44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 28, 2022 11:00AM
- Feb/28/22 6:40:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are witnessing a humanitarian crisis unfold in Ukraine with bombings, attacks and casualties, and Canada must do its part as countries around the world are stepping up.
One of the things we can do is learn from the past when there were significant problems with welcoming people in an emergency crisis. I look to Afghanistan as an example of what not to do when we failed in ensuring the safety of our allies to get to Canada.
When will the Prime Minister ensure that we have a visa-free, barrier-free access to Canada for Ukrainians who are seeking refuge in this time of crisis?
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- Feb/28/22 7:30:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, New Democrats strongly condemn President Putin's flagrant aggression against Ukraine, and we stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. My thoughts go out to all Ukrainians who are worried about this unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russia.
War always brings terrible loss of life and human suffering. As Canada has welcomed a significant population of Ukrainian Canadians, I spoke with some of them today who shared their worries and fears. I spoke with a young man whose parents still live in Ukraine, and despite the fact that his parents live in the western region, which has not seen as much military action, his family lives just kilometres away from where rockets fell. I spoke with Bohdana, who shared with me her fears and that she cannot sleep at night. She has family, friends and cousins she is trying to sponsor, and she cannot sleep at night without making sure that they are okay. She has not slept many hours over the past number of days. She is constantly checking in and constantly worried that something might happen. These are just two of the many stories from Ukrainian Canadians who are deeply worried about what is happening in Ukraine.
In this serious crisis, I will outline two specific areas where Canada can play a significant role in supporting people at this time. First is stronger and more severe sanctions, and second is an emphasis on humanitarian relief.
To begin with the sanctions, the Liberal government must continue to use all tools to deter Putin's aggressive actions. What we can specifically do is impose additional economic sanctions where it hurts Putin, which is by sanctioning Putin's closest oligarchs. I spoke with Bill Browder who is the author and the motivating force behind the Magnitsky Law in Canada and the Magnitsky acts in other countries. He outlined that the current sanctions in place both in Canada and in other countries ignore many of the ultrawealthy oligarchs who hoard Putin's wealth. These oligarchs are well known through the diligent work of many activists and advocates, including Mr. Browder.
We can use the Magnitsky Law in Canada, and there are two categories, one for human rights violations and one for corruption. We know who these oligarchs are. Many of them were identified by Alexei Navalny, a political opponent who Putin imprisoned, tortured and attempted to kill with poison. We need to use the tools that we have to hit Putin where it hurts, with the money he has hoarded in the names of the oligarchs whose resources are located in countries around the world.
We also need more tools to identify where the oligarchs are hiding their money and deal with money laundering in general. We can accelerate the creation of a publicly available, nationwide beneficial ownership registry. This would provide transparency on property ownership in Canada, including those owned by oligarchs whom we know have property in Canada. The current timeline for this registry is 2025, which is simply too far away.
Putin's greed is well documented. It is his weakness. It is well known that the oligarchs hoard his wealth, the wealth that he has stolen from the Russian people. We need to stand up to Putin and do it in a way that hurts him most, which is with his wealth and by sanctioning those oligarchs with the tools we have. We need to do that. It would create significant leverage by putting pressure on Putin to end this war.
Second, we need more support in humanitarian aid, and I will break that down into two areas. Since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, 1.5 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes. Many came to Canada after the initial invasion eight years ago and have successfully resettled in communities across the country. With Russia's current invasion of Ukraine, the situation for people on the ground has become unfathomably more dire. Ukrainians will be seeking safety and refuge in Canada, and for years we have been calling for visa-free access for Ukrainians. We are calling for urgent action, and that is what we need to do.
The government must work collaboratively to support and resettle those who have been displaced by this escalating humanitarian crisis. We need to automatically extend expiring documents and permits for all Ukrainians currently in Canada. Those who are already here should not be compelled to return to severe risk and danger in Ukraine. We need to ensure that it is easy and that there is barrier-free access for people who are seeking refuge and safety.
We also need to increase humanitarian aid. Ukrainian people need our support more than ever and Canada needs to plan for that humanitarian aid. The crisis is worsening and families are torn apart. Children have been killed. Over half a million Ukrainians have fled the country in a few days, with many more internally displaced. All children in the Ukraine, at least 7.5 million, those who are under 18 years old, are in grave danger of physical harm, severe emotional distress and displacement.
Canada must work with our allies, including the United Nations, to respond appropriately to this terrible situation.
As we have seen with the Syrian crisis, neighbouring countries who host refugees rely on significant support from those donor communities to ensure that the basic needs of the refugees in local populations are met. We ask the government to ensure that additional funds to Ukraine will not be diverted from the existing humanitarian envelope that continues to necessitate Canada's attention.
