are not citizens.
Canada does not help itself in
these matters. There is a reluctance to intervene in cases when
a Canadian resident encounters
serious difficulty in a foreign
country. Usually in response, ministers and officials state: “There
are limits to what any country can
do for individuals who are not
citizens of that country.” But they
piously iterate that “the government continues to monitor the
situation closely.”
In fact, there are no limits to
what a country can try to do to
assist such persons. Whether the
other country will accept such
efforts by Canada is an entirely
separate issue; but not to try is
an abdication of an appropriate
responsibility.
Complicating assistance in such
cases is the continuing existence of
the historical convention of “Crown
prerogative.” It provides discretion
to the government for the denial
of assistance to even Canadian
citizens in difficulty overseas.
There were indications earlier
this year that the Trudeau government might be willing to disavow the
use of this discretion, but so far nothing specific has been announced.
The continued existence of this
discretion undermines the ability
of the government to provide consular services generally. It is particularly ironic that the discretion
continues even though Canadians
specifically pay for such services
to the tune of approximately $100
million annually. This is a serious
anomaly since the government
collects monies for a service it admits to no compulsion to provide.
Gar Pardy is retired from the
Canadian foreign service, where
he was a director general of the
consular affairs bureau, among
other roles. His recently published
book, Afterwords: From a Foreign
Service Odyssey, is available from
Amazon and Books on Beechwood.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
13
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
NEWS TRADE
Liberals’ expanded Colombia human rights
report still falls short: Rights advocates
Liberal MP
Mark Eyking
and other
members
of the
House Trade
Committee
will have
to decide
whether to
undertake
a study of
this year’s
report on
human rights
in Colombia
in the fall.
Unscrutinized mining
and oil investments
remain the ‘elephant
in the room’, says critic.
Continued from page 1
The annual report is the product of a
treaty signed between Canada and Colombia in 2010 after human rights groups protested the signing of a free trade agreement
between the two countries, citing persistent
human rights concerns in Colombia including violence against journalists, indigenous
groups, labour activists, and others.
The treaty on the human rights reports,
which at the time was the initiative of thenLiberal trade critic and current Treasury
Board President Scott Brison (Kings-Hants,
N.S.), requires each country to make
public a report each year on “the effect of
measures taken” under the trade agreement
between the two on human rights.
For the first time, the report this year
included a lengthy outline of human rights
issues in Colombia raised by groups who
made submissions to or were consulted
by the government, ranging from death
threats made against indigenous and social
justice activists to barriers to unionization
and child labour.
However, the report concludes that
“despite concerns raised regarding the
human rights situation in Colombia, as in
past years, it has not been possible to draw
a direct link between the tariff reductions
taken under the [Canada-Colombia free
trade agreement] and human rights.”
By failing to make that leap, Canada has
missed an opportunity to take a lead role in
the world on the subject of human rights,
said Mark Rowlinson, who works with the
United Steelworkers Union in Canada.
“If we’re going to take a leadership
role in being a voice for human rights in
the world, it seems to be me these trade
agreements are one of the very main levers
that we have in order to set a standard for
human rights,” he said.
The report also fell short by failing to
include benchmarks for improvement of
human rights in Colombia, he said.
‘First time’ report actually tackles
rights: Amnesty
Under the Conservatives, critics
accused the government of using a fairly
narrow interpretation of what “the effect of
measures taken” under the trade agreement
meant, investigating only whether changes
in import tariffs had had a direct impact
on human right is Colombia. Each year,
the report concluded that those changes
had not, despite continuing human rights
violations in the country that at times were
allegedly linked to Canadian companies
operating there.
This year’s report, the first tabled by
the Liberal government, made the same
conclusion, though it did list many of the
concerns raised around human rights in
Colombia.
“This is a human rights report and for
the first time we’re seeing some content
about human rights in Colombia,” said
Kathy Price, a human rights campaigner
for Amnesty International.
Reports from previous years did briefly
mention human rights concerns such as
child labour, before noting that they predated the trade agreement.
However,“the elephant in the room remains the issue of investment,” particularly in
the resource-extraction sector, said Ms. Price.
The Hill Times
photograph by
Jake Wright
The report was released weeks after a
report by the International Federation for
Human Rights (FIDH) and a pair of Colombian human rights organizations alleging
that Toronto-based oil company Pacific
Exploration & Production Corp. and its
contractors in Colombia were involved in
using pressure tactics, including the threat
of termination, to discourage employees
from unionizing.
Pacific Exploration “completely and
categorically disagree[s] with the report’s
findings,” spokesperson Melissa Mackie
wrote in an emailed statement.
The government report’s only mention of Pacific Exploration is a description
of a greenhouse gas emissions reduction
program the company implemented in
partnership with Canada’s government.
The report acknowledges that the
Canada-Colombia free trade deal, which
was implemented in 2011, “provides greater
stability and predictability for Canadian
exporters, service providers, and investors,”
particularly those in the mining, oil and gas,
agriculture, and manufacturing sectors.
The report acknowledges concerns
raised by groups such as the United
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Steelworkers and Amnesty International
about human rights violations connected
to mining projects, often including
indigenous people being forcibly cleared
from land used for those projects by
paramilitary groups.
The report also summarized efforts
by the government and partners in the
extractive industry to address and prevent
human rights issues connected to the
sector, such as the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative.
However, the human rights concerns
made in submissions to the government
fall outside the scope of the report, it says,
as they are connected to general economic
trends or other factors that were not
caused by the trade deal.
The narrow language of the treaty
should either be expanded to allow
for a more meaningful report, or the
government should do a separate and
more comprehensive assessment of its
own on human rights in Colombia and
table it during a session of Parliament,
instead of “on a sleepy day in July when
no one is really around in Ottawa,” said
Mr. Rowlinson.
Trade committee has next move
After the treaty requiring the annual
report was signed in 2010, Mr. Brison told
the CBC that the report would allow a
parliamentary committee to examine the
human rights situation in Colombia each
year, including by calling witnesses to testify.
However, the House Trade Committee
did so only once, in 2012.
This year’s report will be sent to the
trade committee, Global Affairs Canada
confirmed, but as has always been the case,
it will be up to the committee to decide
whether to begin a study on it.
NDP MP Tracey Ramsey (Essex, Ont.),
a committee member and her party’s trade
critic, will press for the committee to undertake that study, according to an emailed
statement from her office.
Liberal MP Mark Eyking (Sydney, N.S.),
the committee chair, said the committee
would be busy going forward studying the
CETA trade deal with the European Union
and possibly something related to the
Brexit, but that it would decide during a fall
planning meeting whether to undertake a
study on the Colombia report.
[email protected]
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14
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
OPINION FOREIGN AID REVIEW
What we really,
really want is an
end to violence
against women
It’s not only a major
cause of death,
ill health, and
disability; it also
blocks opportunities
for women and girls
to escape poverty.
JULIE DELAHANTY
T
o mark its 20th anniversary,
artists from India to Nigeria
recently revamped the Spice
Girls’ world-famous Wannabe
video. What they “really, really
want” this time around is an end
to violence against women.
