44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 19, 2023 10:00AM
- Sep/19/23 9:57:35 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I think the official opposition's silence speaks loudly right now in comparison to the voice it had when it came to the foreign interference of one particular country. Hardeep Nijjar's family and son would understand the Sikh values of fighting for others' rights very well.
We should not let this incident just be about one country. This is a message to all communities that our country and our government will stand together. It is a message to the Chinese community, Iranian community and many others that are feeling the anxiety of this. At the same time, hopefully, they are listening to the silence of one particular party as well.
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- Sep/19/23 9:58:31 p.m.
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Madam Chair, after 1984, when the Golden Temple was demolished by a military attack in India, there was a genocide of Sikhs in Delhi. After that, emotions were very high in the community across the globe when he was growing up. In fact, one casualty was here at home. I am speaking of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, whose own maternal uncle, her mom's brother, was brutally killed just because he was restless and emotional. Many people among his own constituents face the same consequences.
Could the minister comment on that?
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- Sep/19/23 9:59:19 p.m.
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Madam Chair, many families, including my own, have very similar stories to this. I was 14 years old at that time, and I remember trying to serve my country in the military and constantly being attacked and being accused of being a terrorist. Fortunately for me, I had ability as a police officer and status as a member of the military. However, many Canadians do not have that, and every time they stand up for human rights, they are called out.
One of the things we will always do is stand up for fundamental human rights. We will also stand up for the rule of law in our own country.
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- Sep/19/23 10:00:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, Canada is home to the largest proportion of Sikhs on Planet Earth: more than in India, more than in the United States and more than in any other nation in the world.
We think of the many vibrant Sikh communities that now exist across Canada, in Vancouver, Surrey, Brampton, Calgary, Montreal and many more cities. With each passing day, more and more Sikh Canadians are calling my community of Windsor—Essex their home. They design and build cars at Stellantis and Ford. Sikhs care for seniors and residents at Windsor Regional Hospital and Hôtel-Dieu Grace hospital. They open businesses and restaurants, and share their culture and tradition with us.
On County Road 42, there sits a beautiful gurdwara where Sikhs in my community have gathered for more than two decades. It is a place of peaceful worship. It is a place of community, where families come together, where young Sikh Canadians go to Punjabi school and attend Khalsa Camp in the summers, where international students come to share in a meal and get a taste of home and where, in fact, the community prepares meals for each other, for the hungry and homeless in my community and for visitors like myself.
I have been to the gurdwara many times to celebrate Vaisakhi, to light a candle for Diwali, to share in the grief when three international students from St. Clair College lost their lives in a tragic car crash, and to speak with the incredible truck drivers who, day after day, deliver the food, medicines and car parts that make our community go.
More recently, this summer I visited with my friend, the hon. member for Brampton West, the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, herself a Sikh, to meet with young Sikh Canadians attending Khalsa Camp. On another occasion, the Minister of Housing and the Minister of National Defence joined me at the gurdwara. There were three ministers, a Sikh, a Muslim and a Hindu, all welcomed warmly at the gurdwara. That is the best of what Canada is about.
To think for even one second that a member of my community could be killed just steps away from the gurdwara for their political beliefs, by a foreign agent working for a foreign country, is abhorrent to me. It is an offence to every single Canadian who believes in democracy, freedom of speech and the sovereignty of our laws and our country, Canada.
This is not new. For Sikh Canadians, such intimidation is not new. In the last 24 hours, I have had a chance to speak with members of my Sikh community, and they tell me the same thing. They worry that if they protest the treatment of farmers in Punjab, that they or their families could be targeted.
I see protests and rallies on Parliament Hill almost every single day, for all sorts of issues. Just today, I attended a union rally calling for the elimination of replacement workers. Peaceful protest is what Canada is all about. It is how we expand our freedoms. It is how we improve quality of life for all of our citizens. I cannot imagine someone fearing for their life because they are expressing their political view, but here we are.
My family knows this fear. In the old country, in Poland, my father was a local leader of the solidarity movement that fought for the rights of workers in communist Poland. Just after midnight on December 13, 1981, the police came to our door and arrested my father. Thousands of solidarity leaders were rounded up and imprisoned. For weeks, we did not know whether my father was alive or dead, all because he dared to speak up and stand up for justice and rights. Like so many immigrants, my family came to Canada to flee oppression and political persecution.
Canada accepted my family as political refugees and gave us safe harbour. That is the dream for millions of immigrants and new Canadians. That dream has been shattered with the news of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
I had a chance tonight to speak with the family of Mr. Nijjar, who call my community home. To them, and to all Sikh Canadians, including those back home in Windsor-Tecumseh, we stand in solidarity. The Sikh faith compels us to speak out against injustice, and so we must and so we will. We will pursue the truth. We will bring justice, but let us do so together, united as Canadians.
