Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino arrives for a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Mendicino is set to testify this evening on a bill meant to unblock Canadian aid in Afghanistan, just hours after it passed the House. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
OTTAWA – Senators are concerned that a long-delayed Liberal bill aimed at unblocking Canadian aid in Afghanistan will bog down development groups in red tape and block access based on prejudicial bureaucracy.
Terrorism laws currently bar Canadian aid workers from paying taxes for any labour or goods in Afghanistan, as doing so could lead to prosecution for supporting the governing Taliban, which Ottawa designates as a terrorist group.
Bill C-41 would allow development workers, such as those building schools, to apply for exemptions to do their work, and would enact a blanket exemption for humanitarian workers providing life-saving aid.
The bill passed the House this afternoon with support from all parties except the NDP, who say it violates aid workers’ independence if they have to seek government permission to do their work abroad.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is testifying at the Senate human-rights committee on the bill, and would not provide a rough timeline on how long it will take Ottawa to process a request for an exemption.
Senators including Mobina Jaffer told Mendicino that even if his bill is meant to give equal consideration to all exemption requests, many groups such as Afghan-Canadians feel they are subject to undue scrutiny by federal departments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2023.
