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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 290

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 18, 2024 11:00AM
  • Mar/18/24 4:15:31 p.m.
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, seconded by the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge, moved for leave to introduce Bill C-384, An Act to establish Turkish Heritage Month. He said: Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge for supporting this bill, as well as the several other members who also wanted to second it. It is an act to establish Turkish heritage month. The preamble states: Whereas the first Turks arrived in Canada in the late 1800s, settling in Brantford, Ontario, in the years after Confederation; Whereas the population of Turkish Canadians has since grown considerably and includes people from such Turkic nations as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, East Turkestan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Tatarstan; Whereas young, dynamic Turkish Canadian communities continue to flourish throughout Canada; Whereas Turkish Canadians from all walks of life have contributed substantially to Canada's social, economic and political life; Whereas Turkish Canadians have made rich and significant contributions to the cultural fabric of Canada, including through food, literature, music and fashion; We are proposing to make the month of October Turkish heritage month. I want to thank The Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations, particularly Hulya Gunay, the vice-president of the federation, and Dr. Sinan Yasarlar from Windsor, who have been the inspiration for this bill. In conclusion, I want to thank the chamber here and the other members who are reaching out on this bill. Hopefully, we will find unanimous consent at some point in time. Turkish heritage month is something that has been supported by many different cities and organizations. I believe it would be appropriate for the House and chamber to adopt this legislation.
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  • Mar/18/24 5:59:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise in this chamber on this very serious issue. I am proud to have a party that is not afraid and that would not run away from the difficult discussions that have to happen on the fact that this country can play a role of positive influence. Like many people, on October 7, we were horrified to see what Hamas had done. The continued killing of hostages is something we can never recover from in any respect, whatsoever, for the people of Israel, who are continuing to suffer from the loss. We know there has been a political movement, even in Israel itself, to free the hostages as a primary element. I can say that, as horrifying as that day was, further killing is not going to bring back the victims. One really important thing to keep in mind in this debate is that in the past, Canada has made, and can make, a difference. This is a discussion that is happening in many chambers across the world, including the United States most recently, where Senator Chuck Schumer intervened on the issue of Netanyahu, calling him a “major obstacle to peace”. Therefore, it is important to recognize the responsible motion that we have put forward here, calling for several objectives that could make a difference for the victims. I am thinking of my area in Windsor-Detroit where, outside of the Middle East, we have the largest Muslim population and many Palestinians and others. I am thinking of my friend Rashida Tlaib. Every time we have touched base on this issue and on other things, it has always ended with “save lives”. I had a chance to visit with her in Washington, D.C., this past week, and I can tell members again that the message right now is how we can continue to save lives. What Canada needs to do right now is to put further pressure to see this happen. I have been in this chamber and have seen what can take place when Canada goes to the roots of its democracy in this chamber and how it can make a difference. I had a motion on the genocide in Srebrenica that was passed in this chamber. It was done with the Conservatives at that time. Lawrence Cannon, the minister of transport at the time, also took an interest in this. We passed a motion that recognized Srebrenica as a genocide. The reason I raise this as an important factor is that I went to Bosnia and later to Sarajevo. In Sarajevo there is the monument that recognizes the children who were murdered. It has two pillars on the inside and also has an area that goes around it with the footprints of children to recognize their lives that were lost. I went to the Srebrenica–Potočari Memorial. Right now, it recognizes 8,372 victims who have been identified, and each year, 25 years later, there are still more bodies being found and identified because there are 7,000 or more missing. At that time, there were 8,000 Muslim boys, men and youth murdered and massacred in eight days. The world did not act enough at that time, so now it has been called the biggest forensic puzzle in the world. I remember going there after we passed our motion. It is actually recognized in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. I felt ashamed, basically, that all we could offer at that time was recognition of their suffering as they continued to grieve. I will never forget meeting with the mothers of the genocide victims down at the site. I will never forget when one of them grabbed my arm and thanked me. Meanwhile, that day, she was burying her son and her husband, and all that was left of them were pieces of their arms and shoulders. That is all there was to identify them. She thanked me and presented me with the flower of Srebrenica, which has 11 petals in recognition of that day in July. What happens every year on July 11 now is unbelievable. When I went there, I had to have a bodyguard with me. When that bodyguard went to pray, I had to go into a bunker because of concerns and issues that still take place. There are thousands of people in this graveyard, over 8,000 already, and small coffins are identified. There were over 500 the day I was there, and they are draped. The people refuse to take money from the United Nations or other organizations, and they do