I really, really want that too.
Because I know that our world
continues to be an unequal, dangerous, and even deadly place for
women.
Women like Qandeel Baloch, a
social media sensation in Pakistan who was allegedly killed by
her brother earlier this month out
of a sick sense of honour. Women
like Berta Cáceres, who was
gunned down in her own home a
few months back for leading her
indigenous community in peace-
ful protests to defend their land.
Women like Claudette Osborne,
whose name didn’t even make the
headlines when she went missing
back in 2008, with news reports
attributing her disappearance to
her “lifestyle,” not to the pandemic
of violence against Aboriginal
women and girls in our country.
It is estimated that globally
one out of three women will be
physically or sexually assaulted
in her lifetime. In some countries,
rates of violence against women
are so high that we have a term
for it: femicide. Women around
the world continue to be afraid
to say no to sex, for fear of being
shamed, beaten, or even killed.
Access to birth control is often
limited, yet seeking an abortion is
difficult, stigmatized, and expensive. And in some countries, like
El Salvador, it is flat out illegal—
even to save a woman’s life. The
world over, unsafe abortions kill
as many 68,000 women a year.
And if they survive back-alley
abortions, women can end up
criminalized, with up to a life sentence for exercising control over
their own bodies. Like 21-year-old
Isabel Hernandez, jailed for 30
years under El Salvador’s draconian anti-abortion law.
I know from my work that this
violence is not only a major cause
of death, ill health, and disability; it also blocks opportunities
for women and girls to escape
poverty. It limits their control over
their own bodies and the choices
they can make. It impedes their
access to education, making it
harder to earn a living, become
independent, and participate in
public life.
But I also know Canada, led
by a feminist prime minister,
has an opportunity to become a
global leader on women’s rights
and gender equality, including
by helping put an end to violence
against women.
Canada is in the midst of
reviewing its international assistance framework, with a view
to putting women’s rights at the
heart of our aid agenda. With decisive action and investment, Canada can become a frontrunner in
pioneering a feminist approach to
development, joining only a small
handful of other countries that
have pledged to take this on.
A feminist approach is fundamentally new. It’s about being
bold in our ambition to finally
see real progress on women’s
rights. It’s about rethinking how
we work and whom we work
with. It’s about walking the talk
and ensuring that our financial
commitments match our level of
ambition.
Global Affairs should seize
this game-changing moment to
scale up its commitment to wom-
en’s rights and gender equality. It
can do so by ensuring that 20 per
cent of Canadian aid dollars is
dedicated to tackling the structural causes of inequality and
discrimination against women.
Looking beyond aid, Canada
can use diplomacy to advance its
feminist agenda and stop the rise
of violence against women. As an
example, it can call on the UN Security Council to put in place an
immediate embargo on the sale of
arms to South Sudan, a country
where women are already facing
terrifyingly high levels of violence and rape.
The government’s recent
decision to reinstate funding for
women’s rights organizations
doing advocacy work here at
home was a welcome relief, after
years of defunding and intimidation. The logical next step would
be to ensure that more of our
aid dollars go to women’s rights
organizations doing frontline
work in the Global South, just
like the feminist organizations
in El Salvador that are mobilizing to defeat a motion that would
increase jail sentences for women
like Isabel Hernandez.
An end to violence against
women: isn’t that what we all really, really want?
Julie Delahanty is the executive director of Oxfam Canada.
The Hill Times
OPINION FOREIGN AID REVIEW
International
Development
Minister MarieClaude Bibeau,
pictured in
January, is
reviewing Canada’s
international
assistance. It
should be guided
by the goal of
creating the most
impact possible,
writes Jeff Geipel.
If working with mining,
Canadian aid needs to
get more sophisticated
Rather than ask
whether Canadian
aid should work with
the private sector, we
need to decide under
what conditions this
should happen.
JEFF GEIPEL
I
n the Canadian government’s
current review of international
assistance, there is a great deal of
discussion on the role that the private
sector can play in global development.This review is taking place in
the context of the United Nations’
recently launched Sustainable
Development Goals, which correctly
recognize that the private sector
must be involved in order to create
the meaningful economic and social
development required to end poverty.
Of note for the government in
this regard is whether our international assistance should engage
with Canadian mining companies.
The previous Conservative govern-
ment undertook pilot projects that
saw Canadian aid funding go to
projects by non-governmental organizations that also received contributions from Canadian mining
companies. For example, in Ghana
the Canadian government provided
funding to a World University
Service of Canada project that Rio
Tinto contributed to as well.
These projects were controversial, to be sure. Many civil society
organizations attacked them as
Canadian aid money being spent
on projects in the service of controversial companies.
However, seemingly lost in this
debate was much discussion of the
actual merits of any of the projects
in question, and whether they
were an effective use of scarce
aid dollars. Their proponents
largely seemed content that aid
was involving the private sector
at all, and the actual outcomes of
the projects seemed of secondary
concern. Their opponents, on the
other hand, seemed unwilling to
ever consider whether real development and poverty reduction
could result from engaging with
the mining sector.
It is time that Canada becomes
more sophisticated in its aid work
that partners with the mining sector, and other parts of the private
sector for that matter as well. We
need to move past the question
of whether or not Canadian aid
should work with private sector
partners, to deciding under what
conditions this should happen,
and with which companies.
The question to be answered
when a new project of any kind is
proposed is whether it will lead to
meaningful economic and social
development as compared to
other projects. Put another way:
does this create the most impact
per aid dollar?
In some cases this may mean
that working with a Canadian mining company may actually result
in an effective aid project. With
mining historically contributing so
little to real development in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, for
example, this actually means the
opportunity to improve both governance and the economic impacts of
mining operations is large.
This also means that Canadian
aid money could at times be used
to work with non-Canadian companies, again, if it will lead to more
meaningful development than
other projects being considered by
Global Affairs Canada. Doing so
would also help ensure and signal
that we are moving away from “tied
aid” once and for all.
In other cases, however, working with the mining sector may not
be a suitable development strategy
for particular countries. Other
sectors and other companies will
simply offer far greater opportuni-
The Hill Times
photograph by Jake
Wright
ties to leverage the private sector
for development. In these cases, no
level of Canadian mining presence
in the country should bias where
our aid money goes.
What is particularly clear,
though, is that Canadian international assistance should not be
used for any sort of project that is
basically a philanthropic community investment program. It is the
responsibility of governments to
provide infrastructure and public
services, and neither Canadian
mining companies, nor NGOs,
should be taking that place.
Canadian mining companies do
not have providing social services
and building community centres
as their core competency. Having a
mining company donate to a local
soccer league or open a health
clinic is hardly harnessing the private sector for development.
Instead, if working with mining,
Canadian aid should focus on how
to leverage the most meaningful
potential impacts of private sector
activity, including skills training,
technology transfer, local purchasing, and shared infrastructure.
It is through these avenues that
countries including South Korea
and China leveraged incoming foreign direct investment to develop,
and these examples provide more
meaningful models of private sector engagement to guide our aid.