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- Sep/19/23 10:05:05 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to ask the parliamentary secretary a question.
He has been witness to a lot of debates here on foreign interference. All members of this House and all parties in this House have condemned any form of foreign interference, particularly when we had the debates on China's foreign interference in Canada. I find it very surprising. Every other party has spoken to condemning foreign interference by India, but one party is definitely silent in here. Does it mean that we are only to stand up for them when foreign interference affects their votes as a Conservative? Or does it mean we stand up for any foreign interference when lives are at stake?
In this case a person lost his life, and I do not see that other side speaking. I want to know if it only matters when Conservative votes get lost and a member from Steveston loses an election. Can the member for Windsor—Tecumseh speak to that?
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- Sep/19/23 10:06:03 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his incredible work and for being the voice of immigrant communities and new Canadian communities from across the country, coast to coast.
Solidarity means that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us as Canadians. It is up to all of us in this House to stand together and to stand firm against this type of assault. This is an attack on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is an attack on who we are as Canadians, and my hon. colleague is absolutely right.
The silence from the opposition members is absolutely deafening—
An hon. member: Just one party.
Mr. Irek Kusmierczyk: It is one party, and that is the Conservative Party. Its silence is absolutely deafening, and it is absolutely telling.
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- Sep/19/23 10:07:10 p.m.
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Madam Chair, building on that last question, we would almost have to assume, based on the lack of intervention into this debate by Conservatives, that it is an orchestrated, coordinated and collaborated attempt to be absolutely silent on the issue. The only individual to speak was the House leader for the Conservatives who had a 20-minute spot to speak. He spoke for only five minutes, and since then we have heard from no Conservatives. They have not even gotten up to ask a simple question. This is not an issue of politics; this is an issue of solidarity. This is an issue of realizing that we all come together because we all respect and value the rule of law in this country.
I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary can comment on the incredible absence we have seen in this House today, not just in speeches, but in the simple act of just getting up and asking a question and showing that solidarity.
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- Sep/19/23 10:08:11 p.m.
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Madam Chair, when our ally, Ukraine, was attacked viciously by Russia, all of us rose in the House of Commons to speak, to show our solidarity. We were here for late night take-note debates and emergency debates. We were here; we stood up and we cheered on the Ukrainian allies when they were under assault. We said, slava Ukraini, yet here we are and one of ours, a Canadian citizen, was killed and there are serious significant allegations that it is tied to a foreign agent and a foreign country, and where is the official opposition? Where is the Conservative Party, in terms of its voice? They are not here. We have not heard from them. That is absolutely appalling, and it is something I hope my colleagues across the way will reflect upon. I am sure Canadians will reflect upon that as well.
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- Sep/19/23 10:09:20 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I hear from constituents in the riding of Waterloo and I hear about the things on their minds. When something is on their mind it is on my mind, because my job is to represent them. I have some good friends and a very close uncle who live in the member's riding. I do want to commend the member on his speech today. It was very personal, and it reminds me of the Canada we know exists and is here. That means that we all stand together and we make sure that we take care of each other.
With that, I would like to hear from the member as to what advice and guidance he is offering to Canadians at this time. We know that we have an independent judicial system; we know that action is being taken; we know that the government wants to see that action taken, but what is the best thing for Canadians to do at this time, especially Canadians of Indian descent, of Sikh faith and Punjabi-speaking communities? What is his advice to all those people?
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- Sep/19/23 10:10:25 p.m.
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Madam Chair, our national anthem says, “stand on guard for thee”, and I think it is important that we stand on guard for each other, that we protect each other and that when one of us is hurt or one of us killed, we stand up and we show up. That is the very basic thing that Canadians expect from us, that we rally together, show up, support each other and stand in solidarity.
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- Sep/19/23 10:10:59 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam.
When I first learned of these allegations, they shocked me, and when I thought about these allegations even further, I became very angry. A Canadian citizen was killed in Canada by a foreign government. Those are the allegations. That should shock and anger all of us. There is no other response. A Canadian is alleged to have been killed in our country by a foreign government.
This is a time for unity. This is a time for unwavering commitment and to let people know that. These are people who are now very afraid and who have seen a foreign government step into our sovereign nation and killed someone. We have to send a message that this is wrong. This can never happen in our country, and there will be the most severe consequences, using the full weight of the judicial system of our country and using the full weight of our security apparatus, to ensure that every single person implicated in this matter is found, brought to justice and prosecuted with the full weight and power of the Canadian justice system. That is what needs to happen.
We need solidarity. A Canadian was killed. That means everyone in this House should stand together and say we demand justice and we demand action.
