44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 7, 2021 10:00AM
- Dec/7/21 12:20:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, given this is my first full speech in the House, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the people of Vancouver East for sending me back here, to bring their voices to the House of Commons. I often look at this place as this place of the people and it is absolutely essential for us to do our jobs and bring our constituents' voices here, represent their needs and drive change. What I have done throughout my entire political life is to really stand by the community and fight for change that matters in their everyday experiences.
I also want to take a moment to thank the campaign team members. Without them, I would not be here. I often say that I am not here because of me; I am here because of the amazing people who work with me, support me and lift me up to do this work.
Finally, I come to this place always with these words in mind from the late lieutenant-governor David Lam. He said to me many years ago that it was not the title that brought one honour but rather what one did to honour the title. These are the words I live by every day in the House.
I requested an emergency debate on Afghanistan on the second day the House resumed after the election. It was my first opportunity to raise the issue, and I was so disappointed the Speaker ruled against it.
Now we have this motion before us, and the Afghanistan issue is absolutely a crisis to which Canada needs to put its mind. The situation in Afghanistan is heartbreaking and it did not have to be this way.
For decades, after risking their lives to help the Canadian Armed Forces, many Afghan interpreters, other collaborators and their extended families were left in the highly precarious situation, being targeted by the Taliban.
I was astounded, to be honest, when the former minister of immigration's, now the Minister of Public Safety, initial response to help them get to safety was that they could use the existing immigration measures. That was his suggestion. This delay in action prolonged the threats and further endangered lives. Let us be honest about that and let us own that reality. Canada owes them a debt of gratitude and every effort must be made to bring them to safety swiftly.
With the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Canadian Afghan families are absolutely desperate to bring their loved ones here. I do not believe a day goes by where I do not receive a message from a family member across the country, or even outside of Canada, asking for help.
In fact, as recently as just this week, I received a message from an Afghan interpreter who received support from the United States and landed there, but whose family members were left behind. Afghan interpreters also helped the Canadian military. Now, even with the government's new Afghan measure it recently announced, they are precluded from being able to bring their family members here because they have to be in Canada in order to exercise that measure.
There is something really wrong with our approach to this entire situation. Time and again, the Canadian government, the Liberal government, has shown that it is not there for the people who helped us when we needed them the most.
According to the government’s own website, “Canada and its allies have received assurances from the Taliban that Afghan citizens with travel authorization from other countries will be allowed to leave Afghanistan.” Canada must not squander this small window of opportunity given the dire situation in Afghanistan. The NDP is therefore calling on the government to bring in an emergency immigration measure of utilizing temporary residence permits to help Afghans get to safety.
There is no question that the granting of TRPs should be made with temporary travel documents to all Afghans and their extended family members who have supported the Canadian military, to those who are advocates, fighting for human rights, and to women and girls in particular, who are in such dangerous situations. I know of judges and lawyers who have also been left behind. They are asking for help and urging the Canadian government to come to the forefront.
I am calling on the government to expand the same support to human rights activists in Afghanistan and Afghans with family members in Canada, especially those with family reunification applications still awaiting processing.
I have a constituent who fled Afghanistan and came to Canada as a refugee three years ago. The minute he was able to, he submitted a family reunification application to bring his wife and his children here to Canada. They have been waiting for three years, and it still has not been processed. Now this has happened. Every time I talk to him he is literally weeping, because he is so worried about his wife and his daughter. Why? It is because they are women in that country, where they cannot be alone. They cannot even go out to get groceries on their own. How do members think families like that feel, who are struggling with this problem? Special immigration measures need to recognize that women and girls need help. They cannot travel without a man accompanying them in Afghanistan right now. That is their reality.
The government needs to work with advocacy groups in Canada to identify people in Afghanistan and provide them with a TRP and travel documents so that they can get to a third country. I would say that Canada also needs to recognize that under the current environment, Afghans are inhibited from obtaining the necessary travel documents, including a valid visa.
It is essential that the Government of Canada waive the requirements for documentation at this time and immediately provide them with a TRP and the necessary travel documents. Once they are in safety here in Canada, we can then work to get the necessary paperwork in order, including family sponsorship applications or private refugee sponsorship opportunities. For all of that to work and for the government to promise that 40,000 refugees will be able to come to Canada from Afghanistan, we must also waive the refugee determination requirements.