In addition, Canada will be
doing itself no favours by choosing
mining companies as partners that
engage in unethical behaviour such
as tax evasion or those who refuse
to adhere to the concept of free,
prior, and informed consent.
No company is perfect, of course,
and it can be very difficult to judge
allegations against mining companies for their actions in remote areas
overseas. At the very least, however, it seems reasonable to avoid
working with companies that have
consistently had allegations raised
against them from credible observers, when there is a large number to
choose from that have never faced
such consistent conflict.
It’s time to raise the bar on how
Canadian aid works with all parts
of the private sector, and especially
our mining sector. Our assistance
should be guided by the goal of
creating the most impact possible,
and we need to chose our partners
based on this above all else.
Jeff Geipel is the lead for Mining Shared Value, an initiative
supported by Engineers Without
Borders Canada.
The Hill Times
15
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
ENVOYS
DIPLOMATIC CIRCLES
B Y C H ELS EA N A S H
Outgoing Irish
ambassador not done
with Canada yet
I
rish Ambassador Ray Bassett is heading
out after six years in his posting here in
Ottawa, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be
back soon.
While Mr. Bassett is retiring from the
foreign service after a career of over 40
years, he’s sticking around in the world of
Canada-Ireland relations. He’s been asked
to be a director for the D’Arcy McGee
Institute, which promotes Irish-Canadian
relations, and he also said he plans to
stay involved with the Ireland Canada
University Foundation, which fosters
relationships between the two countries
by offering scholarships and exchange
programs.
He plans on travelling back and forth
between Ireland and Canada to carry on
with these roles, he told The Hill Times,
but he also wants to ensure he gives his
successor—Jim Kelly—some breathing
room.
With friends and family in Canada, Mr.
Bassett, like many Irish people, has many
ties to Canada. Fostering diaspora relations
is one way he was able to have a successful
mandate, he said.
“When I came in, there was a lot of
[people] in the government that their families
had migrated generations ago from Ireland.
At least I got a sympathetic ear, and I found
access very easy and good, which a lot of
people didn’t seem to do,” Mr. Bassett said.
When he first arrived in 2010, he said
his mandate was simple: Ireland was in
dire financial straits, and he needed to
appeal to the government of Canada for
support. His pleas did not fall on deaf ears.
“Canada was one of the most
sympathetic countries in the world,” he
said. “Particularly [the late Jim] Flaherty
and [Jason] Kenney (Calgary Mindapore,
Alta.). That ethnic link was a huge plus,”
referring to the Irish background of
both Conservative MPs. Mr. Bassett said
Stephen Harper (Calgary Heritage, Alta.)
and Mr. Flaherty were strong advocates
for Ireland at the International Monetary
Fund, and that Mr. Kenney worked hard to
increase the number of Irish youth coming
to Canada under the Working Holiday
Program, which allows Irish citizens under
35 to work or vacation in Canada, and vice
versa.
He said that the current government
is probably “a better reflection of real
Canada” in terms of ethnic background, but
that Irish roots can still be found.
Mr. Bassett is actually a friend of
Environment and Climate Change Minister
Catherine McKenna’s (Ottawa Centre,
Ont.) father, John McKenna. The two of
them went to school together in Ireland,
with Mr. McKenna a few years ahead of
Mr. Bassett. But, Mr. McKenna is part of the
Irish Canadian Club in Hamilton, where
he lives, and so the two men met before
Ms. McKenna even entered the Canadian
political scene.
Speaking of Irish-Canadians, Canada’s
ambassador to Ireland, Kevin Vickers, is of
entirely Irish descent as well.
Mr. Bassett said when he first arrived in
Ottawa, he received a summons from the
office of the sergeant-at-arms.
“So I was summoned up to meet the
Queen’s representative for rooting out
treason. He came in the room and said
‘we’re going to be friends.’ And you know
the size of Kevin? And we’ve been friends
for about six years,” he said. The pair used
to get tea or a beer about once a month
while they were both in Ottawa, and Mr.
Bassett said he’ll certainly be seeing Mr.
Vickers once he gets back to Dublin.
Of the kerfuffle that Mr. Vickers was
involved in, in which he manhandled a
protester at a ceremony in Dublin last May,
Mr. Bassett shrugged and said, “Kevin is
Kevin. And we love him.”
He said Mr. Vickers is loved in Ireland,
and that even the protester that Mr. Vickers
tackled to the ground said he had no problem with Mr. Vickers, whom Mr. Bassett
referred to using his first name.
“Kevin is very charming.”
Mr. Bassett said he has worked with politicians his entire life, and the secret to getting
their attention and their ear is to go local.
“All politics is local,” he said. “So
politicians and ministers tend to be much
more amenable and accessible, if you go to
their own area.”
He said he did a lot of travelling around
the country during his six years here, visiting
all 10 provinces. His favourite, however, is
P.E.I. Perhaps it reminds him of home.
Mr. Bassett will also be passing on the
position of dean of the European Group—
which includes a broader range of countries
than just the European Union—to Armenian
Ambassador Armen Yeganian. The dean of
the group is always the ambassador who
has been posted here the longest.
If you want to wish Mr. Bassett farewell
before he leaves Ottawa, you had better do
Ray Bassett, Ireland’s outgoing ambassador, says
to get the ear of the government, you’ve got to go
local. The Hill Times photograph by Chelsea Nash
it before August 12. He’ll be stopping in St.
John’s, Newfoundland, on his way back,
where he’ll be staying for a few days to say
goodbye to friends there as well.
[email protected]
@chels_nash
BIOTECHNOLOGY
& LIFE SCIENCES
POLICY BRIEFING
PUBLICATION DATE:
September 7, 2016
BOOKING DEADLINE:
September 2, 2016
I
n this public policy briefing, The Hill
Times will explore federal efforts to
encourage countries to allow grain
imports to contain trace amounts of
genetically modified products not
approved in the importing country.
Now that Health Canada has
approved genetically modified salmon
as safe for consumption, we’ll check
in on the agriculture minister’s request
that the House Agriculture Committee
“explore what steps should be taken
to best inform the public about
new products involving genetically
modified animals.”
We’ll also examine the implications of
an out-of-court settlement earlier this
year between an Ottawa hospital and
a global firm on patenting human
genes.
BE A PART OF
THIS IMPORTANT
POLICY BRIEFING.
Communicate with those most responsible
for Canada’s public policy decisions.
For more information or to reserve your government relations
and public affairs advertising space, contact The Hill Times
display advertising department at 613-688-8825.
16
The Hill Times, Wednesday, JUly 27, 2016
hill times classified
information and advertisement placement: tel. 613-232-5952, fax 613-232-9055
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GLEBE
CAREER OPPORTUNITY
PRACTICE LEAD,
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Engineers Canada fosters a work environment that challenges and empowers employees, promotes learning, teamwork and
innovation, and recognizes achievement. Employees aspire to a high-performance culture that is focused on results and combines
collaboration and clear direction with scope for autonomy.
Engineers Canada invites applications for the position of Practice Lead, Government Relations. The Practice Lead, Government
Relations conducts research, manages projects, monitors and reports on issues of concern, and develops the government relations
portfolio. Further, the Practice Lead takes a collaborative approach to implementing actions and activities which promote positive
image and outcomes for the profession.
