44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 20, 2024 02:00PM
- Mar/20/24 7:40:58 p.m.
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Madam Chair, Canada has certainly given plenty of aid to Ukraine, but it has largely been humanitarian aid. That aid is obviously necessary, but right now, the issue is military assistance. Ukraine's security is seriously threatened by Russia. Ukraine needs more military aid, more ammunition and more military equipment. In my opinion, the Canadian government must take action now to give Ukraine help in this area.
There are four things we currently have, as a country, in our Canadian forces. We have surplus equipment that we can give to Ukraine now. We have asked the government to send that now. The biggest crisis in Ukraine right now is a security crisis. In my opinion, it is bigger than the humanitarian crisis.
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- Mar/20/24 8:32:37 p.m.
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Madam Chair, my hon. colleague mentioned in his speech how Ukraine and Canada share many similarities, in particular, a shared geography with Russia: Ukraine borders Russia, and Canada shares an Arctic border region with Russia.
In light of the fact that Sweden and Finland have recently joined NATO and that NORAD modernization is going on, as the defence minister has indicated, could he tell the House what the government's views are on Canada's role in the Arctic, particularly as it relates to countering some of the threats the Russian Federation presents not just to the Canadian Arctic but to the other Arctic nations in the NATO alliance?
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- Mar/20/24 10:06:51 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, as I take part in this debate this evening, it strikes me that actions are more important than words. We hear words from the Conservatives saying that they support Ukraine, yet their actions with regard to votes do not align with that.
This member is a member of the government. Recognizing all the announcements the government has made on supports for Ukraine is one thing, but the actual delivery of that aid has trickled. A fraction of what the government has promised to the people of Ukraine has actually been delivered, and Vladimir Putin is counting on that. He is counting on the world to lose interest, to look away and to be distracted. Russia is counting on the fact that it can outlast the patience of western allies.
When we dribble aid to Ukraine instead of giving it the tools it needs to win this war, we are playing into Putin's hands. Announcing things is great, but we have seen a fraction of that actually delivered to Ukraine. When will all of it get to Ukraine?
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- Mar/20/24 10:26:47 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, at present, the government is still slow to sanction all aspects of Russian energy production and supply chains around the world. We are seeing Russian oil refineries being attacked, appropriately so, as a means to starve its capacity to fund its war machine. We see Russia today searching for specialized parts to rebuild these energy resources for itself, and it is suffering under the yoke of that. Enhancing it is a critical part of ensuring that Russia is incapable of accessing the resources it requires. I thank the hon. member for the question on how that can be done.
Twenty thousand-plus Ukrainian children have been spirited into Russia to be reprogrammed in what must be amounting to a cultural genocide of the Ukrainian people. One thing that can be done is for all Russian families participating in this unjust, horrific conquest of Ukrainian lives to be added to sanction lists with Magnitsky sanctions. These are all areas where forensic work can be done until these children are repatriated back to their families.
Finally, the supply chains being provided to Russia by the People's Republic of China and other bad actors should be sanctioned as well. We should be building an economic blockade against the kind of encroachment that Russia, China and others are pursuing in the conquest of the western world and of Ukraine.
I think there are many ways that imagination could come to choke the Russian regime from its capacity to wage this war.
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- Mar/20/24 11:00:47 p.m.
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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.
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- Mar/20/24 11:09:01 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it goes without saying that a dialogue might have been an option when the U.S.S.R. imploded, when several republics imploded, and the communist regime came to an end. Perhaps that would have been the time for those involved to reach out to one another properly and come up with a solution. Those were catastrophic years, during which the most aggressive and violent form of neo-liberalism was rammed down Russia's throat, bringing the country close to extinction. Production plummeted. The mafia took control; so did the oligarchs. Perhaps that is when the anti-western sentiment took root.
I think we will have to take a clear-eyed look at the situation and also accept that the west may have played a part in these divisions. Historically, Russia has always been a country marked by tension between western and Asian cultures, even though three-quarters of its territory is in Asia. There was Tsar Peter I, Peter the Great, who wanted to westernize Russia very quickly. As a country, it has seen a number of movements, with a wealth of literature and intellectuals associated with the Enlightenment. I think this dialogue will have to be rebuilt in due course. Let us also have the courage to look inward, at ourselves. We probably made mistakes, at crucial moments in history, and now Russia is extremely upset with us.
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- Mar/20/24 11:12:49 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot for his speech. I think he did a fine job describing the role of Ukrainians in building democracy. To me, there is a really interesting thing that is important to note and that is the fact that Vladimir Putin is obviously not working alone in his attack and illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Does my colleague think that we should hold Russia's allies responsible, countries such as Iran and others that are helping Russia in its invasion of Ukraine?
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