Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says Canada will not issue a blanket exemption to terrorism laws for humanitarian workers in places such as Afghanistan, saying the approach taken by Canada’s peers risks abuse.
“The approach outlined in Bill C-41 best mitigates those risks by potential terrorist actors,” Mendicino told the House justice committee Monday afternoon.
He was testifying on legislation he tabled last month that would amend the Criminal Code so that Canadian aid workers can carry out duties in areas controlled by terrorists without being prosecuted for inadvertently funding such groups.
The bill comes more than a year after Canada’s allies issued blanket exemptions for humanitarian aid workers to continue their work in Afghanistan, in response to the Taliban’s violent takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
Humanitarian groups say that Global Affairs Canada had warned them that purchasing goods or hiring locals in Afghanistan would involve paying taxes to the Taliban, which would be categorized under the law as contributing to a terror group.
MPs from all parties called for legislative changes last June, at which point the U.S., U.K., European Union and Australia had all issued blanket exemptions.
Canada’s legislation takes a different tack by lettingaid workers apply for an exemption to help people in crisis in a geographic area that is controlled by a terrorist group.
Many aid groups have welcomed the change, but Doctors Without Borders said Ottawa should issue a blanket exemption instead.
“These amendments unfortunately create new bureaucratic hurdles for organizations to overcome,” the group argued in a press release last month.
The proposed changes “introduce new, onerous requirements that will delay life-saving assistance,” it wrote.
Doctors Without Borders also argued that the legislation could create an uneven approach, and that if a group has its permit denied — even for administrative reasons — it will have to abruptly discontinue aid delivery projects.
“These amendments also contradict the fundamental principles of independence and impartiality of humanitarian assistance under international humanitarian law.”
Mendicino testified that Ottawa fears a blanket approach would allow terror groups to gain support, despite multiple countries issuing such exemptions.
“Our government considered all possible remedies, including the possibility of a humanitarian exemption to the existing law. However, a statutory carve-out would not provide, in our submission, the same security checks and balances, and would risk greater abuse of the provision,” Mendicino said Monday.
“We need to strike that balance, and do it in a way that promotes transparency, accountability, but with the sense of urgency that I think all parliamentarians are united behind, in getting that aid to Afghanistan.”
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson rejected that argument, pressing Mendicino on why other countries have issued sweeping exemptions.
“Canada’s the only one that put barriers up for humanitarian organizations, instead of making it easier for them to be on the ground doing the work helping Afghans,” McPherson said.
“Experience has shown us time and time again, the government is not good at moving quickly; we don’t have trust in the government to do those things,” she added.
She argued the “obscene” process gives Ottawa power over international humanitarian law and could be weaponized by future governments against aid groups working in areas like Gaza or Syria.
Mendicino said applications for exemptions would be processed quickly once the system is in place, but would not give a rough time frame for those decisions.
McPherson argued aid groups feel pressured to support the legislation since Ottawa took so long to craft a solution.
“They’re willing to take the crumbs that you’ve put on the table because you did not come with the right legislation,” McPherson told Mendicino.
Senior bureaucrats testified that a blanket exemption for humanitarian workers would not apply to development projects such as running a school, but the process of issuing exemptions makes those activities possible.
“A humanitarian carve-out prevents different kinds of activities that we want to make sure would be covered,” said Global Affairs Canada director general Jennifer Loten, who oversees international crime and terrorism.
“My own view is that the shape that we’ve given to the proposal in front of you provides the most flexibility and prevents us from coming back to this table a few years down the line when the situation evolves.”
Conservative international development critic Garnett Genuis pressed Mendicino on whether the bill only provides exemptions in areas controlled by terror groups listed by Ottawa, or other terrorist groups that haven’t been listed. Mendicino did not indicate whether that would apply.
Genuis also argued the exemptions process will be hard to navigate for smaller charities.
Bloc Quebecois human rights critic Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe said the proposed system might delay humanitarian responses to natural disasters in areas controlled by terrorists. Bureaucrats noted that United Nations affiliates are often the first to respond to such situations.
In their budget last month, the Liberals earmarked $5 million this fiscal year to vet applications for aid workers and issue exemptions to terrorism laws, and $11 million for the following year.
Afghanistan is grappling with rising malnutrition and an economy that has largely collapsed. UN officials have said the country faces the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. This week, the Taliban closed more schools for girls and women, this time in the south of the country.
Aid groups such as World Vision Canada have said that their work in Afghanistan traditionally solicits large donations from the public compared to other humanitarian appeals, but the existing laws bar them from collecting these funds.
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