• Exceptionalinterpersonalskillswiththeabilitytobuildrelationships and communicate effectively with and influence others.
• Demonstratesorganizationalability,problem-solvingskills,
and commitment to continuous improvement.
• Showsinitiativeandactsinaproactivemanner.
• Teamplayerwithapositiveattitudeandsolutions-focused
orientation.
• ProficientintheuseofMicrosoftOfficeapplicationsand
internet resources.
• Proficientintheuseofprojectmanagementprinciples,
practices, and tools.
• Experienceworkingwiththewidediversityofcultureswithin
the workforce and the community in general and a proven
abilitytobuildcredibilityinternallyandexternally.
• FluencyinEnglishandFrenchisrequired.
Qualified candidates are invited to submit a cover letter
and resume by email, no later than July 29, 2016 to
[email protected].
Two bedrooms plus den & family room,
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Policy andGovernment
Government Relations
Manager,
Relations
Engineers Canada provides national support and leadership to the engineering profession on behalf of its members, to promote and
maintain the integrity, honour and interests of the profession.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
• Universitydegreeinpoliticalscience,publicadministration,or
related discipline.
• Fiveyearsofexperienceinapolicy-relatedpositioninthefederal
government, a government relations position in a professional
association,orasimilarpositioninaconstituencyoffice.
• Experienceinidentifying,monitoringandevaluatinggovernment programs, projects, and services.
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KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
• Plansandmanagesgovernmentrelationsandpolitical
outreach strategy.
• RaisestheprofileoftheengineeringprofessionwithMembers
of Parliament, government, and other stakeholders.
• Conductsresearchanddraftsreportsongovernmentand
stakeholder activities.
• Identifies,monitorsandevaluateslegislationandregulatory
developments regarding issues of concern to the profession.
• Contributestothedevelopmentofdocuments,keymessaging,
letters, social media content, and other collateral required for
government relations and public affairs activities.
• Plansandcoordinatesvariousgovernmentrelationsand
public affairs meetings and events.
• Conductsresearch,managesprojects,anddevelopscharges
for committees and work groups related to this practice area
and engages committees in achieving these charges.
0030 Condos for Rent
Communications Coordinator
W
Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) is the national policy, lobbying and promotional
farmers
living onRelations
more thanCommunications
12,500 dairy farms.Coordinator
We are
eorganization
are currentlyrepresenting
seeking a Canada’s
Policy and
Government
for a
currently seeking a Manager, Government Relations to join our team based in Ottawa.
one-year term. Working out of our Ottawa office, the Coordinator is responsible for designing,
reviewing,
correcting
andRelations,
updatingyou
various
and government
relations
materials. Artistic
As Manager,
Government
will bepolicy
accountable
for organizing
and providing
comprehensive,
timely
and professional
in when
government
relations
flair, a keen
eye and graphic
design
skills mustadvice
be at and
the support
forefront
responding
to in-house needs for
to members,
seniorHe/She
management,
staff and
DFC. ThisRelations
includes the
communication
materials.
also assists
the stakeholders
Manager ofacross
Government
with the monitoring
development
and execution
of Government
planscommunications
and tactics.
of parliamentary
and political
developments,
lobbyRelations
efforts and
with politicians.
Reporting to the Director of Communications and Government Relations, you will:
As such, while reporting to the Assistant Director of Policy Communications, you will:
• Advise on government relations strategy and tactics.
• Supportthedevelopmentandimplementationofinternalandexternalcommunicationspertainingto
policy matters
and government
includes,
but is not
to: press releases,
• Attend
managementrelations
and otheractivities.
meetings This
across
DFC as required
to limited
keep abreast
statements, blogs,
backgrounders
factsheets;
of issues
that may haveand
government
relations-related implications. Develop a
• Keepabreastofallmattersthatmayhavecommunications-relatedimplicationsforpolicyandgovernment
comprehensive understanding of DFC’s programs, objectives and issues in order to
provide
value added
andon-going
relevant government
relations
and support.
relations, as well
as assisting
with the
management
of the advice
Crisis Communication
Protocol;
• Participatingintheorganizationofeventsandpreparationofrelatedcommunicationmaterial;
• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify their government relations priorities and needs.
• Taketheleadongraphicdesignactivities,identifyneedsforvisualswithinpolicyandgovernment
• Develop
government
strategies and plans that are aligned with
relations materials
andappropriate
ensure said
needs arerelations
fulfilled;
the stakeholders’ needs and expectations.
• Draft,editorreviewarticles,websitecontent,presentationsorotherdocuments,ensuringcontentis
accurate, tone
is consistent
and messages
are and
conveyed
• Monitor
and analyse
parliamentary
politicalproperly;
developments, at the federal and
• ProvideoverallsupportforDFCCommunicationsactivitiesasrequired.
provincial levels, that could potentially affect the interests of DFC and its members.
Prepare regular reports on trends and developments for the Board of Directors and
Thisisafull-timeposition.Occasionaltraveland/oreveningsandweekendsmayberequired.
senior management.
• Develop and maintain appropriate on-going working relationships with staff in MP and
Anticipated start
date:offices.
August 29, 2016.
Senators
You’re an ideal
candidate
if you
hold a degree in political
public
relations
or other
The ideal candidate
holds
a degree
in Communications,
Public science,
relations,
Political
science
or other
related field, combined with 5 to 10 years of professional experience in government relations,
relatedfield,combinedwith3to5yearsrelevantexperience.Proficiencyinthedevelopmentofvisuals/
including
experiencealong
on thewith
Hill.advanced
Knowledgeknowledge
of the Canadian
political such
system
a must,
graphic design
is essential,
of software
asisMS
PowerPoint, Adobe
combined with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, in French and English.
PhotoshopandInDesign.He/Shemustbefluentlybilingual,asyouwillberequiredtodraftandproofread
As the in-house lobbyist, you must ensure DFC complies with the Lobbyist Code of Conduct
materialsinbothofficiallanguages.KnowledgeoftheCanadianpoliticalsystemanditsactorsisalso
and ensure all reporting requirements are met. You must also be client service oriented and
necessary.Experiencewithinthedairyindustryand/oragriculturesectorisanimportantasset.
able to handle multiple issues under time and resource pressures.
This isup
a full-time
permanent position,
which
benefits
and Then
a competitive
Think you’re
to the challenge
and want
tooffers
join excellent
a dynamic
team?
pleasesalary.
forward your
If you’re
interested
thetoDFC
team, please send
yourtoresume
e-mail
to 2nd, 2016.
resume and
cover
letter in
byjoining
e-mail
[email protected]
prior
16h00viaon
August
[email protected] prior to 4 p.m. on June 18, 2014.
We thank We
all candidates
for theirfor
interest.
However,
only only
selected
candidates
will
thank all candidates
their interest,
however
selected
candidates
willbebecontacted.
contacted.
