44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 30, 2022 02:00PM
- Nov/30/22 3:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the first petition I am tabling today is in support of an excellent private member's bill that I presented in the House. We have a parallel version of that bill that was tabled just yesterday in the Senate. These bills are Bill C-257 and Bill S-257. Conveniently, they have the same number.
Petitioners are calling on the House to recognize the problem of political discrimination and how Canadians can face political discrimination and have a right to be protected from that kind of discrimination. It is a fundamental right to be politically active and vocal. It is in the best interests of Canadian democracy to protect public debate and the free exchange of ideas, and Bill C-257 and Bill S-257 seek to add protection against political discrimination to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Petitioners call upon the House to support Bill C-257 and Bill S-257, which seek to ban discrimination on the basis of political belief or activity, and to defend the rights of Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions.
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- Nov/30/22 3:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, next I am tabling a petition that draws attention to the situation of Huseyin Celil. Huseyin Celil has been detained in China for over 5,000 days. Petitioners note that they were very pleased to see the release of the two Michaels from unjust and arbitrary detention in China. They would like to see the Government of Canada make similar efforts to secure the release of Huseyin Celil.
The petitioners note that Celil is a Canadian citizen; that he was taken from Uzbekistan to China; that the Chinese government has continued not to recognize his Canadian citizenship and denied him access to lawyers, family and Canadian officials; and that he was coerced into signing a confession and underwent an unlawful and unfair trial. Evidence now makes clear as well that the Chinese government's treatment of Uighurs meets most, if not all the criteria for genocide, as outlined in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Mr. Celil was active in promoting the human rights of Uighurs prior to his arrest and detention.
Petitioners call on the government to take a number of specific steps: to demand that the Chinese government recognize Mr. Celil's Canadian citizenship and provide him with consular and legal services in accordance with international law; to formally state that the release of Mr. Celil from Chinese detainment and his return to Canada are a priority of the Canadian government of equal concern as the unjust detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor; to appoint a special envoy to work on securing Mr. Celil's release; and to seek the assistance of the Biden administration and other allies on working to obtain that release, as we have seen in the past.
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- Nov/30/22 3:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition also deals with an issue of freedom of speech and expression. It is a petition raising a grievous concern about a commitment in the Liberal Party's election platform to deny charitable status to organizations that take positions the Liberals disagree with, particularly on the issue of abortion.
Petitioners note that this commitment to deny charitable status on the basis of the convictions of an organization could put at risk the charitable status of organizations like hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations, simply on the basis of the personally and sincerely held views of those who lead or work at these organizations. This proposal from the Liberal platform would involve applying a values test, discriminating against people based on their political views, similar to what we saw in the previous values test put in the Canada summer jobs initiative.
Therefore, petitioners call on the House to protect and preserve the application of charitable status rules on a politically and ideologically neutral basis, without discrimination on the basis of values and opinions and without the imposition of another values test. Also, petitioners want to see the House affirm the right of Canadians to freedom of expression.
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- Nov/30/22 3:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling speaks to concerns about the situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Notably, this petition came in prior to the signing of the recent peace deal. I know now there is a great deal of hope that the deal will be fully and quickly implemented and will lead to lasting peace, justice and reconciliation.
However, I still want to put this petition on the record to demonstrate the active engagement and concern of Canadians about the situation in Tigray. It includes a call that is very much still relevant, which is to engage directly and consistently with the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments on issues that emerged from the conflict and to call for international investigation into credible reports of war crimes and gross violations of human rights law.
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- Nov/30/22 3:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with concerns raised by constituents about the Minister of National Defence's Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination in its final report, published in 2022.
The report includes a recommendation that religious clergy who come from denominations and faiths that have particular views on gender and sexuality should be excluded from being chaplains to the Canadian Armed Forces. This was a recommendation from the national defence minister's advisory panel, and petitioners are very opposed to this recommendation. The report slanders mainstream Canadian religions as discriminatory. Petitioners note that chaplains are entitled to charter-guaranteed freedom of religion, and they should be able to serve without the kind of discrimination advocated by this ironically named panel.
Petitioners call on the House to reject the recommendations on chaplaincy in the Canadian Armed Forces in the final report of the Minister of National Defence's Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination and to affirm the rights of all Canadians, including armed forces chaplains, to freedom of religion.
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- Nov/30/22 3:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition that I am tabling deals with the human rights situation of Hazaras in Afghanistan.
Petitioners note various campaigns of genocide that have targeted the Hazara community in the last 100 years and state that the situation has only gotten worse since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Petitioners call on the government to recognize the 1891 to 1893 ethnic cleansing perpetrated against Hazaras as a genocide and to designate September 25 as Hazara genocide memorial day.
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- Nov/30/22 4:09:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition that I am tabling highlights the plight of the Sikh and Hindu minority in Afghanistan. It calls on the government to take action to support that minority by having a special program to allow persecuted minorities from Afghanistan to come to Canada.
Many of these signatures were gathered prior to the Taliban takeover, and petitioners no doubt were expressing their will at the time that the government could have acted, when it would have certainly been much easier to provide support to these minorities. Nonetheless, I think it is still important to table this petition to recognize what could have been done and was not, and still needs to be done to support Sikhs, Hindus and other minorities facing persecution in Afghanistan.
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- Nov/30/22 4:09:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the final petition that I am tabling in the House deals with the issue of conscience rights. It notes that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious gaps in support and services available to seniors and those who were dying. The forced closure of care homes and hospices which do not wish to participate in or facilitate the killing of their patients risks exacerbating the crisis in available long-term and palliative care.
The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to respect the charter-protected conscience rights of those who operate and work in care homes and hospices, ensuring that these facilities will be able to continue to operate.
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- Nov/30/22 4:09:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am tabling a petition that highlights the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
The petitioners note various reports that have identified this persecution, and that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners includes organ harvesting, killing people for their organs and transplanting those to others, obviously without the consent of the person being killed.
The petitioners call on the Canadian Parliament and the government to seek to stop the mass murder of innocent people for their organs, including but not limited to Canadian legislation to ban organ tourism, also to take additional steps to call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and to urge that those who participate in this persecution be brought to justice.
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- Nov/30/22 4:09:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is similar but somewhat more specific. It also deals with the issue of organ harvesting and trafficking broadly, and calls on this House to adopt legislation to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking.
The petitioners note a number of bills that have been brought forward on this topic. Most recently we have Bill S-223, which has just come out of committee and will soon be going to third reading in this House.
The petitioners hope that this Parliament will be the one that finally succeeds in passing organ harvesting and trafficking legislation.
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