Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with world leaders behind closed doors in Quebec City for the Sommet de la Francophonie Saturday to discuss the global economic crisis.
La Francophonie is the French-language equivalent of the Commonwealth and representatives of 55 member countries and 13 observer nations are attending this year's meeting.
The summit kicked off on Friday with speeches from Harper and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Harper said targeted steps must be taken to resolve the world financial crisis which has hit many developing countries that are part of la Francophonie.
Sarkozy said francophone countries should take a leading role by proposing new economic models for the world.
The French leader also used the visit to talk about Quebec's deep ties with France, saying they should never become the wedge that divides a united Canada.
Harper said that anglophone Canadians understand the special nature of the France-Quebec relationship.
Later, Sarkozy complimented the "great Canadian people" while addressing his "brothers in Quebec" in that province's legislature.
Canadian unity is a key foundation upon which capitalism will be rebuilt after the resolution of the international financial crisis, Sarkozy said.
Last spring, Sarkozy extolled his love for Canada, surprising many separatists who saw it as a shift from France's long-time neutral position on Canadian unity.
Human right an issue
Amnesty International said that many Francophonie member nations have poor records human right records and called for violators to be named and suspended.
The director of the francophone Canadian branch of Amnesty International, Beatrice Vaugrante, also complained of the summit's strictly closed-door meetings.
"It's good they meet, whether (or not) they have records in human rights violations, but the problem is, how come it is so secretive and there's absolutely no public debate on that?" Vaugrante said.
Harper spokesperson Dimitri Soudas said the prime minister believes that the developing nations should not be isolated from the rest of the world.
"If we isolate certain countries that are not quite at the ideal norms but are making progress ... I don't think the result will be what we're hoping for," Soudas told reporters.
"It's with this approach that we will be able to make progress. It's with this approach that we will be able to hope that some of these countries will make progress."
With files from The Canadian Press
