OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Thursday Canada is not open to re-establishing diplomatic ties with Iran at this time, and pushed back on senators who claim Canada has abandoned its human rights focus in its pursuit of investment from Gulf nations.
“Our values are our North Star. They are our source of strength,” Anand told the Senate’s foreign affairs committee Thursday.
Sen. Peter Harder asked Anand whether Ottawa would revise a decision the Harper government made in 2012 to cut diplomatic ties with Iran.
“It was unfortunate that we withdrew from Iran. It was one of the areas where the Five Eyes welcomed Canada’s participation,” said Harder, referring to the intelligence alliance that includes Washington and London.
Anand responded in French that Canada’s focus with Iran is on limiting the possibility of Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons and urging it to engage with countries like the U.S. and France.
“At this moment, now, it’s important to send a clear message that we are here for nuclear non-proliferation and we will continue to say that, always,” she said.
Senators questioned Anand about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent statement that while Canada no longer has an explicitly feminist foreign policy, it still wants to uphold those values on the world stage.
“Yes, we have that aspect to our foreign policy, but I wouldn’t describe our foreign policy as feminist foreign policy,” Carney told reporters on Sunday during the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
Sen. Mary Coyle asked Anand whether this means Canada will “abandon” the written Feminist International Assistance Policy that it applies to aid, and why the broader foreign policy is no longer referred to as feminist.
Anand said Canada still brings forward human rights concerns in its diplomacy and demonstrates an “unwavering” commitment to those principles in its foreign aid and public statements in venues like the United Nations.
“Feminism is a core value of our government, and it is an important part of our foreign policy,” she said.
In a brief interview, Coyle described Anand’s response as “evasion, a reinforcement of the minister’s own commitment to feminism and to ongoing support for women and gender equality, but nothing concrete on the government’s position.”
Coyle said Canada is losing its leadership position on advancing these policies globally.
“Why would we need to drop the language? We shouldn’t be afraid to use the word feminist,” she said.
Sen. Salma Ataullahjan asked Anand whether Canada’s foreign policy “is still linked” to individual countries’ human rights records.
“We used to stand for human rights and we were known for that throughout the world,” the Conservative senator said.
Sen. Duncan Wilson told Anand that he’s worried about Canada pursuing investment from the United Arab Emirates without publicly mentioning widespread reports that the UAE is funding a militia in Sudan that Washington accuses of carrying out a genocide.
“I am concerned that recent meetings in the UAE, for example, did not include discussion about, or at least not publicly about, Sudan,” he said.
Anand did not specifically say whether she had raised Sudan with her Emirati counterparts.
“The conversations that I have had with my counterpart in the UAE have raised human rights issues,” she said. “That approach does reflect our values, contrary to the implication in (your) question. Our values are to stress humanitarianism.”
Anand gave similar answers to the House committee on foreign affairs when pressed by Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif over whether she raised Sudan with the UAE.
Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe said in French that Canada is staying silent while inking “juicy contracts” with human-rights abusers and claimed the Carney government would have signed a trade deal with apartheid-era South Africa.
Anand pushed back, saying Canada stands up for human rights and against “forces attacking our multilateral institutions.”
“Diplomacy isn’t about hiding under a rock and pretending that the world’s problems are going to vanish. Diplomacy is actually sitting at the table and having conversations that may be difficult, but that are important to advance Canada’s interests,” she said.
At the Senate, Anand also did not directly answer when Sen. Yuen Pau Woo asked whether Canada would insist that U.S. President Donald Trump allow South Africa to participate at the G20 summit next year in Miami. Trump has mulled blocking the country from participating.
“We always support multilateralism,” she said in French.
Anand also suggested to senators that unnamed elements in Canada seek to undermine a value-based foreign policy.
“Canada continues to stand for democracy, the rules-based, international order, human rights, gender equality, environmental protection and reconciliation,” she testified.
“There will be detractors — internally and externally — in terms of the pursuit of these values, but we will never retreat from the values that make Canadians Canadian.”
Anand argued the Carney government is being “both strategic and pragmatic” by pursuing economic and security interests while advancing “our core values which underpin and are infused in our foreign policy overall.'”
Throughout the meeting, Anand replied to English-language questions in French, which perplexed some senators.
Liberal ministers have in the past chosen to answer Conservative questions in French in what many saw as an attempt to prevent the Tories from publishing clips that resonate on social media.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2025.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
