The Doha Round: How world leaders can send a strong positive signalPage 9

EMBASSY
CANADAS FOREIGN POLICY NEWSWEEKLY
OTTAWA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 ISSUE 365 $4.00

War criminal
campaign
derided as
misleading

CHATTER

JIM KARYGIANNIS
PUTS IT ALL ON
THE TABLE

Government accused of
muddying the waters between
immigration, criminal law.

page 2

Kristen Shane

ARMENIA

SETTING THE
RECORD STRAIGHT

Continued on Page 10

Provinces
want trade
role outlined
in writing
Publications Mail Agreement #40068926

The provinces and territories

have never been able to unite on
such a policy until now, say analysts,
for a host of reasons.

page 8
EMBASSY PHOTO: LEE BERTHIAUME

overnment ministers are conflating immigration and criminal law in their quest to
find and deport 30 men allegedly involved
or complicit in war crimes or crimes against
humanity, say international criminal justice
lawyers and other observers.
Thats dangerous, they say, because the
ministers are effectively labelling people as
war criminals who have never been found
guilty of such crimes by a criminal court.
Meanwhile, one ambassador says he
was surprised to learn Canadian authorities were seeking one of his countrymen
over such allegations.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney
and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews
announced July 21 that the Canada Border

or the first time, the provinces and territories have agreed to sign on to a policy
that seeks a framework with the federal
government codifying their involvement in
international trade talks.
The Council of the Federation released
its provincial trade strategy, Canada in
the Global Economy, two weeks ago during its annual meeting, with much of the
press coverage focused on the federations
planned joint trade mission to Asia.
But analysts say just as important is the
fact that the provinces are now ready to negotiate a deal with the federal government that
would establish in writing how provincial and
federal officials interact during trade deals.
Continued on Page 4

A CHANGE OF HEART
ON GADDAFI

page 3

Are You Listening? Palestinian envoy Hanan Ashrawi was in Ottawa last week to explain to Canadian officials her
governments plan for seeking statehood recognition at the UN General Assembly in September. More importantly,
she was hoping her visit would be the first step in a process of restarting relations between Canada and Palestinians.
However, even before she left, controversy erupted over a possible trip to the region by Foreign Minister John Baird.

Palestinian envoy seeks to relaunch

relations in advance of UN vote
But confusion over Baird visit, opposition
to UN motion tempers optimism.
Lee Berthiaume

n the lead-up to a potentially historic UN vote on

statehood recognition in September, the Palestinian
government has deployed dozens of envoys across
the globe to lobby for the initiative.
Canada has been no exception, but Hanan
Ashrawi also arrived with a secondary objec-

tive: to relaunch what have become strained

relations between Canada and the Palestinian
cause and people. Whether such a relaunch will
fly or crash on take-off, however, is anything but
certain.
Ms. Ashrawi is a Palestinian Christian legislator,
activist and scholar. She has played important roles
on the Palestinian side during Middle East peace
negotiations, served on the advisory boards for
World Bank and UN agencies, and been elected to
government numerous times.
Continued on Page 5

Carl Meyer

LIBYA

Renewed engagement with Burma

carries shades of China shift
Baird says relationship will be based on
human rights above all else.
Kristen Shane

he Harper government has taken many opportunities to rebuke the military junta that has
ruled Burma, also known as Myanmar, since 1988. It
encouraged a parliamentary motion to give honorary
Canadian citizenship to opposition leader Aung San

Suu Kyi. After the junta violently suppressed prodemocracy demonstrations, it imposed some of the
toughest sanctions in the world on Burma in 2007.
The regime in Burma is abhorrent to Canadian
values, then-foreign minister Maxime Bernier said.
But in a move reminiscent of the Conservative
about-face on China, that tough talk has turned
into tepid high-level political engagement in recent
monthsan engagement cautiously welcomed by
Burmese human rights activists and allies in Canada.
Continued on Page 5

