44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 28, 2022 11:00AM
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for their passionate speech and for putting forward some of the issues present to that member. One area in particular, given the COVID-19 pandemic, is that artists have been hit hard, not only in my district of Edmonton Griesbach but across the country. This legislation would find ways to ensure that small content creators actually get the surplus in funding they need. In my riding, there is a community organization called Arts on the Ave. It is suffering right now, and it needs this bill to show that Canadian content matters.
Would the member comment on supporting small businesses, particularly arts businesses, in Canada?
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- Feb/28/22 7:05:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I represent an Alberta district, Edmonton Griesbach, and many Ukrainian families have come to me looking for support, particularly for their loved ones overseas. Right now, the government's IRCC system is backlogged, broken and ineffective.
Would the member please comment and elaborate on the need to reunify Ukrainian families and the need to ensure that IRCC plays a major role in reuniting Ukrainians and bringing them to safety?
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- Feb/28/22 7:23:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are many things the member for Beloeil—Chambly and I agree upon, as a matter of fact. One part I would like the member to elaborate on more is funding for our allies in Ukraine and making sure they have the resources they need.
The government has been able to support Ukraine with some funding, but much more needs to be done. Would the member agree that the Government of Ukraine needs money in hand now more than ever?
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- Feb/28/22 8:27:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a serious question, and I hope the House can unite around how important it is to ensure that we have visa-free requirements for Ukrainians seeking safety. Several times today this question has been posed, and I really hope that we can get some unity on this tonight.
I would ask the member for Durham whether the Conservatives agree with the NDP's proposal, from at least 2018, to ensure that visa travel requirements for Ukrainians are waived.
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- Feb/28/22 9:11:48 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I spoke to some of my constituents recently on Thursday and Friday. Many of them were concerned with IRCC in light of the crisis. We have said that while prioritizing permanent residency applications and travel documents for Ukraine is a necessary measure, the Liberals must not repeat the mistakes that were made with the Afghanistan humanitarian crisis. They must ensure this work is done properly with new staffing, resources and immigration levels so that the existing significant backlog for all streams within IRCC is not further impacted.
Does the member agree that the government should be allocating new resources to IRCC in order to process these new applications?
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- Feb/28/22 9:40:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, my hon. colleague has been very wise. As soon as I got to this place here in the House of Commons, I learned a lot from this member, particularly about Ukrainian issues. I would like to seek this member's advice again in relation to the Russian war crimes we are witnessing right now. These crimes are truly atrocious.
What role could Canada play to make sure we hold Russia accountable for these war crimes? In particular, can Canada fund some of the observations for these missions?
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- Feb/28/22 11:35:35 p.m.
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Madam Chair, tonight I rise in this place, only months after my arrival in this House, to discuss a matter of utmost importance and true urgency, albeit I wish this day would never have come. However, we all must rise to this occasion, a moment in our history, a moment for unity and a moment for all of us to stand with Ukraine at this time in its hour of most need.
Prior to moving to Edmonton, I grew up in a small Métis community in Alberta called Fishing Lake. Many who know that part of our province well know that there are largely two groups: many who are indigenous, like me, and Ukrainians, our neighbours for over 100 years.
The Ukrainians are the very same people who paint our fields gold each summer, a truly remarkable sight to see. Ukrainian families were some of the very first people to settle Treaty 6 territory. They were here long before Alberta was even a province. A true example of the spirit and intent of a treaty, many of these friendships still endure today.
Ukraine has shocked the world with its heroic resistance against Putin's war of aggression. President Zelensky and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have bravely resisted the Russian attack, even in the face of overwhelming odds. However, despite the brave efforts of Ukraine's military, the situation on the ground is dire, especially for the many civilians who are caught in the crossfire.
As we speak, Russian artillery and missile attacks are pounding Ukraine's cities day and night. Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, is under siege. Its three million inhabitants have been forced to take shelter in their homes, in Kyiv subways and in improvised bomb shelters. According to the UN Secretary-General, there are credible accounts of residential buildings, other civilian infrastructure and non-military targets sustaining heavy damage under Russian attack. He emphasized in his speech today that this escalating violence is resulting in civilian deaths, including children.
