Hon. Mobina S. B. Jaffer: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-41, an act to Amend the Criminal Code as related to humanitarian aid in countries Canada considers to have a terrorist regime.

I would like to thank Minister Mendicino and Senator Omidvar for sponsoring this bill, along with Senator Ataullahjan for all her work helping the people of Afghanistan.

The purpose of Bill C-41 is to address the fact that Canada’s current legal framework has limited the ability of Canadian aid organizations to provide assistance to the people of Afghanistan due to the potential Criminal Code liability, as we view the Taliban as a terrorist regime.

Practically, Bill C-41 enables Canadian aid organizations to deliver their services through two separate mechanisms, as Senator Omidvar said; one is for humanitarian aid and the other for development activities.

I want to share with you the sad incident of Aziz Gul.

Many families are making desperate decisions to survive in Afghanistan, including selling their children — specifically young daughters — into marriage to receive a dowry from the groom’s family to buy food.

Aziz Gul was sold into marriage at 16 years old to a man more than twice her age. Five months later, her family received a call informing them that their daughter had been killed. Her naked body had been found in a forest just outside the village where she had lived with her in-laws.

Aziz Gul had been beaten and shot four times in her back. She was 17 years old and four months’ pregnant. As her grief‑stricken parents embarked on the several-days-long journey to bring her body back to their home, they learned that, during the months that their daughter was married, Aziz Gul’s husband had been prone to fits of rage and aggression.

Senators, this is not a unique incident. I am sharing it with you to illustrate the heartbreaking circumstances in Afghanistan. The situation in Afghanistan is overwhelmingly tragic. The humanitarian and development challenges are growing and intensifying as we speak.

Let me now share with you just a few disturbing facts about the crisis. Afghanistan is currently suffering the largest humanitarian crisis in the world with 97% of Afghans living in poverty, up from 47% in 2020.

Two thirds of the population — 28 million people — will need humanitarian assistance this year alone to survive. According to the World Food Programme, nearly 20 million people face acute food insecurity and 6 million are one step away from famine-like conditions. This increasing humanitarian crisis has been made worse by drought, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Also, 2.3 million children are expected to face acute malnutrition this year alone, while almost a million of them will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.

Save the Children’s Country Director in Afghanistan, Chris Nyamandi, described the toll this crisis has had on children with the following words:

I’ve never seen anything like the desperate situation we have here in Afghanistan. We treat frighteningly ill children every day who haven’t eaten anything except bread for months. Parents are having to make impossible decisions – which of their children do they feed? Do they send their children to work or let them starve? These are excruciating choices that no parent should have to make.

As you know, the Taliban came back into power on August 15, 2021. Their accession to power pushed the country into deeper economic turmoil and exacerbated poverty as critical aid stopped flowing into the country. They have completely stolen the rights of women and girls.

Colleagues, for my entire career as a senator, since 2001 when the first challenge in Afghanistan happened, I worked with Mr. Chrétien and many women to get women in power in leadership roles. Mr. Chrétien personally assured those women that they would get Canadian soldiers to protect them. That was in 2001. Now, in 2023, we don’t even have a role in Afghanistan.

However, since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban came to power, all the Canadian support given to the Afghan women, children and marginalized people, as I said earlier, has come to a halt.

Canada stopped providing humanitarian aid and development aid to Afghanistan due to certain terrorism provisions in our Criminal Code as our government declared the Taliban a terrorist organization.

I am very sad to say this to you: It has taken Canada two years to find a way to send humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, whereas our allies — including Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom — quickly figured out a way to resume humanitarian and developmental aid and made sure that aid organizations continued to receive funding despite their domestic terrorism laws.

Canada is the only G7 country that has not found a way to resume aid for life-saving activities in Afghanistan. Senators, this is absolutely unacceptable. It is shameful that Canada continues to drag its feet when there are ways to provide aid to desperate women and children.

Canada has an important role to play here. But more importantly, senators, Canadians want to play an important role. I can tell you the number of Canadians who call me regularly to say it is a shame that we have left Afghanistan. The delay of two years has meant that Canada and Canadian aid have disappeared from a country which is in dire need of support from Canadians.

Still, Bill C-41 will create, as Senator Omidvar said, a two‑track system: one track for humanitarian aid and a second track for development.

For humanitarian aid, the bill proposes a humanitarian exemption which will allow the organizations to provide humanitarian services including food, shelter, hygiene and protection on the ground. These are emergency, life-saving activities that will be provided by humanitarian organizations that Senator Omidvar has already mentioned, meaning that humanitarian aid can be provided by a Canadian organization without any fear of criminal sanctions. This process is clear and straightforward.

I differ slightly from Senator Omidvar on the second track. The second track will be for development activities. The bill proposes something called an authorization regime which will allow Canadian individuals and organizations to be granted authorizations that would shield them from criminal liability. Specifically, it will allow organizations to provide health services, education services, immigration services, human rights programming and support for livelihoods. However, the process put forward by our government for obtaining authorization is complex and opaque.

The first step of the process requires the given Canadian individual or organization to apply to the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. These departments would then need to be satisfied that certain conditions are met. This includes, among other things, that the proposed activity aligns with a permitted purpose and responds to a real and important need.

The two ministers will then refer the application to the Minister of Public Safety. Once the application has been received by the Minister of Public Safety, it will be reviewed and assessed for impact of granting the authorizations.

Senators, factors to be considered include, among others, whether the applicants or those involved in activity implementation have links to terrorist groups or were investigated, charged or convicted of terrorism offences. Yet, we have not received clarity on these processes. We have not got an answer as to regulations. Senator Omidvar asked very specifically of the minister: When will the regulations be in place? In committee, the minister did not even answer the question, so we don’t know how quickly these regulations will be placed. It is really worrying to me that after two years, will it take another year for regulations to be in place?

I want to point out to you that we are sending the initial applications to some of the busiest departments for approval before they are even sent to the Minister of Public Safety. This, I assure you, will cause long delays.

Honourable senators, let me once again reiterate the need to act. There are many devastating incidents illustrating the desperate conditions in Afghanistan, including many children getting hurt. I’m going to skip those examples. Canadian organizations are ready to provide support to the most vulnerable Afghan groups. They are waiting for permission.

There are containers of essential supplies waiting in the Port of Montreal to be sent out to Afghanistan.

Michael Messenger, President of World Vision Canada, said the heart of issue is simple:

In Afghanistan’s time of deepest need, Canadians want to help. . . . Our government needs to do everything it can to allow humanitarian aid to flow.

As these humanitarian organizations cannot continue their life‑saving work if the government does not act quickly and provide the necessary clarity through regulation, humanitarian and development organizations need to be assured that their life‑saving work will not be penalized under Canada’s Criminal Code.

Honourable senators, let us remember that 167 children a day die in Afghanistan from preventable diseases, malnutrition and lack of clean water.

I heard a lot of activities going on while I was speaking. Normally, I would have sat down and thought it was very rude and that everybody should have been in their chair. I’m only hoping that it was to make this bill proceed faster. But be careful. Don’t be in such a haste until the regulations are in place because it is not all that clear. Without the regulations, those two big ships are not going to leave the Port of Montreal.

Thank you.