Interparliamentary Activities and Reports

On 22 November 2021, the Hon. David McGuinty, P.C., MP, President of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIPU), and the Hon. Salma Ataullahjan, Senator, attended a virtual meeting of the Twelve Plus Group. During this meeting, the Group voted for candidates to fill two vacancies on the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and one vacancy on the organization’s High-Level Advisory Group on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism. MP McGuinty and Senator Ataullahjan were both voting members.

On November 22, 2021, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Headquarters Secretariat hosted a roundtable discussion for members of the National Assembly of Belize through its Technical Assistance Program. The objective of the roundtable, entitled Gender Equality Policy, was to engage participants in a discussion on how to build and maintain a gender sensitive parliament to encourage greater representation of women in parliamentary decision-making. As a member of the Canadian Branch of the CPA, the Honourable Marilou McPhedran, Senator, led the roundtable discussion.

Senator McPhedran’s presentation focused on Canada’s approach to Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+). She started by defining GBA+ and its importance within the context of policy making. Senator McPhedran then presented various opportunities for parliamentarians to advance GBA+ and gender-sensitive initiatives, including its application to legislation, budgeting, committee work and to the parliamentary environment more generally. Senator McPhedran also underscored some of the challenges faced by parliamentarians and policy makers when trying to apply GBA+, including those pertaining to the availability of data and the resources required to conduct parliamentary studies that adequately represent the groups effected by proposed legislation.

On 17 November 2021, the Hon. David McGuinty, P.C., MP, President of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIPU) attended a virtual meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Participants discussed the situation of certain parliaments, as well as the preparations for the 143rd Assembly and 208th session of the Governing Council.

On 15 November 2021, the Hon. David McGuinty, P.C., MP, President of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIPU), and the Hon. Marilou McPhedran, Senator, attended a meeting of the steering committee of the Twelve Plus Group. Participants discussed several matters, including the programme of activities for the 143rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (including potential emergency items), the Group’s financial matters, sanctions against parliamentarians by foreign governments and questions related to IPU membership. They were also briefed on key issues discussed at the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, including the adoption of a new Strategy for 2022-2026, the financial situation of the organization and its recent mission to Venezuela.

On November 12, 2021, a delegation from the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIPU) comprising Senator Rob Black, Senator Amina Gerba and Senator Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia attended a webinar entitled “The WTO negotiations agenda at the MC12: Towards a sustainable recovery” as part of the Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization (WTO). Jointly organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the European Parliament, the event was planned to coincide with the Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) scheduled to take place at the end of November 2021. Ambassador Dacio Castillo, Chair of the WTO’s General Council, delivered the webinar’s keynote address. In light of the passage of time since any outcome was achieved at a ministerial conference, as well as ongoing challenges in the multilateral trading system, he underscored the importance of MC12 in enabling the membership to reach critical decisions and set out a concrete direction for the organization. Participants also heard from Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal from the International Trade Centre and Ms. Anoush der Boghossian from the WTO Trade and Gender Focal Point. As part of the discussions, the participants were challenged to consider the roles parliamentarians could play in advancing such priorities as e-commerce and a green global recovery and services, as well as reforming the WTO to better integrate gender issues into its agenda.

Throughout November and December 2021, members of the Canada-China Legislative Association and Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group participated virtually in the 29th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), hosted by the National Assembly of South Korea. At this meeting, parliamentarians from across the wider Asia-Pacific region discussed regional, political, economic and environmental issues, as well as the situation of women. The Canadian delegation submitted two resolutions – one on the digital economy and one on women, peace and security – both of which were reflected in the APPF’s final communiqué. Canadian parliamentarians participated in the working group meetings between 8 and 19 November, as well as the plenary sessions and meetings of the drafting committee from 13 to 15 December. The Parliament of Canada is a member of the APPF’s executive committee, and Canadian parliamentarians also participated in the meeting of that committee on 10 November 2021. Following this meeting, Canada’s term on the executive committee, as a representative of the Americas sub-region of the APPF, was renewed for another four years. Senator Kutcher served as head of delegation; the other parliamentarians who participated were Senator McPhedran, Senator Oh, Senator Ringuette and Senator Woo.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), in close collaboration with Dr. Hedy Fry, P.C., M.P. and Special Representative on Gender, held a Web Dialogue on “Violence Against Women Journalists and Politicians: A Growing Crisis”. This special event underlined the negative effect gender-based violence (GBV) on democratic institutions and looked for practical solutions to be implemented in all 57 states of the OSCE. The Web Dialogue also served as the opportunity to officially launch the annual report on Gender Issues which had been tabled virtually at the Annual Session in July 2021. The Canadian delegates present included Dr. Hedy Fry, P.C., M.P., Honourable Senators Gwen Boniface and Tony Loffreda, Mr. John Aldag, Mr. Luc Berthold, Mr. Ken Hardie and Ms. Andréanne Larouche.

On 9 November 2021, Mr. David McGuinty, P.C., M.P., President of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIPU), participated in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Participants continued their discussion on the draft IPU Strategy 2022–2026. During the debate, Mr. McGuinty emphasized the important role the IPU plays in enabling information sharing and collaboration between parliamentarians from all over the world. Additionally, the President of the IPU reported on his activities over the last six months and the Secretary General provided an overview of the organization’s activities since the 207th session of the Governing Council in May 2021. Finally, the Executive Committee discussed matters related to IPU membership and preparations for the forthcoming 143rd Assembly.

On November 8, 2021, a delegation from the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (UIPU) comprising Senator Rob Black, Senator Amina Gerba and Senator Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia attended the webinar, “Trade and Health: Parliamentary Perspectives on MC12” as part of the Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization (WTO). Jointly organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the European Parliament, the event was planned to coincide with the Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled to take place at the end of November 2021. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the WTO, delivered the keynote address to participants. She emphasized that the post-pandemic potential for higher levels of global trade and more even distribution of economic growth is directly linked to achieving equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries. In this respect, she called for parliamentarians to support measures that improve links in the vaccine supply chain, encourage vaccine manufacturing in developing countries, and address intellectual property concerns. Mr. David Walker, Facilitator on the WTO response to the COVID-19 pandemic, also addressed the webinar participants. He noted that the WTO can play an important role in global efforts to address issues in trade and health in light of its comparative advantage and focus on promoting trade among its 164 member states.