The people of Ukraine are no strangers to Russian imperialism. Putin's invasion is the latest in a long line of aggressive and illegal attacks on Ukraine's sovereignty. The escalating tactics that the Russian military is employing against Ukraine's military and civilians alike are in keeping with a long line of atrocities. As Amnesty International's secretary general recently put it, “The history of Russia's military interventions, be it in Ukraine or Syria or its military campaign at home in Chechnya, is tainted with blatant disregard for international humanitarian law.”
The Russian military repeatedly flouted the laws of war by failing to protect civilians and even by attacking them directly. Russian forces have launched indiscriminate attacks, used banned weapons and sometimes deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects, a war crime.
While Russia's government and military and, above all, its president deserve our complete condemnation, it is vital that we recognize that the Russian people are far from united in this war. Many of them are showing incredible bravery by standing up to Putin and saying no to war.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Russians have stood up against this brutal war in the streets of cities across Russia, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. Night after night, they have flooded into city squares to call on the government to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and leave its people in peace. These brave protesters have put their freedom and their physical safety on the line to say no to war and no to Putin. The growing number of Russians who are bravely protesting against this authoritarian government understand a fundamental truth about this invasion: This is Putin's war.
To stop it, we must act aggressively with sanctions not only against Vladimir Putin himself, but also the wealthy class of oligarchs who support his rule over Russia. I strongly agree with the member for Burnaby South and experts like Bill Browder that the only way to truly deter them is by seizing the wealth they have hoarded from Russian people and stashed abroad in tax havens and luxury real estate.
Canada must immediately expand our sanctions and target the assets of Russia's ultrawealthy and act decisively to ban their financial transactions here in Canada and across the globe. We must ensure that those in Putin's inner circle are not able to hoard their wealth in luxury real estate in Canadian places like Vancouver and Toronto.
Even after the invasion of Ukraine, many oligarchs with well-documented ties to Putin's regime are not the subject of Magnitsky sanctions. This must change and it must change now.
Canada cannot stop there. We must do everything in our power to ensure that Ukrainians fleeing this horrific war find a safe haven here in Canada. Even before Putin's invasion, Ukraine was already facing a truly massive refugee crisis. According to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, approximately one and a half million people were internally displaced after fleeing the conflict in Donbass and from Russian-occupied Crimea. Now, thanks to Russia's invasion, millions more refugees are fleeing Russian air strikes, missile attacks and military columns. They need our help, and they need it now.
As the proud home to the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world, Canadians, including my constituents in Edmonton Griesbach, are ready to step up, but the reality is that the federal government can do much more as well. Despite years of calls from the Ukrainian community and the NDP, Ukrainians still do not have visa-free access to Canada. This must change. Ensuring that Ukrainians have visa-free access to Canada is truly the bare minimum, but IRCC's response today at the foreign affairs committee on the visa requirements was not encouraging. When asked about the Ukrainian visa requirements, the director general of immigration program guidance at IRCC said, “We're going to continue to look for ways as the situation evolves to make that facilitated, but the Ukrainian visa requirement is not currently under review.” This is not acceptable.
The Liberal government needs to immediately remove the Ukrainian visa requirement. While Putin was amassing troops in Belarus and on the borders of Ukraine, my colleague the member for Edmonton Strathcona and I wrote to the Minister of Immigration urging him to take action to prioritize family reunification and ensure that Ukrainians are not caught in the years-long IRCC backlog. IRCC has been broken for years and now more than ever. We need a massive investment in human resources and personnel to process the many people who are fleeing wars and seeking safe haven in Canada.