17
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
FEATURE POLITICAL STAFFERS
HILL CLIMBERS
B Y L AU RA R YCK E WAE RT
The team behind
Kellie Leitch’s
leadership
‘exploratory
committee’
Kellie Leitch has filed
her papers to run for
Conservative Party
leadership, and Hill
Climbers has learned
of a number of people
behind her campaign.
C
onservative MP Kellie Leitch
was first to enter the Conservative leadership race, having
filed her registration papers with
the party on April 6, and the team
of volunteers behind the former
minister’s “exploratory committee” so far include a number of
well-known conservative campaign organizers.
“We’re getting very strong
indications,” said Sander Grieve,
co-chair of Ms. Leitch’s campaign
exploratory committee, speaking
with Hill Climbers last week.
“It’s not easy to raise this
amount of money [to run a leadership campaign] but we’re having
very good traction, we’re getting
some great uptake of organizers,
getting a campaign manager like
Nick [Kouvalis] lined up is pretty
extraordinary, to get a fundraising chair with the credentials of
Andy Pringle is pretty amazing,”
he said.
Mr. Grieve said Ms. Leitch’s
leadership exploratory committee is helping to test the waters
among party membership, raising
money and selling memberships
“to see if we could set up a winning campaign team.”
Ms. Leitch was elected as the
MP for Simcoe-Grey, Ont. for the
first time in 2011 with roughly
49.4 per cent support and was
re-elected last fall after garnering
46.6 per cent of the vote.
“The exploratory committee
is due to report back to her and
then we’ll see what she wants to
do from there,” said Mr. Grieve,
adding a final announcement is
likely in early fall.
Mr. Grieve has been a partner
at Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto
since early 2013, focused on public market finances, mergers, and
acquisitions, and also teaches a
course at Western University.
A former Hill staffer in the
1990s, Mr. Grieve has worked for
then-Progressive Conservative
ministers Barbara McDougall
and Michael Wilson, and in 1993
was the Eastern Ontario chair
for Jean Charest’s bid to become leader of the Progressive
Conservative party, and prime
minister of Canada, following
Brian Mulroney’s resignation. Ultimately, Kim Campbell won that
race while Mr. Charest was made
deputy prime minister.
Mr. Grieve was also communications director to Hugh Segal
in 1998, when the now former
Conservative senator made a
bid for leadership of the federal
Progressive Conservative party,
ultimately losing to Joe Clark. He
also previously did communications and policy work for Conservative finance minister Jim
Flaherty during his 2002 campaign for Ontario PC leadership
(which former premier Ernie Eves
ultimately won).
Mr. Grieve is a former partner with Fraser Milner Casgrain
LLP and said he first met Ms.
Leitch when both were studying for undergraduate degrees at
Queen’s University in Kingston,
Ont. During the 2015 campaign,
he said he helped out Ms. Leitch
as a volunteer, knocking on doors
in her riding.
Dany Renauld is the other
committee co-chair for Ms.
Leitch’s leadership bid. Mr.
Renauld is another former Charest staffer and was previously
vice-president for Quebec for the
federal Progressive Conservative
Party, which merged with the Canadian Alliance Party in late 2003
to form today’s federal Conservative Party. Mr. Renauld was also
previously part of the team that
supported Peter MacKay’s successful 2003 campaign to become
leader of the Progressive Conservative party. He is currently
co-president of Quebec-based
marketing and advertising firm,
Brad.
Nick Kouvalis is volunteering as
campaign manager for Ms. Leitch.
Mr. Kouvalis is currently a principal
at Campaign Research and is a wellknown conservative campaigner.
Back in 2012, Campaign Research was censured by the Marketing Research and Intelligence
Association over complaints over
phone calls in the riding of Mont
Royal, Que. which incorrectly
implied now former Liberal MP
Irwin Cotler was about to retire.
Mr. Cotler did not run for re-election in 2015.
Conservative MP Kellie Leitch
addresses a crowd. Ms. Leitch is
making a bid to become the next
Conservative Party leader, which will
be determined at the party’s national
convention set for May 2017. The Hill
Nick Kouvalis is
campaign manager for
Ms. Leitch’s leadership
campaign. Photograph
Jan Dymond is part
of the exploratory
committee advising
Ms. Leitch’s campaign.
Tannis Drysdale is
lined up to serve as
Ms. Leitch’s director of
operations. Photograph
courtesy of LinkedIn
Photograph courtesy of
LinkedIn
courtesy of LinkedIn
Times Photograph by Jake Wright
Mr. Kouvalis was chief strategist for John Tory’s 2014 Toronto
mayoral campaign, and before
that briefly served as chief of staff
to former Toronto mayor Rob
Ford, after having served as Mr.
Ford’s campaign manager during
the 2010 Toronto mayoral race. He
left that role in February 2011.
He’s campaigned for the
Conservative Party federally,
including helping out on the 2011
campaign and was campaign
manager to former Conservative candidate Rick Fuschi in
Windsor-Tecumseh ahead of the
2006 federal election. Ultimately,
former NDP MP Joe Comartin
was re-elected. Mr. Kouvalis was
also part of the 2013 provincial campaign team for Christy
Clark’s B.C. Liberals.
Just over a week after Ms.
Leitch registered to run as a Conservative leadership candidate,
Mr. Kouvalis was arrested and
charged with drunk driving. He
ultimately pled guilty after reaching a deal, which resulted in a
fine of $1,690. The impaired driving charge was also withdrawn
as part of the deal. At the time, it
was reported by multiple media
outlets that Mr. Kouvalis had
resigned as campaign manager
for Ms. Leitch’s leadership bid as
a result.
Mr. Kouvalis told Hill Climbers he took a roughly two-month
leave from the campaign.
“It’s starting to look like we
have the capacity to raise the
funds and to sell membership for
a full-on campaign and we’re all
very excited about that,” said Mr.
Kouvalis.
Conservative Party members
will elect a new leader on May 27,
2017, and so far, along with Ms.
Leitch, Conservative MPs Maxime Bernier and Michael Chong
are also officially in the race, with
Conservative MPs Tony Clement
and Deepak Obhrai also having
officially announced their intentions to run for leadership.
Ms. Leitch represents an Ontario riding, similar to Mr. Chong
and Mr. Clement, but asked about
the crowded Ontario field, Mr.
Kouvalis said the exploratory
committee is “very confident”
overall and that “Ontario is going
to be very strong for us,” noting that Ms. Leitch has “been an
organizer in the party for over 30
years.”
“She grew up in Fort McMurray, [was] born in Manitoba, spent
a lot of time down East going to
school, she’s now in Simcoe-Grey
[Ont.] and has been an organizer
in Ontario for years—she’s got a
lot of reach, we’re feeling pretty
good about that, we’re raising
money from all parts of the country,” he said, adding Ms. Leitch’s
campaign already has about 300
people across the country interested in helping out.
Mr. Grieve said in addition to
her different regional roots, Ms.
Leitch has roots in the medical
community and through MBA
connections, from studying a
master of business administration at Dalhousie University in
Halifax, N.S., “so she crosses a lot
of boundaries” and “draws on a lot
of pools of people.”
“I expect it’ll get more interesting this fall as we roll out more
details,” he said.
Andrew Pringle is fundraising
chair for Ms. Leitch’s campaign.
