Mr. Speaker, when a young Moroccan woman named Saadia El Ouardi was ordered by her father to marry a man more than twice her age, and who already had two wives, she refused. He then threatened to kill her to regain his so-called honour, and she fled to Canada to save her life.
But, last weekend she was deported to Morocco, despite her father's continuing threats, despite the fact that her son Timmy is a Canadian citizen and despite the appeals of the community in Hamilton where she made her home.
While citizenship and immigration does not recognize threatened honour killings in Morocco, the international organization Global Rights and the United Nations have documented such killings, and the inability of Morocco's justice system to protect women there.
Our first priority is to return Saadia and Timmy to their family in Canada. But, the bigger issue here is that Canada must work harder to protect women everywhere from the tragedy of honour killings.