It is a fundamental attack not just on our sovereignty, but on our freedom of speech and right to be secure and safe. It is a fundamental right that every Canadian should be safe in their country and should be free to express their thoughts, to express dissent, to criticize and to critique our country and other countries' policies and decisions of government. That is absolutely what it means to be in a democracy.
Let us also be clear that there is a significant propaganda machine that the Government of India has put in motion. Let us talk about the Government of India and separate it from the people of India. We do not hold the people of India guilty for the actions of the government. The people of India, in a sense, have contributed immensely to this country. New Canadians who come from India and South Asia have contributed in so many ways and in so many sectors, whether it is in health care, in business, in the arts or in the cultural sector in the communities we all live in. They have contributed immensely.
Our concern is specifically about the allegations involving the Government of India. For a moment, let us reflect on what the Government of India is about. We are talking about its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. This is a Prime Minister who was once chief minister of Gujarat and was implicated in the massacre of thousands of Muslims.
This is a current government that makes no qualms about wanting to divide the country, exclude minority communities and oppress critics, academics and journalists. There is the systemic oppression of women, minority communities, the poor and those of low caste. This is a government that is rife with human rights violations.
It really begs the question when we see other parties, like the Conservative Party, try to stand up and parrot the propaganda of the India government: Whose side are they on? Who are they trying to defend? We should see solidarity in defending Canadians and a Canadian who was killed.
We have a number of things we want to ask for, and this is what I want to make clear. For now, what we are calling for are a number of concrete steps.
First and foremost, I wrote a letter to the commissioner of the public inquiry to indicate that India now must be included in the public inquiry. We need protections offered to anyone who has received threats to their lives. We need to make sure there are diplomatic sanctions and a review of all diplomats from India in Canada. The RSS, which is a paramilitary, far-right network from India, must be banned in Canada.
We need to take the threat to Canadians seriously. We need to see serious action. This is a call to arms for us to defend our democracy, to defend our freedom of expression, to defend our freedoms in this country and to use the weight of a democratic nation and our allies to defend justice, to defend freedom and to defend the security and liberty of life.
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- Sep/19/23 10:16:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as the leader of a much smaller opposition party, for me it is a moment for solidarity. I really appreciate the fact that I am able, through great good luck, to immediately follow my friend from Burnaby South, the leader of the New Democratic Party, to echo his words that we need to show solidarity, and that every Canadian from every ethnicity and every part of the world who has found their way here to our country needs to feel welcomed and know they are valued. Of course we recognize that we are on lands that we have stolen from indigenous peoples. The majority of the Canadian population came from somewhere else.
I have found the speeches from colleagues and friends about their own journeys and their families' journeys to these shores to be very moving. We do unify as Canadians. I just want to thank the hon. leader of the New Democratic Party for his words.
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- Sep/19/23 10:17:09 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for her kind words. I want to send a message to people right now who are thinking about what this means for them. It is to people who might be afraid, who might be scared, and who might be worried about their advocacy, their human rights work or their critique of the Indian government, or any other diaspora community. There are those who are wondering, if they criticize their country of origin's government policies, that they might fear violence against them as well. I want to send a message that I stand with them, and we will not back down. We will remain unwavering and resolute in our pursuit of justice.
We believe that right now the pursuit of justice and ensuring that those responsible will be brought to justice will deter this from happening. That has to be our goal. This should never happen again in our country. No Canadian should lose their life in this way. That is what our commitment is, to ensure that this never happens again.
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- Sep/19/23 10:18:10 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the hon. leader of the NDP mentioned the intimidation by the Indian government when someone speaks out against human rights violations. I can say that he has faced many challenges.
I will give a personal example. When I presented a petition on genocide in 2010, I was denied a visa to India for three years. I want to know from the leader if he is aware of many situations like this of oppression and intimidation, including of himself.
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- Sep/19/23 10:18:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for sharing the personal story.
As elected officials, we sign up for being in the public eye and maybe receiving repercussions for the positions we take, but we are also protected as members of Parliament. I am deeply concerned, as the member pointed out, that there are so many people from so many diaspora communities, including those in the Sikh community who critique the abuse that Sikhs have received under the Indian government, but there are many other diaspora communities. They are not just from India and not just other folks who have been oppressed in India.
I think about the Iranian community and those who have raised their voice about the oppression that their community faces in Iran. I think about those who have championed democracy in Hong Kong and are defending the rights of Taiwan, and of the real and serious threats that they have had against their families. This is a serious moment. We know that those threats exist.
We know that Canadians have been threatened and intimidated, and we know that we have a responsibility in the House to say enough is enough and that it will not happen in our country. We will use all the tools we have to get to the bottom of this. We will use the power of light to shine transparency on what happened and ensure that this never happens again to any community anywhere in our country.
