Honourable senators, I rise today to speak about ParlAmericas and its recent meetings in Washington with the Organization of American States, or OAS.

ParlAmericas is a forum of parliamentarians from the member states of the inter-American system that, for 25 years, has convened colleagues from Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss policy issues of hemispheric relevance and to compare legislative practices.

The organization has benefited from strong Canadian participation and financial backing. Senate support, in particular from our colleague Senator Rosa Galvez, has been steadfast, along with the work of Alisha Todd, the Director General of ParlAmericas.

Last month, with colleagues from the House of Commons, I joined legislators from across Latin America and the Caribbean. We came to know each other quite well, which is what parliamentary diplomacy is all about.

ParlAmericas is very important to me, as I was Canada’s ambassador and permanent representative to the OAS in Washington when ParlAmericas was established in 1999. I was a teenager then.

My team and I worked hard on the hemispheric parliamentary cooperation file, in particular, in advance of the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

There have been two things missing over the years: a clearer institutional link with the OAS and its agenda, and a commitment from the United States Congress to participate more meaningfully in the work of ParlAmericas.

We made great progress on both fronts during our visit last month, including during our meetings with the OAS Secretary General and the various secretariats and inter-American commissions. We ended with a special joint session of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs and the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management and Civil Society Participation.

It was here that the proposal for regularized collaboration with the OAS through strengthened parliamentary collaboration was adopted. This will now go to ministers of foreign affairs of member states for adoption at the OAS General Assembly in Suriname in June. The hope and expectation is that hemispheric parliamentary cooperation will be endorsed by leaders at the next Summit of the Americas in the Dominican Republic in November 2025.

ParlAmericas, and its credibility, would benefit from greater participation by the United States Congress. We met with American senators who provided their support for increased parliamentary cooperation through ParlAmericas with the important proviso that there be greater activity in the four thematic pillars of the OAS: democracy, human rights, integral development and hemispheric security.

Within that rubric, governments in our hemisphere also need to pay more attention to the management of migratory issues, the scourge of opioids and the erosion of national democratic institutions.

Colleagues, in the great “polycrisis” global environment in which we live, it is too easy to forget our own hemisphere. Our successive governments have had an important role in supporting, nurturing and encouraging progress in the inter-American system. There is a clear legislative component to this goal as well, and we should seize the opportunity. I strongly believe that Canada has much to offer.

Thank you.

[Editor’s Note: Senator Boehm spoke in another language.]