A former bond trader, Mr. Pringle
is currently chair of the Toronto
Police Services Board—which
he’s been a member of since
2011—and is also chair of the
Shaw Festival board of governors,
chair of the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research board of
directors, and is a member of The
Walrus’s board of directors.
Mr. Pringle is a former managing director and head of the
global fixed income department
at RBC Capital Markets and from
2004 to 2008 was chair of the
Ontario Progressive Conservative
fund. He also previously served
for a time as chief of staff to
Mr. Tory as Ontario Progressive
Conservative official opposition
leader after the 2007 provincial
election.
Tannis Drysdale is lined up
to serve as director of operations
for the campaign, overseeing
field organizers. Ms. Drysdale
has her own consulting firm
and was most recently helping
out conservatives in Manitoba,
serving as director of operations
for the Manitoba Progressive
Conservative campaign ahead of
the April 2016 provincial election. Ultimately, the PC party, led
by Brian Pallister, was elected to
government.
Before that, Ms. Drysdale was
the Get Out The Vote (GOTV)
director and northern Ontario
organizer for Patrick Brown’s
successful campaign to become
Ontario Progressive Leader in
2015.
Mitch Wexler, a voter-data
expert and a principal at Politrain Consulting, is serving as a
principal secretary for the campaign. A long-time conservative
campaigner, Mr. Wexler has been
actively involved with the Ontario
PCs in the past, and has previ-
ously worked with Mr. Kouvalis
overseeing data on Mr. Ford’s
2010 Toronto mayoral campaign,
as well as on Mr. Tory’s 2014 mayoral campaign.
David Artemiw is director of
policy and research to Ms. Leitch.
He is a former Queen’s Park
staffer, having started out working in the PC official opposition
leader’s office in 2005 as a policy
adviser. He was part of the 2007
Ontario PC campaign team, and
post-election, resumed working at
the Ontario PC OLO as a senior
adviser for legislative affairs and
later became director of policy
and research.
John Simcoe, a partner at
PricewaterhouseCoopers in
Toronto, is Ms. Leitch’s financial
agent. He’s also currently a chief
financial officer and vice chair of
the Ontario PC Fund, according
to his LinkedIn profile. Fun fact:
another John Simcoe, who was
the first Lieutenant Governor of
Upper Canada, is the inspiration
behind the name of Ms. Leitch’s
federal riding of Simcoe-Grey, Ont.
Toronto lawyer Michael Wilson, not the former minister, is
part of Ms. Leitch’s exploratory
committee, as is Michael Diamond, who previously worked on
Rod Ford’s mayoral campaign in
Toronto and with various provincial progressive conservative
parties and candidates, including
in Manitoba, Nova Scotia and
Ontario.
Jan Dymond, who’s currently
vice president of public affairs for
the Investment Funds Institute of
Canada, is volunteering her time
to Ms. Leitch’s leadership bid. Ms.
Dymond was a political staffer
in the 1980s, including working
as a communications adviser to
Ontario’s minister for citizenship
and culture and before that in the
Toronto ministerial office of then
Progressive Conservative federal
employment and immigration
minister Ron Atkey.
Andrew McGrath, former
director of communications
and issues management to Ms.
Leitch as employment and social
development and status of women
minister, briefly helped his former
boss with media relations work
for about a month starting in May
ahead of the Conservative Party’s
Vancouver convention at the end
of the month.
Stephanie Gawur has also
been helping out with event and
communications work, and was
by Ms. Leitch’s side during the
party’s convention in May.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
18
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
FEATURE PARTIES
PARTY CENTRAL
BY
CHELSEA NASH
Small but mighty crowd at
Belgian national day party
Mr. Delcorde delivers remarks to guests gathered
in his backyard.
Belgian Ambassador Raoul Delcorde talks with
French Ambassador Nicolas Chapuis, as he
welcomes him to his national day party on July 21.
T
here was no shortage of beer, fries,
or networking at Belgium’s national
day celebration on July 21 hosted by
Belgian Ambassador Raoul Delcorde at
his Rockcliffe home. And while beer and
French fries might be what the country is
known for (though the ambassador said
we ought to be calling them Belgian fries),
Mr. Delcorde was sure to point out in his
remarks the other things that Belgium has
contributed to the world. You know, like the
multilateralism that occurs in its capital on
a regular basis at the headquarters of the
European Union and NATO.
“I hope that at the end of the day, you will
not just remember my country for chocolate
and diamonds, both of which are, of course,
very precious,”Mr. Delcorde said, stressing
that his country is also very advanced in both
the petrochemical and satellite business.
But back to the beer and fries for a moment.
You had your classic Belgian beers
available, being poured from bottles. Leffe
Blonde and Duvel were the two drinks that
Party Central chose for the evening. The
frites were served in little paper trays bearing the colours of the Belgian flag, by a
chip truck parked on the front lawn. In true
European fashion, the fries were distributed with sides of mayonnaise for dipping.
André Plourde, dean of public affairs at
Carleton University, said that fries and
mayo were a bit of an acquired taste—but,
of course, when in Rome, as they say.
While the fries were fine, those who
were hoping for authentic Belgian frites
would have been a smidge disappointed:
they were compliments of McCain Foods,
the Canadian frozen-food company
(though it has operations in Belgium).
The rest of the food served that evening
was of a Belgian theme, one of the servers
told Party Central. You had your mussels,
of course. Sushi, beef tartare, and goat
cheese served on baby lettuce topped with
basil were only some of the options on
the menu. Guests were never left emptyhanded, as the hors d’oeuvres were being
offered by servers every few minutes.
That was likely helped by the fact that
the guest list seemed to be kept relatively
Outgoing Chief of Protocol Angela Bogdan
with Mr. Delcorde, EU Ambassador Marie-Anne
Coninsx and her spouse, Kurt Schelter.
Fries served with mayo: a Belgian treat!
Belgian Ambassador Raoul Delcorde, left, welcomes the ambassador of Angola, Edgar Martins,
to his home. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia
small. It wasn’t a bad thing, either. The day
in question was quite hot, and the backyard of the Belgian residence not particularly large. Despite the small guest list, the
event was very well attended by ambassadors, high commissioners, their spouses,
and senior government officials. A few of
the bureaucrats who had recently been appointed heads of mission for Canada were
in attendance.
Outgoing Chief of Protocol Angela Bogdan was there to celebrate before her last
day on the job last week. She is preparing
to leave for her posting as consul general in
Sydney, Australia, in less than three weeks.
Olivier Nicoloff, Canada’s newly announced ambassador to Belgium, was
present, and received well wishes from his
counterpart Mr. Delcorde, and French Ambassador Nicolas Chapuis, among others.
German Ambassador Werner Wnendt,
Polish Ambassador Marcin Bosacki,
Manfred Auster, minister-counsellor with
the EU Delegation, and Armenian Ambassador Armen Yeganian made up just one
of many groups mingling together over
aperitifs. The new high commissioner of
Sri Lanka, Ahmed Jawad, spent some
time with Pakistani High Commissioner
Tariq Azim Khan, and Burundian Chargé
d’Affaires Emmanuel Niyonzima.
