Canadian Heritage Committee on May 2nd, 2024

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

I will say this. We have have two minutes until 5:30, and then 10 more minutes.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Mr. Chair, I believe that if we were asked in a clear motion that was unequivocal, which didn't depend on things like a National Post article, but actually on the facts on the ground that we are seeing directly from people who are suffering harm, you would have a committee vote on a resolution that every one of us should vote for.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Then are you offering an amendment, Mr.—

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

I would like to. I haven't even gotten to that part of the conversation yet, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Do you have one in front front of you? I'm asking.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

No.

What I am trying to say, Mr. Chair, genuinely, as somebody who has spent years trying to bring communities together, working with the Jewish and Muslim communities in my riding, bringing them together to try to solve problems together, instead of pitting people against each other.... I'm somebody who actually cares about this issue, who has six synagogues, two Jewish schools and a lot of Jewish constituents who are deeply concerned. I'm somebody who is begging people on this committee to say, for God's sake, for once, let us put partisanship aside and sit together and come up with a resolution that every single one of us can support.

Why is that so difficult? That is what I don't understand.

If you want to call this a filibuster, Mr. Chair, that's not what this is. This is somebody who genuinely cares about this issue who is saying that we need to find a way to work together.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I have a point of order.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Mr. Noormohamed—

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Chair, just on that point of order, she has a track record of [Inaudible—Editor].

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Go ahead on the point of order, Mrs. Thomas.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I don't think she's made one yet, Chair—not one out of 12.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

I'm going to make a judgment here, everyone.

It is 5:30 eastern time. We have 10 minutes. We can expand by 10, because really, when we started, it was 3:40. We can go until 5:40.

Go ahead, Mrs. Thomas, again, if you don't mind.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Again, I'm just not sure why the member across the way isn't allowing this to come to a vote so that we can do exactly what he's talking about, which is to work together toward a positive end of standing against anti-Semitism. That offer is on the table, and we can collectively do that right now. Instead, the Liberals have now been filibustering for 30 minutes.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

I have a point of order.

That was not a point of order.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Thank you.

We have a point of order. I think it was Mr. Coteau.

No? That wasn't you?

Okay, go ahead, Mr. Noormohamed.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you.

I just want to be clear. What I am suggesting is that instead of firing amendments back and forth, instead of playing the game of battling motions, let's sit down properly as a group, all of us. This is my request. It is my offer.

I would ask Mrs. Thomas to withdraw her motion in its current form, and I would say, “Why don't we sit together, all of us?” It isn't just a question of York University. This is a question of people in my community and others, people who are walking down the street, who are worried about sending their kids to the Jewish day school in my riding. This is a serious issue. If we are serious about doing this and about not having a partisan game, let's go in camera, all of us. Let's come up with a motion that can be supported unanimously. Please, let us take this seriously. I don't want this to be a political game for any community in this country.

We have serious issues related to hate, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and anti-Black racism. These are all issues that we should rightly be working together to fight.

In the case of this conversation about anti-Semitism, Mr. Chair, my sincere request is that we actually do the right thing here—and I have a track record that I am proud to stand on in working with the Jewish community in my riding and others. Let's sit together without cameras, without the show of theatre, and come up with something together that would send an unequivocal message to the Jewish community in this country and to all communities that none of us have daylight between us when it comes to the fight against anti-Semitism.

There are too many things in this world that people in this country are being held to account for. There is nothing reasonable about holding Jews in Canada responsible for what is happening in Israel and in Gaza any more than it was right for people to look at me as a Muslim and tell me that my people are responsible for 9/11. I grew up in an era, Mr. Chair, when Muslims were looked at because of 9/11 and were told that they were responsible for what happened.

To this day, the number of comments that I get on my Twitter about taqiyya Tuesday, about people saying that I was a member of al Qaeda, that I was a member of this, that I am the Hamas troop and brigade.... These are things that are serious, and they were in response, Mr. Chair, to the tweet that Mrs. Thomas put up the other day.

So I get it. I know what it means when communities are vilified by what happens a world away. I get it. I have lived it. I live it. My family has lived it. It is not okay. It is not okay for Jews in this country to pay the price for what happened or what is happening in Gaza. It is not okay for people to assume that all Muslims somehow support Hamas. These are things that are fundamentally wrong, so my plea, sincerely, to every member of this committee is that we sit down together. Let's start with a blank piece of paper, all of us, if we truly care about this issue.

Mrs. Thomas spends a lot of time saying that she cares about the Jewish community. That's wonderful. That's important, and she should. We all should, but then let's take this seriously. I am reaching my hand out to ask every member of this committee that we sit down in a room together. Let us craft language that is unequivocal in its condemnation of anti-Semitism. Let's do that. Let's send a message that protest is fine, that anti-Semitism is not. Let's send a message that says that fighting for things that we care about is right but that glorifying violence is not. Let's send a message out there that says that no innocent life should be lost in vain, that there should be condemnation of all loss of innocent life. These are things that we all should be able to do.

My question is this: Is every member of this committee willing to sit down and turn off the cameras, turn off the social media; to sit together and work like grown-ups, like the people that we are, like the grown-ups that I believe our constituents elected, to come together and actually get something done?

If that is the will of this committee, if that is the commitment that we are prepared to make—for once to put partisanship aside, to put the cheap political points aside, to say, “Let's start with a blank piece of paper”, and we—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I have a point of order.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

—know what the issue is, and make Canadians proud.... Let's make Canadians proud of this committee, which I believe they deserve to be.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

We have a point of order from Mrs. Thomas.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Again, I would just ask the member to stay focused on the motion and not to insinuate motive.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Thank you.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

I have a point of order as well, and I will say that this is not a valid point of order. However, we have five minutes left. I'm next on the speaking list. The Liberals have had the whole time. If you're serious about having your hand outstretched, let us have two minutes of time before we end.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kevin Waugh]

Thank you, Mr. Lawrence.

The floor right now is for Mr. Noormohamed.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

I respect Mr. Lawrence, so I agree with him, and I'm going to end quickly, because I want to hear what he has to say. I do.

I'm going to end with this. This is a committee where it's pretty easy to score cheap political points. Everybody does it. It's fine. We've all thrown motions out there for whatever reason. I don't want to prejudge what people's motivations are. What I do want to say is this: This is serious. This is serious for all of us in our committees. It's important for us to set an example.

When it comes to anti-Semitism in this case, when it comes anti-Palestinian hate, when it comes to Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate and anti-Black racism, we should be able to just say that this is not partisan. Right? Every government, historically, of every stripe has sought to make strides in this regard, regardless of their political party. I will make my request, and then I'm going to wrap up.

Let's take the opportunity to show Canadians leadership, to bring everything that has been in the past forward. Let's work together and, on a blank piece of paper, let's write a motion that we can all not just live with but be proud of, one that gives the Jewish community confidence that we're going to take this fight on together, that shows other communities the importance of fighting this fight together and—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I have a point of order.