After seven and a half months of heartbreak, of horror and tragedy for Palestinian and Israeli communities, I’m going to ask a question, Speaker: Does anybody in this House or in our country or around the world feel safer? I certainly don’t feel safer. I didn’t feel safer when I woke up this morning to learn that 45 people were killed in a refugee camp: people living in tents, women and children.

Do I think a new generation of orphans is going to lead to peace? No, I don’t.

Do I think shooting up a Jewish elementary school in the middle of the night in this city of Toronto is going to lead to peace? No, I don’t.

Do I believe the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Dr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, who recently said that concerted global action is needed right now to stop the government of Israel in pursuing its relentless bombing campaign, a bombing campaign which is continuing despite the International Court of Justice telling Israel that we need an immediate ceasefire?

I want to tip my hat to the students across this country. The students and faculty and staff have been our moral conscience, and I want to call upon the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa—all of the campuses—to work with those people of conscience so Canada speaks for peace and tell every single person in the Middle East that Canada wants a Good Friday Agreement in Israel. That happened 35 years ago for the Irish, and it can happen for Palestinians and Israelis if we’re prepared to fight for it.

Last Friday, I sat in the gym of Lady Evelyn public school with my friends Wanda and Robin from the local Legion. As we remembered the sacrifices of veterans, the children sang, “Let there be peace on earth / And let it begin with me.”

Those are powerful words, but in Gaza right now peace seems impossible: babies in intensive care clinging to life, mass graves being dug at Al-Shifa hospital. Meanwhile, some are taking this moment to call for more violence. But then I think about Vivian Silver, a Canadian Israeli peace activist who we lost on October 7. Vivian spent every day of her life working for peace. She helped sick Palestinians go to Israeli hospitals. Her whole life she demanded a political solution to decades of suffering and military occupation.

Like her, we must also persevere. We have to organize for peace. Even if some people call us haters, we should demand a ceasefire, for the release of all hostages and for the investigation of all war crimes. History will not be kind to those in this moment who acted in vengeance. History will remember people like Vivian Silver, like the Palestinian families I have met at home who, in their grief, have spoken out about family members they have lost and who have built a peace movement that must continue in this country.

Let there be peace on earth, Speaker, and let us all have the courage to fight for it.

I have a message this morning for Prime Minister Trudeau about ongoing horrors in Gaza and in Israel. I believe the Prime Minister must join those around the world demanding the release of all hostages and demanding a ceasefire now. Without question, those responsible for the unspeakable atrocities committed against 1,400 Israelis on October 7 must face justice. But justice is not achieved by levelling entire Palestinian neighbourhoods, bombing border crossings, health care facilities and critical infrastructure, killing entire extended families, including heart-rending numbers of children.

Over the weekend, 19 families in Ottawa were grieving loved ones lost in Gaza. One woman, Hala Alshaer, was grieving 77 relatives, from ages one to 61. This is madness, Speaker—pure madness.

Half the population of Gaza are children. They never voted for Hamas, and they weren’t even born when Hamas was elected in 2006.

Prime Minister Trudeau, do those children deserve to die? Will you speak up for them? That’s what thousands of people were saying in my city yesterday, in the streets of Ottawa. Will you call for a ceasefire, for the release of all the hostages, for the siege of Gaza to finally end and for the immediate start of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis so they can live in peace? They deserve to. Please speak up, sir.