Dave MacKenzie, MP- Oxford and Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights was recently elected Chair of the Canada-Bosnia Parliamentary Friendship group.

On November 15, 2011, Canadian Parliamentarians met to launch the first Canada-Bosnia and Herzegovina Friendship Group. An initiative of Member of Parliament Nina Grewal (Fleetwood-Port Kells), and with the support of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ambassador to Canada, H.E.  Biljana Gutic-Bjelica, the group will offer Canadian Members of Parliament and Senators an opportunity to build closer ties with their counterparts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“A Friendship group will give Parliamentarians here and in Bosnia and Herzegovina a venue to work together, to learn from one another, and to build a relationship between our two countries,” said MP MacKenzie. “Since Bosnia and Herzegovina’s emergence as a state in 1992, the Government of Canada has played a significant role in its development in terms of peace keeping, security, reconstruction, institutional reform, the promotion of good governance, and the rule of law as well as the strengthening of state-level institutions.  I believe we can build further on this support, to aid Bosnia and Herzegovina as it matures and prospers, and a Canada-Bosnia and Herzegovina Friendship Group can have an integral role to play to that end.”

Ambassador Biljana Gutic-Bjelica also addressed the assembled Parliamentarians:  “The establishment of the Group will certainly mark a new phase in the bilateral relations between the two countries. The Embassy truly hopes that this Group will become a new forum for exchange of information, experience and knowledge, and at the same time a generator of closer cooperation between the Canadian Parliament and Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Ottawa. I am more than happy that this day has come and deeply thankful to all of you present today and to all who, although not here today, supported this initiative and my dream.”

The organizational Annual General Meeting, chaired by the Group’s Coordinator, Dzenita Hozo-Freeman, elected the following executive officers to a two year term:

Chair: MP Dave MacKenzie
Vice Chair: MP Brian Masse
Vice Chair: MP Bernard Trottier
Executive Member: MP Nina Grewal
Executive Member: Senator Raynell Andreychuk

Members also considered a draft of the Group’s constitution before adjourning until a second meeting expected to be scheduled for early in the New Year.

Interparliamentary  groups, also referred to as “Parliamentary Friendship Groups” often play an important role in supporting ongoing parliamentary relations with the identified country or in providing an opportunity for parliamentarians interested in a specific international cause to engage with colleagues with a similar interest.

Please see attached photo of the groups’ executive.