Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I rise today, as I do every year, to recognize World Refugee Day on June 20.

I wish I had good news for you, but I don’t. As per the UNHCR, more than 110 million people — a record high — have fled persecution, conflict, violence, climate change and discrimination. The war in Ukraine, refugees fleeing Afghanistan and fighting in Sudan have all contributed to this mass movement of people, either internally or across borders.

Colleagues, global displacement has been rising at an ever‑increasing pace. Before the conflict in Syria in 2011, there were about 40 million refugees in the world, a number that had held steady for 20 years before then. Now, in just 12 years, that number has not just doubled; it has tripled.

As this number has risen, so too have the interdiction measures undertaken by nation states to prevent individuals from reaching safety and exercising their rights under the UNHCR convention. The EU has struck a deal with Libya. The U.K. has confirmed its intentions to offshore migrant processing to Rwanda. Turkey has come to a financial arrangement to hold refugees in its jurisdiction and prevent them from travelling westward. Most appallingly, colleagues, last weekend we willingly watched and waited and watched and waited and let 700 people die off the shores of Greece, including 100 children. We did nothing. We watched and waited.

Canada is, of course, proud to have set a record in welcoming and resettling refugees over the past four years — more than we ever have before and more than any other country. And yet we, too, have put a cap on private sponsorships in Bill C-47, and the government’s Immigration Levels Plan sets out a reduction on government-assisted refugees. One could argue those are the most vulnerable.

In all of this despair, I stay true to my name and look for a point of light. I see that point of light in the resilience of refugees themselves, who painstakingly continue their search for a home, for safety and security. And when they find safety, they build our nation — like the captain of the Canadian soccer team, Alphonso Davies, or “chocolate king” Tareq Hadad.

But most importantly, I want to pay tribute to mothers and daughters, sisters and girlfriends who face a harsh future of human and sex trafficking and are most vulnerable. For their sake, for the sake of their children, let’s do more, let’s do it faster, and let’s do it better. Thank you.

[Translation]

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I rise today to recognize World Refugee Day. This has never been a day for celebration, least of all this year, because this year marks a new threshold of misery, insecurity, heartbreak and displacement for millions of new people.

In Ukraine alone, over 7 million people have fled the brutal and ruthless invasion by Russia. In Afghanistan, we watched in horror as the Taliban returned, resulting in a mass exodus from the country.

All told, today there are over 100 million people who have been displaced. This is a new high. I know that sometimes numbers are meaningless because we hear so many numbers thrown at us, so let me try and put these numbers into some context for you. One hundred million people is more than the entire populations of the U.K., France or Italy, and more than twice the population of Canada. If you pulled together the world’s largest cities — New Delhi, Mexico City and Beijing — you would still not get to 100 million. By all accounts, this number is only going to climb because of climate change, climate migration and, sadly, more conflict.

I believe we need to come to grips with this new normal, yet tragic, way of life. Although I appreciate that Canada has worked hard to bring in Afghans and Ukrainians, we know that our response could be better, faster and more humane. We cannot be reinventing the wheel whenever a new crisis arrives, because there will always be a new crisis.

Canada needs to be better prepared, learn its lessons from the past as well as its successes — such as our response to Syrian refugees — and permanently realign the machinery of government at IRCC, Global Affairs Canada and other departments to create a rapid response mechanism which will make us more nimble, responsive and efficient. We owe it not just to the people who have lost their homes, but we also owe it to ourselves. Thank you.