SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

Mr. Francesco Sorbara (Vaughan—Woodbridge, Lib.)

Mar/20/24 2:55:54 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, for years, parents in my riding, Vaughan—Woodbridge, have been talking about how hard it is to find child care spots for their children. That is why we introduced our bill on early learning and child care, which the Conservative Party tried to delay. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the current status of this important bill?

62 words

Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

Mr. Francesco Sorbara (Vaughan—Woodbridge, Lib.)

Mar/20/24 10:49:52 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, it is great to follow my hon. colleague from the wonderful city of Etobicoke and the riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore. I know the hon. member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore is a proud Ukrainian Canadian. He represents the Ukrainian community, not only in Etobicoke but across Canada, with everything in his heart and everything in his soul, and he believes in the cause of defeating the Russian aggression we have seen over the last two years and the invasion of Crimea several years earlier. I am proud to stand with my hon. colleague and to be his colleague. I have known him for many years. He is an esteemed and learned member, and not only here in this House. He also served in provincial parliament. He is a good person, he means well and he believes in what he says. I know he is also the chair of the Canada-Ukraine Friendship Group and has done a lot of work there. I rise tonight to speak as an individual who supports the Ukrainian Canadian community, all one million-plus of them, but also in my role for the last few years as the chair of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association. In that role, I get to participate in the Council of Europe meetings at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, where we hold a number of bilateral meetings with delegations, including the Ukrainian delegation. I believe the current Ukrainian defence minister was actually a member of that delegation. We had several meetings with them, and I wish Godspeed to Mariia, Ilyana and all members of the PACE delegation from Ukraine, whom I will see shortly in the month of April. I know how hard they are working to ensure the brave Ukrainian men and women fighting this unjustified barbaric invasion by Russia are going to prevail. I was watching this debate earlier on this evening, and it was great to see the non-partisan nature of what was going on, but unfortunately, I think the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan decided to make it a little more partisan than it should be. There was some banter back and forth, but let us be serious: Everyone in this House, all 338 of us, know Russia needs to be defeated. As Mario Draghi said, there is no Europe if Russia wins. Unfortunately, when the leader of the official opposition said that something was going on in a “faraway” land, it was an inappropriate remark to make, in my humble view. We are all held to account in what words we state, in our deeds in this House and as parliamentarians. I see the hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, whom I have spoken to before. Much like the hon. member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore, he is a staunch, proud Ukrainian Canadian. He wants nothing more than to see the full sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine for the Ukrainian people and the freedom of the brave men and women in Ukraine. Two years ago there were not many folks in this world who believed Ukraine would stand up to Russia the way it has, but it did for many reasons, including the participation of the Canadian Armed Forces through Operation Unifier, which has trained over 40,000 Ukrainian troops and continues to provide resources. There are 300 Canadian Armed Forces troops in Europe right now, in Poland, the U.K. and Latvia, helping out. I was doing some note-taking, because I do not sit on the defence committee or foreign affairs committee as I have other responsibilities, and I was looking at Canada's participation. We are in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. We are in the air force capability coalition. We are in the armour capability coalition. We are in the drone capability coalition. Since February 2022, Canada has committed over $13.3 billion in funding support to Ukraine, including in 2024, when we will commit another $3.02 billion in spending. When I hear feedback from my constituents, it tends to be far-right individuals who do not believe in supporting Ukraine. It is a fact. Much like in the United States, there is an element on the political right that does not support aiding Ukraine. That is a fact. It is unfortunate, and I try to speak to them, calmly, to say that we need to stand up for Ukrainians. I also want to give a big shout-out to the President of Czechia—

760 words

Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

Mr. Francesco Sorbara

Mar/20/24 10:57:28 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I will say that I do agree that there is an element of the far left, and we do see it in some of the European political parties, that are not as supportive as they should be. It is quite unfortunate. I see that in my heritage country of Italy. There are some far-right parties and some far-left parties that are not supportive. On Canada's free trade agreement with Ukraine, which I believe was originally negotiated by the official opposition, I understand their dislike of carbon pricing and of taking action on climate change. However, I really believed that was one measure, one policy, and I know it received royal assent last night, that all parties should have come together to support. I really do believe that. I was very disappointed that official opposition did not support that. At the end of the day, it was something that the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian Canadians and President Zelenskyy asked for and wanted. We should have come together, as 338 parliamentarians, to support Ukraine. Our Canadian Armed Forces are doing it. We should have done it as well. As parliamentarians, we should continue to do that going forward.

200 words

Negotiated

Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

Mr. Francesco Sorbara

Mar/20/24 11:00:47 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for his very important question. I want to support Ukraine. We want to do that as much as humanly possible. Even with this innovative agreement with Czechia, we need to do everything we can to support Ukraine. We will always try to do more, as much as possible, whether it is munitions or sanctions. I believe that most, if not all of us in the House are actually sanctioned by the Russia government. We need to keep sanctioning Russian officials. On that $300 billion U.S. in foreign assets out there that are frozen, we need to make sure that we reconstruct Ukraine with that, that Canada is at the forefront of that and that we will rebuild that country, because it is a beautiful place and the breadbasket of Europe. They are an innovative, hard-working people. We are going to be with them, today, tomorrow and in the future.

157 words