FAAE Committee Report

Dissenting Opinion from the Bloc Québécois
on the Preliminary Report of the
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, entitled:

“Canada’s International Policy Put to the Test in Afghanistan:
A Preliminary Report”

The Bloc Québécois has always defended the principle that elected representatives must be front and centre in public debates and take part in them: that is a basic democratic principle. And yet, by mandating the independent advisory panel on the Afghan mission to study Canada’s future role in Afghanistan when the current mission ends, set for February 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has ignored this principle, preventing parliamentarians from fully carrying out their role and debating one of the most important questions for both Quebeckers and Canadians.

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development is fully capable of performing the work mandated to the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan. In order to reinforce the role of parliamentarians, the Bloc Québécois tabled a motion on November 20, 2007, in the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development asking that the Committee “[. . .] make recommendations on Canada’s role in Afghanistan at the end of the present mission; and that the Committee make a preliminary report to the House of Commons by December 14, 2007,”[1] that is, before the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan tables its report, slated for late January 2008.

Contrary to the request of the Bloc Québécois, the current preliminary report contains no recommendation on Canada’s role in Afghanistan after February 2009. The Bloc Québécois therefore makes the following recommendations:

·        Recommendation 1 – End of the current Canadian mission in Kandahar

In line with the Government of Canada’s commitments to NATO, Canadian military forces will reach the end of their mission in the Kandahar region in February 2009. The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada not extend the mandate of the current mission within NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Kandahar region once it ends in February 2009. The Bloc Québécois calls on the Government of Canada to announce immediately that it will not renew the mission when it ends in February 2009.

·        Recommendation 2 – Withdrawal of Canadian military forces from the Kandahar region and the non-participation of Canada in combat zones

The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada inform the members of NATO as soon as possible that it will withdraw its military forces from the Kandahar region when its ISAF mission ends in February 2009, so that they can find relieving troops.

The Bloc Québécois also recommends that the Canadian military forces do not participate in any mission in a combat zone.

·        Recommendation 3 – Maintaining some Canadian military presence in Afghanistan

While the Bloc Québécois calls on the Government of Canada to withdraw its military forces from the Kandahar region in February 2009, the Bloc Québécois believes that the Government of Canada should continue to maintain some military presence in Afghanistan in order to protect the humanitarian workers and should thus leave a military contingent in Afghanistan. However, this contingent’s mission should be to establish and maintain security perimeters in order to allow reconstruction, and it should also have a mandate to continue training Afghanistan’s national army.

·        Recommendation 4 – Rebalancing the Canadian mission in Afghanistan

The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada rebalance its mission in Afghanistan by increasing development assistance and putting more emphasis on diplomacy.

·        Recommendation 5 – Development assistance for Afghanistan

The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada prioritize development assistance in a clear and concrete fashion.

1.      To that end, the Government of Canada should increase its development assistance for Afghanistan. Canada’s greater financial leeway means that Canada could invest more in Afghanistan by considerably increasing the development assistance budget, so as to meet the objective committed to by the Government of Canada and set by the UN of 0.7% of GDP in development assistance by 2015.

2.      All the development assistance that Canada offers should be awarded taking the interests of the Afghan people into consideration, focus on sustainable development and ensure respect and protection of the local population’s fundamental human rights. To that end, the Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada increase the number of CIDA employees in Afghanistan in order to be better able to gain knowledge in the field and of Afghan needs and to ensure better control and management of funds and assistance programs.

3.      The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada direct as much of its development assistance as possible through multilateral organizations, and UN agencies in particular, in order to eliminate overlapping and conflicting efforts.

4.      The Bloc Québécois supports the Government of Canada in its desire to have a UN High Representative for Afghanistan appointed who would be responsible for coordinating the entire reconstruction effort in consultation with the Afghan government. The Bloc Québécois therefore urges the Government of Canada to pursue its efforts, inspired by what was done in Bosnia and Kosovo. This High Representative must also be able to liaise between NATO and the reconstruction teams in order to steer the assistance toward the priorities identified during the London Conference. It would be desirable that this High Representative become the veritable overseer of international intervention with the Afghan government. The Bloc Québécois therefore believes that the Government of Canada should convince its partners to make coordination of the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan a priority.

·        Recommendation 6 – Investing in diplomacy

For the Bloc Québécois, successful reconstruction in Afghanistan cannot be attained by force of arms alone. For this reason, the Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada invest more heavily in diplomacy.

1.      The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada firmly support all the Afghan government’s efforts to reach out and integrate into civil society those Taliban and Afghan insurgents prepared to lay down their weapons without demanding unacceptable conditions.

2.      The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada intensify its diplomatic efforts with Afghanistan’s regional actors, including Iran, Pakistan, India and China. These countries must be involved in the resolution of the conflict and, if possible, the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

3.      The Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada be the instigator of the organization, as quickly as possible, of an international conference on Afghanistan. This conference will review the reconstruction and development assistance provided by the international community in Afghanistan, the poppy cultivation issue, and the security situation in Afghanistan. The conference should include Afghanistan’s regional actors, including Pakistan, Iran, India and China.

·        Recommendation 7 – The poppy cultivation issue

Given the ineffectiveness of the strategy currently pursued by NATO and the United States to stem the increase in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada review its approach to this issue and encourage its allies to do the same, while keeping in mind that eradication is not a viable or conceivable solution because it increases the vulnerability of farmers and their dependence on opium trafficking, as pointed out by many experts and international organizations, including the World Bank. To that end, the Bloc Québécois recommends that the Government of Canada adopt and apply a three-stage strategy:

1.      Help fight opium trafficking and traffickers;

2.      Help fund and set up alternative crop programs and build infrastructures—roads, public markets and refrigeration equipment—to market products from alternative crops and help introduce mechanisms that would encourage Canada to buy the harvests directly from farmers in order to help this market get established.

3.      In consultation with the international community, determine the possibility, for a transitional period, of buying some or all of the poppy harvests directly from farmers for medical purposes, for example for making codeine or morphine.

·        Recommendation 8 – Treatment of prisoners

The Bloc Québécois urges the Government of Canada to ensure that the prisoners it transfers to the Afghan authorities are treated in accordance with the Canada-Afghanistan agreement on the treatment of prisoners and the Geneva Convention. The Government of Canada should ensure that the prisoners it transfers are not tortured and that their basic rights are respected. If it cannot obtain these assurances, the Government of Canada must stop transferring prisoners.