(Ottawa) The Trudeau government is working hard to ensure that some 12,000 delegates from 190 countries who are expected in Montreal have all the required documents in time to participate in the UN Conference on Biodiversity ( COP15) in December.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
Because it is necessary at all costs to avoid playing in the same film as this summer, while the issues of the International Conference on AIDS in Montreal have been overshadowed by the delays in the issuance of visas, warns in particular the Montreal organizer of this congress, the Dr Jean-Pierre Routy.
These delays prevented some of the speakers from taking part in the event and caused embarrassment to the Canadian authorities.
Special team
According to information obtained by The Press, a team of officials at the Federal Department of Immigration has been created with the sole mandate of processing visas and other documents necessary for delegates to attend COP15. Also, the UN opened registration for the event last week.
“The Ministry of Immigration is involved in the preparation and organization of COP15. There is a dedicated visa team,” said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
In June, Montreal was given the mandate to host the second part of COP15, thus taking over from the Chinese city of Kunming, after the work of the conference had been postponed four times due to security measures. strict confinement imposed by Beijing to control the cases of COVID-19. The conference will take place from December 5 to 17 in the metropolis, which already houses the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
Normally, the host country of such an international conference has two years to organize it. Canada will have had less than six months.
A blow to Canada’s reputation
The failures in the issuance of visas that marked the 24e International AIDS Conference hurt Canada’s reputation, says Drr Jean-Pierre Routy, who was the local president. “It certainly cast a shadow on the event, and a little bit in Canada as well,” he notes in an interview.
The majority of delegates who remained uncertain came from the African continent. “Many said it was an attitude against Africa, against people who had HIV – that’s probably wrong, because there is a hyper representation of countries in Africa that need visas to come to Canada,” says Dr.r Routy.
What is true is that the host city has an obligation of result. “When you accept, it comes with the prestige of hosting a conference, but also with a commitment to respect certain points. There, I hope that they are committed to giving visas, ”says the professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University.
And while December may seem a long way off, it’s happening now, he says.
“It’s done three months in advance, planning a trip abroad, when you’re working,” explains the Dr Routy.
A good lesson?
The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Michel Leblanc, also hopes that the Trudeau government has learned from the failures of the AIDS conference.
He “cannot conceive” the reverse. “If the federal government invests 64 million, if it has been an active player in obtaining it for Canada, in Montreal, I imagine that we will ensure that all the processes, including those on visas, go be tightened for it to work. »
Especially since the choice of the Quebec metropolis for the holding of the environmental conference – the same city where the Montreal Protocol on the protection of the ozone layer was signed in 1987 – is very “strategic” in terms of image, believes Michel Leblanc.
And beneficial. “Major conventions are always very profitable. It’s new money. These people who come from abroad with large spending budgets. They stay in good hotels, eat in good restaurants,” he notes.
If the Canadian government fails in its mission, it is its reputation – more than that of the Quebec metropolis – that will suffer, pleads Michel Leblanc.
“A country that is not able to accommodate visitors it has invited may have a black eye. But I don’t think any visitor to Montreal thinks the city is responsible for the airport or for issuing visas,” he says.