Currently, in Turkestan, where many Afghans have fled, there is no system in place for processing Afghans who recently fled from Afghanistan, and refugee determinations are required to qualify under all of Canada’s refugee streams. The government must recognize that and rectify it. It is not something unheard of, by the way. It was done for the Syrian refugee initiative in 2015. If we could do that for refugees from Syria, we can do the same for refugees from Afghanistan. I am asking that we undertake those measures as we undertook them for the Syrian refugee initiative.
Canadians are deeply compassionate and more than willing to help those in need. Mr. Dan On is a successful entrepreneur in Vancouver. Some members may have seen the products he has on his shelves: the Dan-D Pak and all kinds of products and yummy things. He was a refugee from Vietnam. He came to Canada with literally the shirt on his back and was able to rebuild his life and become a successful entrepreneur. People from Vietnam are a model of how successful refugees can be. He has undertaken to fundraise, to support Afghan refugees all on his own and not ask for anything in return. He understands what it is like to have travelled that journey, and he wants to help.
I urge the government to take action. We can do it at committee; we can do it outside of committee; we can do it anywhere if we have the political will to make that difference. Let us save lives.
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- Dec/7/21 12:31:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am a little more than fairly interested in the refugee file. I am deeply interested in the refugee file, because that is what we need to do. Humanitarian action is required.
On the issue of a special committee, the advantage of a special committee is that it would bring a number of different departments and ministries together to get the job done, because so far it is not working.
The government, unbelievably, called the election in the middle of this crisis, which it knew was coming. The day the election was called was the day the Afghan government fell. Then the government told the refugees not to worry, that it would bring them to Canada and that they should make applications and send their information to Global Affairs Canada. The government sent special emails to everyone, but those emails are just sitting there gathering dust.
I cannot say how many people have said they have not heard from the government even though it has recognized that they are indeed interpreters and told them their families should get to safety. They have had no response—
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- Dec/7/21 12:33:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to say that action from the Canadian government to support people and get them to safety is absolutely essential and urgent. It is not premature. In fact I would argue that it is late in the day for us to get going on this. This should have been done before the election. It should have been done even with the prior administration. The Conservatives created a program from 2009 to 2011, which required at least 12 months of service starting in 2007 for Afghans to qualify to get to safety, even though we knew the Canadian military faced some of the heaviest fighting between 2006 and 2007.
Successive governments have failed. It is not premature. We should have done this yesterday.
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- Dec/7/21 12:34:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely costing lives, because people cannot get to safety. The government made an announcement saying it would bring 40,000 refugees from Afghanistan, knowing that the refugee determination process does not enable them to get to safety and knowing they cannot get the documentation to get to safety. All of that is just words. It is meaningless and costing lives.
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- Dec/7/21 3:38:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I believe we all want to help the Afghans who have been stranded and need to get to safety. There are some measures the Canadian government can undertake, including, for example, waiving the refugee determination requirement, so that people who cannot access the UNHCR offices would be able to get refugee status to get to safety. Another measure would be waiving the requirements for documentation, because the reality is that people cannot access travel documents, visas or passports for that matter.
Would the member work with the NDP on these calls to action for the government, to really put something substantive on the table to help refugees get to safety?
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- Dec/7/21 3:53:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I met with an individual who told me this situation. They have family members in Afghanistan who worked for the previous government in the area of biometrics. After the Taliban took over, it visited workers in those departments and tried to force them to give them access to that biometrics information. It wanted to see both who was in the system, so as to target them, and those who could be erased, as in the terrorists it could protect.
The family member is very concerned about the safety of their loved ones. In fact, their loved one's co-worker was visited by the Taliban. Subsequently, when they refused to provide the information or access to the biometrics, they were killed.
That is the reality of what they are faced with. For an individual with loved ones in Afghanistan in those situations, what can the government provide or offer in support of those family members at risk?
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- Dec/7/21 4:21:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, some of the messages the member read out are not dissimilar to the ones I have received. The messages from IRCC and GAC in response really shocked me, because essentially they were stock answers that told people to please go away. They did not provide a resolution or an approach for how they could get to safety. Many people who received documentation from the government were not recognized at the airport and were turned away. Many wrote to GAC in the special email that was given to them, only for it to fall into a deep hole and never see daylight because they never got a response.