RUSSIA

FIRST POSTING IS
LIKE FIRST LOVE

page 14

ARMS TRADE
CANADA THROWS
A WRENCH IN A
TREATY

page 7

HUNGARY
Refugees
are
the issue
page 3

EMBASSY, Wednesday, August 3, 201110

News

DRC envoy unaware countyman was wanted

Services Agency was releasing the names,
photos and other identifying information of
30 men wanted for deportation from Canada.
In four news conferences during the week
that followed, the ministers, often flanked by
two CBSA officers, publicized the capture of
five of the wanted men, thanks at least in part
to public tips arising from the most-wanted list.
These included two from Peru, and one each
from Honduras, Pakistan and the Democratic
Republic of Congo. Peruvian Manuel de la Torre
Herrera and Honduran Cristobal GonzalezRamirez have already been deported. The CBSA
called off the hunt for another man on the list,
a Sri Lankan, who is reportedly in US custody
awaiting deportation from Florida.
In their messaging around each capture, the
ministers linked the men wanted for deportation to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The notion that a foreigner who illegally
enters Canada, has been found by our legal
system to be involved in the worst kinds
of crimes possible, such as war crimes and
crimes against humanity, who is under a
deportation order and a warrantthe notion
that such an individual enjoys the same privacy rights as a law abiding Canadian citizen
is bizarre in the extreme, Mr. Kenney told the
National Post in explaining why his government publicly released the mens identities.
In addition, Mr. Kenney tweeted last
week, Its just bizarre that groups on the left
like the [Canadian] Council for Refugees &
Amnesty [International] are opposed to our
effort to deport war criminals.
The Wanted by the CBSA website,
featuring photos and information on each
man, says: It has been determined that
they violated human or international rights
under the Crimes Against Humanity and War
Crimes Act or under international law.
Except that none of the 30 has ever
faced trial on charges of committing crimes
against humanity or war crimes. Instead, the
Immigration and Refugee Board, an administrative tribunal, has only rejected their asylum applications. The IRB ruled the 30 men
were inadmissible because of suspicions they
had engaged in war crimes or crimes against
humanity, but experts say that is a far cry from
actually being found guilty of any wrongdoing.
I hear reference to the Crimes Against
Humanity and War Crimes Act, but thats
whats being used in a criminal prosecution.
And thats not what theyre using, said Jayne
Stoyles, executive director of the Canadian
Centre for International Justice. The label of
war criminals kind of implies that someone
has been through a criminal process. But they
havent. And theyre not even being investigated through a criminal process.
Under media questioning last week, Mr.

Toews said, We are not making a finding of guilt

or innocence in terms of the actual criminal
charge. We are simply saying the evidentiary
level or threshold has been met in terms of determining whether or not theyre inadmissible.

Lowering the bar

The Crimes Against Humanity and War

Crimes Act came into force in 2000 and outlines Canadas jurisdiction to try individuals
here who have committed war crimes, crimes
against humanity or genocide elsewhere. It
was used to try and convict a failed Rwandan
refugee claimant, Dsir Munyaneza, in 2009,
for which he is serving a life sentence. Another
Rwandan accused under the same law of participating in Rwandas 1994 genocide, Jacques
Mungwarere, is awaiting trial, according to his
lawyer, Christian Deslauriers, which is likely
to happen next April.
A war crimes program that integrates
teams from the Justice department, RCMP,
Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the
CBSA, funds the prosecutions of these cases.
Its budget was frozen at $15.6 million per year
between 1998 and 2010. CBSA spokesperson
Natalie Glister said in an email to Embassy that
the government declared that funding for the
Program would be ongoing in its 2011 budget.
Lawyers involved in those cases say they
are complicated and costly to mount. Mr.
Deslauriers said a trial like Mr. Mungwareres
would cost in the millions. It may require
after-hours court sessions to hear from witnesses via video link from Rwanda. During the
investigation process, five RCMP investigators
conducted interviews with many witnesses in
Rwanda, Canada and the United States.
Media reports pegged Mr. Munyanezas trial
costs to taxpayers at more than $1.6 million. In
the lead-up, an RCMP investigator undertook
several evidence-gathering trips to Rwanda.
The judge, defence counsel and prosecutor
went to Rwanda and European cities to interview eyewitnesses and survivors, said Bruce
Broomhall, a University of Quebec at Montreal
professor and lawyer who followed the case.
Experts say because of the high costs
associated with such cases, the focus has
been on keeping suspected criminals out of
Canada rather than trying them. Not only is
such a strategy more cost effective, the bar is
much lower; its much easier for the IRB to rule
someone is inadmissible than for a grant to
investigate and prosecute someone for a crime
committed halfway around the world and a
decade earlier.
The 2006-2007 annual report of the integrated
war crimes program said that in order for an
allegation from the public or referral from the
CIC and the CBSA to be added to the RCMP and
Justice departments inventory of criminal investigations, the allegation must disclose personal
involvement or command responsibility, and the

The Hill Times Photo: Jake Wright

Continued from Page 1

We are not making a finding of guilt or innocence in terms of the actual criminal charge,
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said.

