Interparliamentary Activities and Reports

Meeting of the Political Committee (PC) Bureau – May 29, 2020 The Bureau is the organizing committee of the APF’s Political Committee. It sets the agenda and decides on other administrative matters for the main committee. At the Bureau’s videoconference meeting, the honourable Dennis Dawson, Senator and rapporteur of the Canadian Branch of the APF was among the members present to discuss about the ongoing and upcoming studies of the main Commission. They decided to hold a meeting to discuss about the pandemic situation among member countries of APF and meet with officials of Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. In closing, the agenda for the next meeting of the Political Committee, was adopted.

Karen McCrimmon, MP and President of the Canadian Section, participated in this virtual meeting, during which the Assembly’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic and its impact on the NATO PA’s activities for 2020 were discussed. A review of the Constitution also made it possible to address the Bureau’s appointment and approval of the President and Vice Presidents. Furthermore, during the meeting, a financial update was provided to enable planning for future virtual sessions during the health crisis.

Meeting of the APF Crisis Committee (COVID-19) - May 28, 2020 The new, temporary, APF Crisis Committee held its second meeting on May 28 with the APF committee chairs and chargés de mission in attendance. Canadian Branch attendees included Francis Drouin, MP, Chair of the Canadian Branch and First Vice-President of the APF; Chris d’Entremont, MP and Vice-Chair of the Canadian Branch; and Joël Godin, MP and Chair of the APF’s Parliamentary Affairs Committee. Attendees were told that a number of measures were adopted by the Permanent Delegation of the APF’s Bureau, including a crisis plan and certain initiatives to fight COVID 19 and address its various impacts. The importance of efficient networking among the APF’s committees and networks was also underlined for the fight against the pandemic. The chairs of the various committees and networks were asked to ensure that their groups are taking concrete action to provide information about COVID-19 and fight the virus. Specifically, the political and parliamentary affairs committees expressed a desire to work together in order to take full stock of how the pandemic is impacting parliamentary proceedings and parliamentarians in La Francophonie in their daily work. The Political Committee suggested that Senator Dawson’s report on the freedom of the press also address the fight against COVID-19 disinformation, particularly on social media. The Parliamentary Network on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria also added a “pandemic” component to its mandate in order to study issues related to the impacts of COVID-19. Lastly, it is noted that the Cooperation and Development Committee will address the issue of African debt relief, as raised by Mr. Drouin at the last Crisis Committee meeting.

The Bureau is the organizing committee of the APF’s Network of Young Parliamentarians. It sets the agenda and decides on other administrative matters for the main committee. At the Bureau’s videoconference meeting, MP Kristina Michaud, rapporteur of the Canadian Branch was among the members present to discuss the current and future studies of the main Commission, namely its report on youth participation in political life. The Bureau meeting concluded after setting the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the Young Parliamentarians Network.

On May 26, 2020, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s AdHoc Committee on Migration held a parliamentary web dialogue on the topic “Protecting refugees and migrants during the pandemic: Camps and closed centres under lockdown” as part of its efforts to promote inter-parliamentary dialogue on relevant security developments pertaining to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. This event focused on recent developments regarding the situation in camps and other migrant facilities on the Greek Islands and in the Western Balkans, but also touched upon migration issues across the OSCE region. As an appointed member of the Committee, Dr. Hedy Fry attended the meeting and represented the Canadian Delegation.