Overseas Affairs Minister Anita Anand stated Thursday Canada shouldn’t be open to re-establishing diplomatic ties with Iran presently, and pushed again on senators who declare Canada has deserted its human rights focus in its pursuit of funding from Gulf nations.
“Our values are our North Star. They’re our supply of energy,” Anand instructed the Senate’s international affairs committee Thursday.
Sen. Peter More durable requested Anand whether or not Ottawa would revise a choice the Harper authorities made in 2012 to chop diplomatic ties with Iran.
“It was unlucky that we withdrew from Iran. It was one of many areas the place the 5 Eyes welcomed Canada’s participation,” stated More durable, referring to the intelligence alliance that features Washington and London.
Anand responded in French that Canada’s focus with Iran is on limiting the potential for Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons and urging it to have interaction with nations just like the U.S. and France.
“At this second, now, it’s vital to ship a transparent message that we’re right here for nuclear non-proliferation and we’ll proceed to say that, all the time,” she stated.
Senators questioned Anand about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s latest assertion that whereas Canada now not has an explicitly feminist international coverage, it nonetheless needs to uphold these values on the world stage.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and around the globe, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
“Sure, we’ve got that facet to our international coverage, however I wouldn’t describe our international coverage as feminist international coverage,” Carney instructed reporters on Sunday throughout the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
Sen. Mary Coyle requested Anand whether or not this implies Canada will “abandon” the written Feminist Worldwide Help Coverage that it applies to help, and why the broader international coverage is now not known as feminist.
Anand stated Canada nonetheless brings ahead human rights issues in its diplomacy and demonstrates an “unwavering” dedication to these rules in its international assist and public statements in venues just like the United Nations.
“Feminism is a core worth of our authorities, and it is a crucial a part of our international coverage,” she stated.
In a quick interview, Coyle described Anand’s response as “evasion, a reinforcement of the minister’s personal dedication to feminism and to ongoing assist for ladies and gender equality, however nothing concrete on the federal government’s place.”
Coyle stated Canada is dropping its management place on advancing these insurance policies globally.
“Why would we have to drop the language? We shouldn’t be afraid to make use of the phrase feminist,” she stated.
Sen. Salma Ataullahjan requested Anand whether or not Canada’s international coverage “remains to be linked” to particular person nations’ human rights data.
“We used to face for human rights and we have been recognized for that all through the world,” the Conservative senator stated.
Sen. Duncan Wilson instructed Anand that he’s apprehensive about Canada pursuing funding from the United Arab Emirates with out publicly mentioning widespread studies that the UAE is funding a militia in Sudan that Washington accuses of finishing up a genocide.
“I’m involved that latest conferences within the UAE, for instance, didn’t embrace dialogue about, or at the very least not publicly about, Sudan,” he stated.
Anand didn’t particularly say whether or not she had raised Sudan together with her Emirati counterparts.
“The conversations that I’ve had with my counterpart within the UAE have raised human rights points,” she stated. “That strategy does replicate our values, opposite to the implication in (your) query. Our values are to emphasize humanitarianism.”
Anand additionally didn’t immediately reply when Sen. Yuen Pau Woo requested whether or not Canada would insist that U.S. President Donald Trump enable South Africa to take part on the G20 summit subsequent 12 months in Miami, as Trump considers blocking the nation’s participation.
“We all the time assist multilateralism,” she stated in French.
Anand additionally advised to senators that unnamed components in Canada search to undermine a value-based international coverage.
“Canada continues to face for democracy, the rules-based, worldwide order, human rights, gender equality, environmental safety and reconciliation,” she testified.
“There shall be detractors — internally and externally — by way of the pursuit of those values, however we’ll by no means retreat from the values that make Canadians Canadian.”
Anand argued the Carney authorities is being “each strategic and pragmatic” by pursuing financial and safety pursuits whereas advancing “our core values which underpin and are infused in our international coverage total.’”
All through the assembly, Anand replied to English-language questions in French, which perplexed some senators.
Liberal ministers have up to now chosen to reply Conservative questions in French in what many noticed as an try to stop the Tories from publishing clips that resonate on social media.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