[email protected]
@chels_nash
The chip truck parked outside the Belgian residence, cooking up fresh fries.
The Hill
Times
photographs
by Sam
Garcia and
Chelsea
Nash
Warm welcome for Bosnian foreign minister
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
Representative Rong-chuan Wu
with the Ambassador of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Koviljka Spiric, at the
reception hosted at the Bosnian
Embassy on July 19.
Ambassador of Panama Alberto
Arosemena, left, shares a laugh with Ms.
Spiric and her spouse, Goran Spiric.
Slovenian Ambassador Marjan Cencen, left, mingles with
Peruvian Ambassador Marcela López Bravo, and Bosnian
Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak.
Mr. Crnadak socializes with Armenian Ambassador Armen
Yeganian and Austrian Ambassador Arno Riedel.
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19
THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2016
FEATURE BUZZ
FEATURE EVENTS
HEARD
ON
THE
HILL
Parliamentary
Calendar
Presumptive
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton,
pictured speaking in Canada
in 2014. The
B Y M AR C O V I G L I OT T I
Hill Times photograph by Jake
Wright
Clement goes WayHome
Continued from page 2
Taking a break from catching Pokémon,
Mr. Clement attended alternative rock music festival WayHome last weekend, where
he took in some of the genre’s biggest acts.
Mr. Clement, known for being an alt-rock
booster, wrote on Instagram that the highlights
of the weekend-long event were performances
by rockers Haim, electro-pop group Chvrches,
and electronic musician Robert DeLong.
In a separate post, he also praised the
performance by English indie-rock supergroup The Last Shadow Puppets.
Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Major Lazer, and The Killers were among
the most high-profile names performing at
the festival.
When an Instagram commenter asked
about the overwhelmingly younger-tilt of
event-goers, Mr. Clement, known for his
eclectic personal style, replied that “music has no age limit.”
Now in its second year, WayHome is
hosted at the Burl’s Creek Event Grounds
in the community of Oro-Medonte, Ont.
located immediately north of Barrie and a
short drive south from the fringes of Mr.
Clement’s cottage-country riding.
On Instagram, Mr. Clement wrote he lives
about 40 minutes away from the festival.
The event was a major draw in its first
year, attracting some 35,000 attendees in
2015. This year’s festival drew about 40,000.
Mr. Clement, however, wasn’t the only
politician spotted at the event.
A totem pole affixed with the image of
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau,
Que.) with dog ears and a snout grabbed
the eyes of attendees.
Olympic fever hits the Hill
Rosie MacLennan waves the Canadian flag on
Parliament Hill after she was introduced as the
country’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremony of
the 2016 Olympic Games. Photo courtesy of the Twit-
world championships, and secured her
spot on the Olympic roster by finishing
first at the Canada Cup in March.
“All of our extraordinary athletes embody the motto of the Olympics—swifter,
higher stronger,” Mr. Trudeau said during
the event, the Canadian Press reported.
“Our flag-bearer certainly does, but I guess
we’d put a particular emphasis on the higher
for this particular athlete,”he said, referencing
Ms. MacLennan’s abilities on the trampoline.
According to the Canadian Press, Mr.
Trudeau is not expected to attend the opening
ceremonies in Brazil, which has weathered
heated criticism for its handling of preparations for the Games, as concerns swirl about
incomplete venues and infrastructure, security
issues, pollution, government corruption and
the spread of the Zika virus.
Numerous star athletes have pulled out
of the event because of the harmful virus,
which is spread by infected mosquitoes.
Tennis star Milos Raonic is the biggest
Canadian name to pull out of the Olympics
because of the illness. Its symptoms include fevers, rashes, joint and muscle pain,
and headaches.
But most worryingly is the effect on
pregnant women.
Zika infection during pregnancy can
cause several severe fetal brain defects, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Tootoo returns to work
Independent MP Hunter Tootoo
(Nunavut) has completed his treatment for
alcohol dependency and is ready to return
to work, his office has announced.
In a statement, Mr. Tootoo said he will
host an open house discussion with constituents Wednesday morning in Iqaluit,
where he will be “available to address their
concerns, as I resume my duties as their
Member of Parliament.”
A press conference will precede the event.
Mr. Tootoo was elected as a Liberal in the
2015 election, and was later appointed minister
for fisheries and the Canadian Coast Guard.
He resigned from cabinet and left the
Liberal caucus at the end of May to seek
treatment for alcohol addiction.
The Hill Times reported that Mr. Tootoo
attended the same treatment facility as late
Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
ter account of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister Trudeau revealed the
athlete that will serve as Canada’s flagbearer for the opening ceremony of the Rio
Olympics during an announcement on the
front lawn of Parliament last Thursday.
Gold medal-winning gymnast Rosie
MacLennan will hoist the nation’s flag
and lead the Canadian olympic delegation
during the opening festivities on August 5
in Rio de Janeiro.
Ms. MacLennan, 27, was the sole Canadian gold medal winner in the 2012 Olympics in London, where she took top prize in
the trampoline competition.
Ms. MacLennan faced an uphill battle to
qualify for this year’s Olympics after sustaining a concussion ahead of last year’s
Pan Am Games in Toronto.
Despite the injury, she still managed to
emerge victorious at the event, picking up
her second straight Pan Am gold.
She clinched a spot for Canada at the
Olympics by finishing fourth at the 2015
Sun sets on Sunshine
Girl in Ottawa
The Sunshine Girl will no longer grace
the pages of the Ottawa Sun.
The newspaper will no longer feature a
daily photo of a Sunshine Girl in its print
edition starting this week, though it will
continue to be available on its website,
editor-in-chief Michelle Richardson said in
a brief letter to readers.
“This is a change that reflects the
evolving interests of our readers and our
desire to focus on our real strengths: local
storytelling, in-depth sports coverage and
no-holds-barred commentary,” she wrote.
The Sun will replace the Sunshine Girl
with a daily “Spotlight on Sports” feature,
which will highlight iconic sporting events
and local athletes.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
THURSDAY, AUG. 25
Hillary
Clinton
to speak
Thursday at
Democratic
convention
Liberal Caucus Retreat—The Liberals will hold a
two-day caucus retreat Aug. 25-26 in Saguenay, Que.
For more information, please call Liberal Party media
relations at [email protected] or 613-627-2384.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 4
G20 Leaders’ Summit—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
is expected to attend. Hangzhou, China. Sept. 4-5.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 13
Conservative Caucus Retreat—The Conservatives will
hold a two-day summer caucus retreat Sept. 13-14
in Halifax. For more information, contact Cory Hann,
director of communications, Conservative Party of
Canada at [email protected]
NDP Caucus Retreat—The NDP are gathering Sept.
13 to 15 in Montreal. Please call the NDP Media Centre at 613-222-2351 or [email protected]
FRIDAY, SEPT. 16
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27
U.S. Democratic Convention—Until July 28, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack
Obama and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will be speaking.
On Thursday, Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton will speak.
Hillary Clinton will speak about her vision for the country.