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- Sep/19/23 10:20:24 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I have been reflecting on and talking to many of my constituency members about the murder or assassination that happened at the gurdwara, the Sikh temple of worship. It is appalling to see that Conservatives will come to the temple, will walk with us in solidarity in our Nagar Kirtan parade, but today cannot stand in solidarity with Canadians in this horrific crime. What does the member have to say about how the community feels and how this assassination occurred at the holy Sikh temple in Surrey?
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- Sep/19/23 10:21:08 p.m.
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Madam Chair, when we first learned about this incident back in June, there was a real pain the community. It is a place of prayer, a place of worship and a place of community coming together. Gurdwaras have free langar, a place where people can eat. It is a place of sanctuary, like many other places of prayer.
To have a leader of the community at a place of prayer and sanctuary be murdered in that way was shocking and painful. What has made that pain even worse now is the allegation that this was tied to the Indian government or the Indian state. This has only reopened those wounds and made them even more painful.
That is why it is offensive that instead of showing solidarity, we have a party in this chamber, the Conservatives, not standing in solidarity in a moment where there should be unity, where we should be sending a clear message that this is wrong, we all denounce it and we all stand together in the pursuit of justice in ensuring all the weight of Canadian jurisprudence and legal system is used to hold those accountable.
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- Sep/19/23 10:22:30 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my leader, the leader of the NDP, for pointing out the work that needs to be done. I deeply appreciate the letter that has been sent to the commissioner to ensure the inquiry includes India.
The Conservatives have been silent in this debate tonight. It is such a false pretense when they advance the notion that they believe in freedom and democracy everywhere, when they say they stand for human rights everywhere. A Canadian has been targeted and whose life has been lost, and we need more than ever for every member of this House to stand together united with one voice to send a clear message to the Indian government or any actors who threaten our sovereignty and the lives of Canadians in this way that we will not tolerate it. We need to be true to that calling of standing for freedom for everyone everywhere.
When the Conservatives are absent in this, what message does the member think they are sending to the immigrant community, particularly to the Indo-Canadian community, who are now fearful of the situation and who fear their activism in the community and their fight for justice will be threatened?
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- Sep/19/23 10:24:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, my colleague said it so well and so clearly. This is a moment to defend freedom, freedom of expression, freedom to exist in safety and security, and that has been threatened. When any one of us is threatened in this way, we should be able to put partisanship aside and say this is a matter of our national unity, this is a matter of sovereignty, this is a matter of a Canadian on Canadian soil being killed by a foreign government. That is a direct attack on our sovereignty that requires a unified response to denounce it, to demand justice and to demand a full inquiry and an investigation into anyone implicated in this matter, and that is what New Democrats are going to do. That is what we are going to continue to push for, with the concrete steps we laid out. That is what all of us should be doing. It is very disappointing to see the deafening silence of the Conservatives on this matter.
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- Sep/19/23 10:25:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I send my condolences to the family of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
This is a tragedy and must spur serious action from the government on these allegations of foreign interference wherever they arise. It is the duty of the federal government to pursue the facts and justice for Mr. Nijjar and future protection of every Canadian at risk of foreign surveillance, harassment and intimidation.
We must come together across party lines to protect Canadians. As Conservatives choose to be silent tonight in this important debate, it sends a message to all Canadians living in fear of foreign governments in countries they fled that the Conservatives will not stand up to protect them in difficult times.
Many Canadians need our protection. I am thinking about the Iranian community. I joined them this weekend in Vancouver as they commemorated the one-year anniversary of the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini. This weekend, communities across this country came together to stand for human rights, dignity and democracy. They stood together against violations of human rights.
My constituents from Port Moody—Coquitlam, Anmore and Belcarra want action on violations of human rights in countries across the world, and they want the same thing here in Canada. Here in Canada, they want accountability. They want to make sure that they are safe and that every Canadian is safe. They have shared concerns with me. I know they have shared concerns with many members of Parliament in this community where they do not feel safe. They need a space where they can share their experience, where they can share their feelings and where they feel that they are being heard.
Protection of Canadians' safety and upholding human rights and justice are a fundamental foundation of a stable and thriving democracy, and we must, especially the 338 of us here, stand for that every day. To do this, the government must do more to ensure that there is RCMP protection for people who may be at risk.
The NDP is asking for diplomatic sanctions, a review of all the Indian diplomats in Canada and the inclusion of India in the foreign interference inquiry.
I will close with the thought that it is time for this government to take foreign interference seriously and it is also time for the official opposition, the Conservatives in this country, to come together and unite for Canadians in Canada.
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