this every year. The coffin is passed above the heads of the people standing there. One does not move; the coffin moves. It makes its way, all the way, to the gravesite. I am raising this because lives do matter here, and acting and doing something is more. The longer we wait, the longer we call for a ceasefire, the more suffering there is, and that is not going to bring anybody back. That has to be the primary concern right now. The motion that we have is consistent with what we, as New Democrats, have been calling for since day one, which is to call for the ceasefire. That was, in the days of old, the usual position for Canada, to use our weight to help move others toward more peaceful solutions than what exist right now. Sadly, I know of families who have lost dozens of people in my riding and in other places because they lived together. To get the idea, Gaza itself is the size of Detroit. There is just nowhere people can go to be safe. We know now that starvation issue is at a high-water mark in many respects. People have resorted to eating pigeon food and grass. We have seen a rise of anti-Semitism in the past in this country, and I want to note that. I understand the pain and suffering because I have seen it in my own community, even long before this, when swastikas were painted on sidewalks or in front of people's homes. All that still exists in our society, and it is something we have to continue to fight against every single day. However, we are not going to be able to fix anything until there is a ceasefire. If we could help move other countries in that direction, then we could save lives. That is the most important thing I will continue to resort to in that regard. I have seen pictures of children in Egypt missing limbs, and some in our community are trying to see if they could bring them back here because they now have no other relatives; maybe they have a cousin here. The 1,000 cap is just unbelievably cruel. It is unbelievably cruel to give false hope for even those 1,000 people as they scramble, and we cannot get anybody over here. We talk about the people we are trying to bring here. Just like in the past, who are the Palestinians in my community? They are doctors, lawyers and health care professionals. They are also teachers, and workers. Those are the people contributing right now. The frustration of being helpless in this is very difficult for them and for their families. There is a guilt factor, especially with Ramadan right now. Here, they have access to fasting and have water and food later on. Their relatives or family friends do not know if they can contact them tomorrow, because if there is no cell phone or Internet service, they may not be able to connect with them. It brings me to an important point when it comes to civil society and collectivity, not only here. We have people like Donald Trump saying things like “finish the problem” versus what we have seen in the past, which was Canada using its weight to push the United States to call for ceasefires at different points in time. If we do not exercise that ability here in this chamber with this motion, then what do we stand for? We stand for, basically, calling ourselves out of the international equation of humanitarian relief. We have witnessed churches, synagogues and a mosque being vandalized over the last number of years. If we turn away from this now, as well, we are also going to witness Canada distancing itself from international responsibility where we can help out. Unfortunately, the sad thing about this, as a return, is that we cannot stop the damage done, but we can stop more. That is why I went to Srebrenica, and I want to finish with this. Senad was a Canadian who was from Bosnia and who served in the hospitals. He worked with me on this bill. Sadly, he died of leukemia. When we went there, the strongest message we heard, in our humility, was that at least Canada had a voice and that at least Canada did something. That was better than nothing. It was important enough for them to say thanks.
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  • Mar/18/24 6:10:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the things we have to drive toward here are results and expectations. The clock is ticking every single day on individuals, and we do have some value and worth in this discussion. If we all truly believe in getting to that place, then time is going to measure us in terms of what we did not do in this chamber and the result of that ineffectiveness, which is currently the policy of the government. We must allow this motion to pass.
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  • Mar/18/24 6:11:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, maybe the member is right. Liberals have been effective in burning up time when we could have saved lives. That is the real issue New Democrats have with them. We have called for a ceasefire consistent with what Canadian values used to be many decades ago, even under Liberal regimes. I was here for the debate when we were deciding whether to take part in the war in Iraq, and I can say there was never a point in time, in debates back and forth, we could escape the fact that we played some role with the UN or the United States or other democracies across the world. Today, the Liberals have sidelined our effectiveness and basically neutered our position internationally.
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  • Mar/18/24 6:13:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course, we want Hamas to no longer inflict violence, and never ever should any other result be presumed. However, at the same time and in the meantime, killing children and women disproportionately is not a solution. It is a consequence of the real math in terms of the geography, the weapons that are being used and where people can come and go. It is going to happen because the math has shown consistently, since this started, that this will be the end result. We have seen that with humanitarian aid workers and with children, mothers, fathers and other family members being wiped out in clusters because they live together. The math is all there. That is the problem with assuming we can allow all that to happen. That is just not a good way forward.
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