While we must act decisively to ensure that Ukrainians find refuge in Canada in the coming days and weeks, we must not also turn our backs on those who have already been fleeing from wars in other regions. In particular, I am thinking of the people of Afghanistan. The House should not forget that the fall of Kabul took place just over six months ago and Afghan people who fled the Taliban are extremely vulnerable. Canada must make sure we have the resources to help everyone who is fleeing conflict.
I want to thank my hon. colleagues from all parties in the House. What I have witnessed this evening has been truly a pleasure to see. When the world needs Canada, this House is united in doing what is right. Although there is much work ahead, I remain hopeful that our unity here will ensure Ukraine's freedom, sovereignty and security.
Lastly, it is in the spirit of hope and unity that I want to share with the House what I experienced just three days ago. I stood at the Alberta legislature with Ukrainians from across Alberta. There were Ukrainian friends like Marni from my community who are in pain but whose strength has shone through these truly dark times. I heard the Ukrainian national anthem. It touched my heart and I was moved by the many who joined in the beautiful harmony, the song of a people united and strong, as we all must be here in the coming weeks.
“Upon us, fellow kin, fate shall smile once more.”
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- Feb/28/22 11:45:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, peace is more of a process in many ways than it is a goal. We must continuously protect and safeguard the principles that make our society truly free and democratic. We have to ensure that we can protect those who are most vulnerable and ensure that our country and our society are protected and safeguarded against true evil tyrants and oligarchs like the ones we see with Putin and his gang of thugs.
We have a lot more work to do and in terms of the work that has to happen at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, I know that the member for Vancouver East and I will work as hard as we can to ensure that those fleeing conflict get to safety.
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- Feb/28/22 11:47:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I truly want to thank all members of the House for what I found to be a truly uniting discussion at a time when our country truly needs to see leadership. We have many people across the globe that look to Canada as a leader, not just in peace and security but also in our ability to provide support to others. The humanitarian crisis that is happening and unfolding in Ukraine and across Europe right now is truly tragic. We need a global approach to ensure that level of human suffering does not get worse.
It is up to each and every one of us here and, truly, our colleagues across the world in all free, democratic societies to safeguard that and ensure we provide that support, that we do not simply measure our actions by words but measure them truly by the people we support. I am confident with what I have heard tonight from the House that we will truly achieve that.
I want to thank the hon. member again for his steadfast commitment to Ukraine and the people of Ukraine.
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- Feb/28/22 11:49:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we have to really seriously consider the role that diplomacy can play and whether or not Russia is truly a country that can or is willing to negotiate.
I think that is the question we have to debate in this house and it is still up for debate. I think there are attempts, especially after I have seen Ukrainian officials meet with Russian officials. I thought that was a hopeful sign that diplomacy is still alive.
However, I remain very cautious and very, I would say, nervous for the actions that are unfolding right now across Europe, in particular with security in Ukraine. I think that, as tensions continue to rise, diplomacy will become less and less of an option. When it is very clear that diplomacy is no longer an option, we must expel the ambassador. However, to this point, I do believe there are still opportunities to ensure we have a discussion and that Russia has a moment to still prove to us that they can, in fact, be reasoned with.
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- Feb/28/22 11:51:22 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for his question and for really highlighting a problem that exists right now in the world. We have a very small group of people who are oligarchs, meaning they have tremendous power and wealth. They are controlling systems around the globe, not just in Russia.
I believe that Russia is one of the most aggressive countries that has found and manipulated ways to use capital, to use that capital to create pain, and particularly to hide that capital as well. What we are seeing in countries all over the world are these safe havens for the terrible amount of wealth that truly goes into fuelling a war machine. That is what is happening right now. A select few, very wealthy people are using their means to create harm: to murder innocent people and create division across what was historically, in the last 75 years at least, a peaceful Europe.
What we are seeing is the use of terrible capital that is harboured even in Canada, right now, in places such as Toronto and Vancouver. In real estate, people have been able to harbour this wealth. We have roles to play in order to target that wealth, sanction those individuals and truly bring them to justice. This is not a war against the Russian people. This is a war against tyrants like Putin and the oligarchs who support him and his efforts.
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