In looking forward toward action, will the member support a call for the government to issue temporary resident permits to bring people to safety and to waive the refugee determination requirements so that people can get the refugee status they need to get to safety, given there are no UNHCR offices available? Finally—
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- Dec/7/21 4:38:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my question for the parliamentary secretary is this. Would the government be willing to waive the refugee determination requirement for Afghan refugees, as it has done under the Syrian refugee initiative?
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- Dec/7/21 5:08:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the truth of the matter is that this problem has been escalated between successive governments. The Harper administration, from 2009 to 2011, did offer an immigration stream for Afghan interpreters. However, with that program there were very specific requirements. First, they had to have served 12 months before they could qualify for that measure, and second, it applied only if they had served from 2007 onward. That is to say that if they served before 2007, they did not qualify. If they served 360 days as opposed to 365 days, they did not qualify. It was reported that two out of three of those who applied were refused.
Successive governments have failed Afghan interpreters and collaborators who supported our military. With that in mind, would the Conservatives agree that in going forward we need to take responsibility for past actions and look for solutions to the problem, including waiving the refugee determination requirements?
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- Dec/7/21 6:12:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to extend a big thanks to all the military men and women here in Canada who put their lives at risk every day to protect us.
With respect to the Afghan mission and the people left behind, we are in a situation where many people are in desperate straits. However, there are a number of measures the government can take to address this issue.
I wonder whether the Conservatives would support a measure that calls for the government to ease the documentation requirements. As it stands right now, people cannot get their visas processed, for example, to get to safety. Would they support easing the measure with respect to the refugee determination requirements?
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- Dec/7/21 10:43:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my riding of Vancouver East has the third largest urban indigenous community in the country. We also had the largest homeless encampment in this country. That encampment has now been taken down, but people are still homeless on the streets and I see tents everywhere. The winter months are here; it is wet and it is cold.
The most glaring omission from the national housing strategy was an urban, rural and northern “for indigenous, by indigenous” housing strategy. As the CHRA indigenous caucus pointed out, Canada’s distinctions-based indigenous housing strategy left a huge gap for 87% of indigenous peoples living off reserve and had called for the government to address this huge housing gap.
The proposal for a fourth strategy calling for specific programs and investments for urban, rural and northern indigenous peoples backed by budget measures was supported unanimously by indigenous and non-indigenous members of the CHRA. That was back in 2018. Despite the Liberals saying that they are committed to a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban indigenous housing strategy, we have yet to see one materialize.
Budget after budget, the Liberals failed to deliver. In response to budget 2021, Robert Byers, chair of CHRA indigenous caucus, said the absence of such a strategy in budget 2021 is a disgrace. Tim Richter, president and CEO of the CAEH, and co-chair of the government’s National Housing Council called it “the most glaring disappointment”.
In this throne speech, there was zero recognition of the need for a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban, rural, northern housing strategy, despite the fact that the core housing need for indigenous households is the highest in Canada. The Northwest Territories is at 22.3%, Yukon at 24.1% and Nunavut is at 44.3%.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer most recently reported that 124,000 indigenous households are in core need, including 37,500 who are homeless in a given year. The annual affordability gap is $636 million. Winnipeg has the highest number of indigenous households in need of housing estimated at 9,000, and Vancouver is second at 6,000.
We also know that indigenous peoples are 11 times more likely to use a homeless shelter. The latest point in count shows that 7,000 indigenous persons are in shelters or unsheltered across 61 communities.
We need the government to stop with the talking points. It is time to take action. I am calling on the minister to include a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban, rural and northern housing strategy and the creation of a national housing centre designed and run by indigenous housing providers in this fiscal update.
It is absolutely essential for the government to take action. If the government seriously wants the community to believe that reconciliation is the top priority for the government, it needs to take action. I do not want to hear from the government members who get up to pat themselves on the back to say what a great job they are doing. They do not have to look far to know what I am saying is true. All they have to do is come to my riding in Vancouver East and I will take them down to the streets. They will see for themselves—
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- Dec/7/21 10:51:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am sorry, but the fact is that the Liberal government has promised this for four years and it has not delivered. It is not even in the throne speech. He mentioned the need for a for indigenous by indigenous urban, rural and northern housing strategy. The measures that the minister mentioned just now will not provide support to indigenous peoples in core need. That is the reality.
If the minister truly believes in what he said just now, that the government is going to implement a for indigenous by indigenous urban, rural and northern housing strategy along with a housing centre, will he advise that there will be commitments in the fiscal update coming up on December 14? The minister has to show action, not just talk about it.
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