World Press Photo 16—Some of the best photojournalism in the world is on display at the The World Press Photo
16 exhibition at the Barney Danson Theatre at the Canadian
War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa until Aug. 17. Featuring 155 large-format photographs that depict everyday life
and headline news from 2015. warmuseum.ca
UN Consultation on the International Assistance Review
and Sustainable Development Goals—The United Nations
Association in Canada, in partnership with UN-Habitat
and UN-Women, is hosting one of a series of national
youth consultations in Ottawa on July 27. These consultations are convening young leaders from across the
country to hear their ideas about the work of the United
Nations, Global Affairs Canada, and the role of youth in
international development issues. Priority policy ideas
emerging from discussions will be reported to Global Affairs Canada as part of its international assistance review
consultations. For more information please contact: Elias
León, 613-983 5366, [email protected]; or Adlai
Salcedo, [email protected], 647-983 9768.
FRIDAY, AUG. 5
Green Party of Canada Convention—The Green Party
meets for its convention Aug. 5-7. Delta City Centre
Hotel, 101 Lyon St., Ottawa. This year’s keynote
speaker, James Shaw, co-leader of the Green Party of
New Zealand and Member of Parliament, will discuss
New Zealand’s shift away from the first-past-the-post
electoral system to a system of proportional representation. Other speakers include: Frank Graves, founder
and president of EKOS Research Associates Inc.;
David Coon, Green Party of New Brunswick MLA; Peter
Bevan-Baker, Green Party of Prince Edward Island
MLA; Green Party Leader Elizabeth May; Évelyne
Huytebroeck, member of the Global Greens European
Green Party Committee; Sonia Theroux, campaign
manager for Campaign to Elect Jo-Ann Roberts, and
former campaign manager for Victoria Mayor Lisa
Helps. For additional information, please contact press
secretary Dan Palmer, 613-614-4916.
Ship for World Youth Leaders Recruitment—This program
will take 242 youth leaders from around the world on a
three-month journey across the sea, including 11 Canadian
youth between the ages of 18 and 30 and one national leader between the ages of 30 and 39. The voyage will depart
in January 2017 aboard the Nippon Maru Japanese cruise
ship and will include stops in Japan, Fiji, and New Zealand.
The Canadian Ship for World Youth Alumni Association is
organizing recruitment for Canadian delegates. The deadline
for general participants is Sept. 1, and the deadline for the
national leader is Aug. 15. The Embassy of Japan will be
hosting an information session on Aug. 5, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
255 Sussex Dr., Ottawa. Reservation is required: https://
shipforworldyouthinfo.eventbrite.ca. More information about
the program: http://swycanada.org/
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9
World Social Forum 2016—Downtown Montreal plays
host to this gathering, which bills itself as the largest
gathering of civil society in the world. More than 50,000
people will be present and 1,500 activites offered, according to organizers (both online and in person). $40.
Until Aug. 14. https://fsm2016.org/en/
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24
Hastings Plowing Match and Farm Show—Wednesday, Aug. 24, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., 2431 Queensborough
Rd., Queensborough, Ont. Hastings-Lennox and
Addington, Ont.
Leap to Where? Elements of a Canadian Climate
Policy That Could Be Both Feasible and Enough: Thomas
Homer-Dixon—Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, 7 p.m. (doors
open at 6:30 p.m.), Carleton University, River Building Theatre (RB2200), 1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa.
Registration: carleton.ca/fpa. For more information,
call Cassie Hodgins, Carleton University, 613-5202600 x 2995.
MONDAY, SEPT. 19
House Resumes Sitting—The House resumes sitting
on Sept. 19 at 11 a.m. after a 13-week break. The
House adjourned June 17.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 20
Cabinet Meeting—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is
expected to hold a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Sept.
20 on the Hill. For more information, call the PMO
Press Office at (613) 957-5555.
2016 Canadian Inland Ports Conference—On Sept.
20-21, 2016, the Van Horne Institute will be hosting
the 2016 Canadian Inland Ports Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This conference will bring together
leading experts from around the world to discuss
inland ports and their importance to their local, provincial, and national economies. It will showcase five
of Canada’s Inland Ports located across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC; as well as major Canadian
ports, airports, and stakeholders. Early bird registration before Aug. 22: $495. Registration after Aug. 22
$600. Please contact Bryndis Whitson at bwhitson@
ucalgary.ca or 403-220-2114 for more information.
http://www.vanhorneinstitute.com/event/2016-canadian-inland-ports-conference/
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21
Liberal Caucus Meeting—The Liberals will meet
in Room 237-C Centre Block on Parliament Hill. For
more information, please call Liberal Party media relations at [email protected] or 613-627-2384.
Conservative Caucus Meeting—The Conservatives
will meet for their national caucus meeting. For more
information, contact Cory Hann, director of communications, Conservative Party of Canada at coryhann@
conservative.ca
NDP Caucus Meeting—The NDP caucus will meet
from 9:15 a.m.-11 a.m. in Room 112-N Centre Block,
on Wednesday. Please call the NDP Media Centre at
613-222-2351 or [email protected]
THURSDAY, SEPT. 22
TD Presents The Walrus Talks Arctic—The Walrus
Talks returns to the Canadian Museum of Nature (240
McLeod St., Ottawa) on Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. TD Presents
The Walrus Talks Arctic features leading Canadians
giving short, focused Walrus Talks exploring the issues
and opportunities that make the North unique. Featuring
ITK president Natan Obed, research scientist Jeffery M.
Saarela, aboriginal languages and culture advocate Fibbie
Tatti, and more. $12-$20. Full event details and tickets
available online at thewalrus.ca/events
TUESDAY, SEPT. 27
Senate Resumes Sitting—The Senate is expected
to resume sitting on Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. The Senate
adjourned June 22.
The Parliamentary Calendar is a free listing. Send
in your political, cultural, diplomatic, or governmental
event in a paragraph with all the relevant details under
the subject line ‘Parliamentary Calendar’ to [email protected] by Wednesday at noon before the Monday
paper or by Friday at noon for the Wednesday paper.
We can’t guarantee inclusion of every event, but we
will definitely do our best.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
PUBLICATION DATE:
August 15, 2016
BOOKING DEADLINE:
August 10, 2016
I
n our Energy Policy Briefing, The
Hill Times examines the latest on
the proposed Pacific North West
LNG pipeline in British Columbia
and uncovers the behind-thescenes politics. We explore how
Canada can transition its entire
energy infrastructure to renewables
by 2050 if it starts now. We take
a good look at the International
Renewable Energy Agency’s recent
report on the renewable energy
sector worldwide and what it
means for Canada, and we offer up
the latest on the Policy Horizons
Canada report on Canada’s status
as an “energy superpower.” We
also review FedNor’s recent
investment of $2.7-million to
create a renewable-energy microgrid development company aimed
at providing energy solutions in
remote First Nations communities.
BE A PART OF THIS
IMPORTANT POLICY BRIEFING.
Communicate with those most responsible for Canada’s
public policy decisions.
For more information or to reserve your government relations
and public affairs advertising space, contact The Hill Times
display advertising department at 613-688-8825.