We are pleased to see the matching funds for the $10 million for the Red Cross, but this is just a drop in the bucket in terms of the massive needs. We need a plan with significant financial commitments to helping Ukrainians, both within Ukraine and those who have managed to get to safety in neighbouring countries. Members of Canada's humanitarian coalition are operating in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries, and they also deserve our support.
The Ukrainian community in Canada is also offering to provide support and is raising funds. We need to support those efforts as well. We know that there will soon be a UN call for funding and Canada must provide its fair share of support for this call.
New Democrats strongly condemn President Putin's flagrant aggression against Ukraine, and we stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. My thoughts go out to all Ukrainians who are worried about this unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russia.
War always brings terrible loss of life and human suffering. Earlier today, I spoke with Canadians of Ukrainian origin who are terribly worried for their friends and family in Ukraine.
We must help immediately. We must boost sanctions against Putin's oligarchs and increase humanitarian aid to Ukrainians and to organizations helping those seeking refuge. We must work fast to help people seeking refuge in Canada get here safely.
In light of the escalating crisis, we must recognize that Ukrainians seeking safety from the dangers right now in their homeland do not have months to spare. The most urgent action is required. The government must do everything in its power to help these people find safe haven from the threat of violence in Ukraine caused by Russia.
New Democrats stand in solidarity with Ukraine and with the people of Ukraine. We commend and acknowledge their courage, and we encourage the government to offer all help possible to support them in this time of need.
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- Feb/28/22 7:40:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Browder really wanted to highlight that sanctions will only work if they target Putin. Putin is not someone who cares about his country. He has robbed from the country. However, he does care about his wealth, and his wealth is hoarded by oligarchs.
The member pointed out that Magnitsky laws provide for the provision of corruption. There are many cases where we can tie oligarchs who are close to Putin with corruption, and those oligarchs need to be sanctioned. We need to start naming and sanctioning specific oligarchs closely connected to Putin who are involved in corruption. That will significantly impact Putin in a way that can apply real leverage and pressure on him to stop this war.
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- Feb/28/22 7:43:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what has been identified really clearly is, if we want to apply pressure on Putin, the current approach with sanctions, while symbolically important, will not impact him. He has amassed significant wealth by stealing from his own country, so sanctions on the country will not be sufficient to curtail his actions or send a clear message that will hurt Putin personally.
The only way to apply pressure in this case is make President Putin feel the pain. We know that his wealth is held and hoarded by oligarchs, many of whom have been identified by many advocates. We need to identify and sanction those specific oligarchs with Magnitsky law, the sanctions and powers we have. That will send a very powerful message and hurt Putin where it counts, which is his greed and the wealth he has amassed by stealing from the country and Russians.
That is what we need to do. That is a powerful tool, which has yet to be used effectively, and it is part of what New Democrats are calling for, which is to apply real leverage and pressure to end what is going on in Ukraine, to end the violence and stop Putin from continuing to do it.
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- Feb/28/22 7:45:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, under normal circumstances, sanctions can be imposed and diplomacy can be used to send messages. In this case, however, it is clear that President Putin is not paying attention to such gestures. He only cares about money. That really is his weakness.
If we really want to help the Ukrainian people, who are suffering at the moment, the sanctions must hit President Putin by targeting the oligarchs and their wealth. That is how we can really put pressure on President Putin. Other tools, sanctions and efforts will unfortunately not work, because Putin does not care about normal things. On the other hand, if we target the oligarchs, we can put pressure on Putin and hit him where it hurts the most.
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- Feb/28/22 7:48:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is true that we have already seen the impacts of the campaign of disinformation led by Russia to particularly target democracies. They do so by propagating messages, information and propaganda that are incorrect. They repeat the lines that Russia is encouraging people to believe. It is information designed to subvert democracies and incite hatred against different groups. In this case, it is against Ukraine.
We have seen clear, concerted attempts to incite hatred against Ukraine that are baseless, and we have seen propaganda that is baseless.
There is a couple of things that we could do. The first is to be very careful. When we see information, we should be very careful about the source and make sure it is a source that we trust, a source that has been verified before spreading any of its messages. There is a clear effort, and we will be targeted with disinformation.
The second is that government has a strong role to play. We have seen, through a number of different accounts, including whistle-blowers, that social media benefits from divisive rhetoric and comments, and they amplify messages that might divide people because, whether it is people criticizing that message or supporting it, it will keep more people on their platform.
Governments have to play a role in ensuring that disinformation is not spread and is not allowed to be spread. It cannot be left in the hands of social media companies, which would give those messages that are divisive and that create controversy more space and amplify them in people's feeds. That is why government has to take a role in stopping the spread of that information. It is something we have long called for.
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