Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.Chris Young/The Globe and Mail
Politics Insider delivers premium analysis and access to Canada's policymakers and politicians. Visit the Politics Insider homepage for insight available only to subscribers.
The Canadian government advises against travel to much of Iraq, but that didn't deter Immigration Minister Jason Kenney from making a surprise trip to Baghdad this week.
Protected by security contractors arranged through the British embassy, Mr. Kenney conducted a whirlwind, 16-hour tour of Iraq's capital where he talked business, religious minority rights and asylum for persecuted Iraqis.
It doesn't get a lot of attention but Iraq has figured prominently in Canada's refugee policy recently. It's the focus of Ottawa's single largest refugee resettlement program.
Mr. Kenney promised in 2009 to accept 20,000 Iraqis fleeing sectarian violence over five years. Canada's fallen behind on its goal – only accepting 12,000 so far – but that's because a key processing office in Damascus has been shuttered by civil war in Syria.
Navigating his way through Baghdad, Mr. Kenney said he found a fortified city where movement can be difficult as the military and policy try to contain the extremist violence that remains a constant threat. The United States, which led a coalition of countries to topple former dictator Saddam Hussein a decade ago, withdrew from the country in 2011.
"The security situation is overwhelming," the minister said. "For good reason, of course, there are checkpoints all throughout the city."
Canada has no embassy in Iraq. Mark Gwozdecky, Canada's ambassador to both Jordan and Iraq operates out of Amman.
Mr. Kenney's March 6 visit was the first by a Canadian minister to Iraq in more than 35 years – a reflection of the withering of bilateral ties during the long reign of Mr. Hussein, who was deposed in 2003 and executed in 2006. External Affairs Minister Mark McWhiggin was the last to show the Canadian flag in Iraq – back in 1976 – Mr. Kenney said.
While in Baghdad, the minister attended the inauguration of the new patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church, the largest Christian community in Iraq.
A focal point of the visit – aside from assuring Iraqis that Canada will keep its refugee promise – was to underscore the Harper government's avowed commitment to lobby against religious persecution abroad. The Conservatives recently appointed an ambassador to head an Office of Religious Freedom, a post that will serve as a watchdog to draw attention to international cases of mistreatment and abuse of minority faith groups.
The most moving experience of Mr. Kenney's visit came during a visit to a Catholic cathedral that was the target of a 2010 extremist attack. More than 50 people including elderly and children were killed while celebrating Sunday mass at Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad.
The immigration minister visited the church and crypt where many of the victims are buried. "I heard their personal stories including that of a four-year-old boy who kept shouting "Enough, Enough!" in Arabic during the attack," Mr. Kenney said.
"It brought home in a very palpable way how ferocious this kind of extremist violence is for ordinary people."
Mr. Kenney found Iraqis eager for more Canadian business. At least four Canada-based oil companies including Talisman Energy are active in northern Iraq and a sizable expatriate Iraqi population from the minister's Albertan hometown leads him to be hopeful about expanding trade and investment ties.
"There is a very significant and successful Iraqi community in Calgary which could be a natural bridge for trade and commerce – which is essential for Iraq's progress toward a stable democracy – for which they obviously need a strong private sector and strong civil society," the minister said.
But the Canadian politician said security costs and corruption are big barriers to more investment from Canada.
He said he warned Iraqis they have to clean up rampant corruption – where foreigners face demands for bribes.
"There is a problem with corruption and I was very blunt in raising that with senior members of the government," Mr. Kenney said.
"There is particular problem with corruption that has given Iraq a reputation problem in terms of attracting more Canadian investment and I was very blunt in saying that if they hope to see more Canadian investment there was going to have to be more tangible progress in cracking down on corruption."
Mr. Kenney's official visit to Iraq was at the invitation of his counterpart, Dindar Najman Duski, the Minister of Displacement and Migration.
During his trip he met Iraqi Vice-President Kudhair Al-Khuzaie, whose children are studying in Canada, he said, among others.
Mr. Kenney's visit came weeks before the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when Washington and allies deposed Mr. Hussein's government.
The minister said his visit was not timed to coincide with the anniversary and his sense is that while Iraqis are "generally glad to be rid of Saddam," they are "disappointed with the kind of extremist violence that has claimed so many victims there."
Iraq Body Count, a U.K.-based monitoring group, recorded 4,568 civilian deaths from violence in the country in 2012, for instance.
Mr. Kenney said while the largest numbers of victims of sectarian conflict have been Muslim – both Sunni and Shia – the smaller religious minorities, such as Catholics, have been particularly vulnerable.
"Christians in Iraq for example don't have militias. They are a tiny and shrinking minority with no capacity to protect themselves and rely completely on the state for that," the minister said.
He said the Iraqis want Canada to establish a diplomatic post in Iraq.
"The security costs would be very significant but that's John Baird's bailiwick," the minister said, referring to his Foreign Affairs colleague.
Canada closed its embassy in Baghdad in 1991 before the First Gulf War.
Steven Chase is a parliamentary reporter in The Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau.