QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Humanitarian Aid
May 7, 2024
My question is for the Leader of the Government. Senator Gold, Bill C-41 — which amended the Criminal Code to allow humanitarian aid agencies to provide life-saving food, shelter and health care in any geographic area controlled by terrorist groups — received Royal Assent on June 20, 2023. This provided many with hope that Afghans may finally receive Canadian humanitarian aid.
I raised many concerns in my speech — as the critic in the Senate — about Bill C-41’s implementation, and shared these concerns with the minister when he appeared before the Human Rights Committee. Recently, humanitarian organizations have reported exceptionally long delays and bureaucratic hurdles.
Senator Gold, our allies — the United States, Australia, the European Union and the United Kingdom — created carve-outs to their own terrorism laws by February 2022. In the meantime, we recently learned that Canada’s blanket exemption to terrorism financing laws for humanitarian workers isn’t enough. When will this permit process for development workers be in place?
Thank you for your continued advocacy, senator. It’s an important issue.
The government took the step that it did in the legislation to which you referred in order to clear the way for aid to be provided by responsible international actors, even though they work in challenging circumstances. I’m not in a position to comment on the details of the procurement process, but I will certainly bring this concern to the attention of the minister.
Senator Gold, the current blanket exemption only covers humanitarian aid, and not development work. As your government lacks clear definitions of “development work,” aid organizations are left to themselves to determine if they can pursue their work without risk of prosecution.
Leader, why isn’t your government using long-standing definitions of “development work” issued by Global Affairs Canada or the United Nations to expedite the process?
Thank you for the question. I don’t want to speculate on the reasons, because I don’t have a detailed grasp of them, except to say that the focus has been, to my understanding, on the humanitarian crisis which, unfortunately, is befalling too many people in those areas. That may be the beginning of a partial answer. Thank you.