evidence pertaining to the allegation must be

corroborated and obtainable in a reasonable and
rapid fashion.
The Justice department and RCMP had 55
modern war crimes files open on March 31,
2008. The CIC and CBSA removed 466 people
from Canada through their part in the program between 1997 and 2008.
The CBSA wont give specific details of the
crimes the men on its most-wanted list are
accused of having committed because of privacy
laws, but media reports have indicated a range
of histories. A former Peruvian soldier Jose
Domingo Malaga Arica admitted to immigration
officials that he was part of a helicopter crew
involved in murdering two civilians in 1987.
Meanwhile, the fifth man apprehended, Abraham
Bahaty Bayavuge of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, said he has never so much as killed a
cat. He said he was a computer technician in his
native DRC. The IRB reportedly refused his refugee claim in 2004 because it said it had evidence
Mr. Bayavuge worked for Congolese security
services under human rights abusers Mobutu
Sese Seko and Laurent Kabila.
Its easier in a sense to get rid of the
problem in this way, said Mr. Broomhall.
In the immigration process...you just sometimes need to have a sense that someone
may have been affiliated with a particular
group or with a particular person and that
may be sufficient. There isnt necessarily
direct evidence that that person themselves
even was part of that group let alone was
actually involved in committing crimes.
For his part, DRC Ambassador Dominique
Kilufya Kamfwa said he was surprised to
hear of the accusation against Mr. Bayavuge,
who was apprehended on July 28. Mr. Kilufya
Kamfwa knew nothing more than what he

hat is the federal government doing

to improve Canadas transportation
and infrastructure systems? Whats it doing
to ensure Canadas transportation network
is efficiently and seamlessly integrated into
global value chains, as Transport Canada
puts it, so Canada remains competitive in
the world? We find out.

POLICY BRIEFING

TRANSPORTATION
Publication Date: Aug. 22, 2011 // Booking Deadline: Aug. 17, 2011
(noon Ottawa time)

We take a look at the feds

commitment to develop a new long-term
infrastructure plan and its commitment
to enshrine the permanent Gas Tax Fund
in legislation. Whats the latest?
Transport Canada says in the
next 30 years, truck traffic is expected
to triple and passenger vehicles are

had read in the press and said his embassy

was pushing Foreign Affairs for more information. He wasnt aware if Mr. Bayavuge was
wanted on war crimes charges in the Congo.
If the Canadian government could give his
government proof that Mr. Bayavuge participated in such crimes in his native land, Mr.
Kilufya Kamfwa said, it would investigate.
Based on what hes read in the press and
his expertise in the field, Mr. Broomhall said
the practice of labelling the men wanted for
deportation as war criminals is deliberately
misleading, even abusive.
Indeed, the Toronto Star reported last
week that the family of one of the men named
on the most-wanted list is threatening a defamation suit against the CBSA. The familys
lawyer said its reprehensible for the government to portray his client as a war criminal
without laying charges.
Another man on the list spoke to the
Toronto Sun in hopes of clearing his name.
Francisco Manuel Hernandez Hernandez
received US citizenship after failing a refugee
claim in Canada. He was once a soldier in El
Salvador but said he isnt a war criminal and
says hes stressed by the allegation.
I take it that this is part of a policy of the
government to vocally express its toughness
on immigration abuses, more than being
tough on crime, said Mr. Broomhall. If this
were really about being tough on crime, wed
be looking at prosecuting these people.
Mr. Toews told a news conference on
July 27, Usually the crimes are prosecuted
in the countries where theyre committed
or through the UN; thats the most appropriate jurisdiction. There are certain rare
cases where individuals are prosecuted in
this country for crimes committed elsewhere,
but thats not the general rule. Thats not
a particularly effective way of prosecuting
given that the evidence is in other countries.
When asked whether Canada would seek
assurances that deportees would be prosecuted,
he said Canadas role is to remove the persons
deemed inadmissible. Its up to the countries to
where they are deported to take appropriate
action against those individuals. Now that the
governments know about them, they or the UN
can make a decision, said Mr. Toews.
But Mr. Broomhall said the International
Criminal Court and ad-hoc tribunals set up after
conflicts in Rwanda and Yugoslavia are for the
most senior people accused and not lower-level
functionaries. It would be nice to see governments of countries where the crimes are alleged
to have been committed prosecute, but they
sometimes dont have the resources or political
will, which leaves it up to other countries like
Canada. He said hes not advocating for Canada
to prosecute all potential war criminals that end
up here, but it should use common sense and
different options available.

expected to double. We find out the

latest on the governments Gateways
and Corridors Strategy, the WindsorEssex Parkway, and its commitment to
build a new crossing and a dedicated
expressway linking the crossing directly
to the 401.
We also take an in-depth look
into the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities Cut My Commute
national campaign to fight gridlock and
reduce commute times. The FCM says
long daily commutes hurt the economy,
the environment, and quality of life and
cost more than $5-billion a year. The
FCM is urging the federal government

Communicate with those most responsible

for Canadas public policy decisions.
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to establish a national strategy and

wants the federal and provincial
governments to reinvest more tax
dollars into new roads, buses, light rail
and subways. We look into this.

The Hill Times also looks at the

infrastructure and transportation systems
in major cities across the country
and how they want to improve those
systems.
Finally, well look at the federal
governments studies on the links
between public health and sustainable
and active transportation.

Top political players to take part.