Debates of Oct. 16th, 2023

Situation in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Chair, I just want to share with my colleague how deeply troubling the events have been. Certainly, with my family history, having lost my whole family on my father's side in the Holocaust, what is going on is very troubling. I learned many valuable things from my father, and I was very touched by Vivian Silver's son's comments about his mother, who is currently a hostage with Hamas. He said, “You can't cure killed babies with more dead babies. We need peace”. He spoke about the fact that vengeance is not a strategy.

As somebody who is an intergenerationally impacted member of the Holocaust, having grown up with no family because of war, I am wondering what she thinks of Vivian Silver's son's comments about what is currently happening in Gaza.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, Vivian Silver, alongside Judih Weinstein and the daughter, Tiferet Lapidot, of Canadians, the three hostages we know of, should be the government's primary priority right now. We must secure the release of those hostages, not only to ensure that Canadians come home safely from the grips of Hamas, who have terrorized the region as a whole, terrorized Israelis and terrorized Palestinians, but to ensure that there is no regime out there that would look to Canadians as currency. To make sure that there are no Vivians in the future and that Canadians are not taken hostage, we have to have a strong stand on this; we have to do more.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Chair, my colleague has put forward a bill in this House, Bill C-353, that deals specifically with this issue of hostages. Of course, many of us are seized with concern about the situation of these hostages, including Canadians. I wonder if the member can share a bit about the private member's bill she put forward before this situation happened, what the provisions of that bill are and the impact it would have in Canada's playing a stronger role securing the freedom of hostages.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, we will have the opportunity to speak to that bill. Hostage diplomacy is becoming all too common in this world. We have seen it before with Canadians; we see it now with Canadians; we will likely see it in the future with Canadians. It is incumbent on the government to make sure that hostages have an open line of communication with family by establishing a liaison and, more importantly, that we co-operate with those who provide the information for the secured release of those in arbitrary detention or those in a hostage situation. We want to give the ministerial authority to be able to do that, whether it is a monetary compensation or whether it is something based in citizenship, and I look forward to the support in this House for that bill.

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Thornhill, as well as colleagues on the opposition side, for their support for our community and me personally over the course of the past number of days. I have heard varying perspectives in this chamber today on the conflict in Israel and Gaza. I am wondering about one of the things I heard. A member from another opposition party talked about and characterized Israel's response as one of “revenge”. I took exception to that.

I am wondering if the member could comment, from her own perspective, as to whether she feels Israel's response is one of revenge or one that is occurring in terms of its right to defend itself.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, we have said in this House before that Israel absolutely has the right to defend itself. Vengeance would mean that Israel does proportionately exactly the same thing as what was done to Israel. That would never happen, because that was done by the monsters in Hamas. That would mean that Israelis would engage in rape, decapitation and complete humiliation of their victims. That is not what a democratic ally and our friend Israel would ever do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

Before we go to the next speaker, I just wanted to thank everybody for being in the gallery today. As much as we enjoy that you are here listening to this debate, you are to keep your thoughts to yourselves so the debate can happen on the floor.

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Chair, Canada must stand with the state of Israel. The events of October 7 were the biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. On that day, Hamas launched a terrorist attack and invaded Israel. Some two and a half thousand Hamas terrorists broke through the border, attacking Israeli military bases and massacring Israeli citizens.

The latest count indicates that 289 IDF soldiers were killed and over 1,100 Israeli civilians were killed. Thousands more casualties took place as IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians were injured. The over 1,100 Israeli citizens who were killed were not killed inadvertently or accidentally. These 1,100 civilians were deliberately and systematically targeted and murdered by Hamas.

They were gunned down execution style, just like the mobile killing squads of the Nazis, the Einsatzkommando, who executed some one and a half million Jews by firing squad during the 1941 Aktion campaign in Eastern Europe. It was the Holocaust by bullets before the Holocaust by gas chambers that murdered an additional four and a half million Jews.

On October 7, whole families were executed, innocent babies were killed in their cribs and the dead were mutilated. Some of the dead were paraded through the streets of Gaza. The war that began October 7 is an existential threat to the state of Israel. The very state of Israel is threatened by this war, particularly if Hezbollah in Lebanon and the IRGC in Iran start participating in attacking Israel.

One of the belligerents in this war, Hamas, has targeted Canadian interests. Five Canadian citizens were murdered by Hamas and another three are missing, presumably being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. We, in this House, call for the immediate release of these hostages by Hamas. We will not forget about the five Canadians who were murdered by Hamas. We will not forget what will happen to the three Canadians currently held by Hamas.

There has been widespread condemnation from western democratic leaders of Hamas's barbaric terrorist attacks, including Canada's democratic leaders. There has been widespread solidarity expressed by western democracies for the state of Israel at this difficult time. This institution, the Parliament of Canada, projected an image of the Israeli flag on the Peace Tower as a sign of our solidarity.

The coming days and weeks will be a test of western condemnation of Hamas and a test of western solidarity with Israel. In the coming days and weeks, Israel will exercise its right to defend itself under article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which states, “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations”.

In the coming days and weeks, we should be clear that Israel has the right to eliminate Hamas as a threat from the Gaza Strip and to liberate the hostages Hamas has taken. As casualties mount, we should resist the temptation to call for a ceasefire until the Israel Defense Forces achieve its goal of eliminating this existential threat to the state of Israel.

This is a war. It is a legal war under international humanitarian law. Under the law of armed conflict, it is a justifiable war against a terrorist group, a group that the Government of Canada has officially listed as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada.

The state of Israel has the right to prosecute this war at the time and pace of its choosing until it has accomplished its goal of eliminating this existential threat. Israel has the right to determine, within the bounds of international law, how it will prosecute this war. It has the right to determine the pace of this war. It has the right to determine the timing of this war, including when the war ends.

Palestinians are also victims of Hamas. The suffering of the Palestinian people is a real tragedy. A million Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza. Every innocent human life, whether it be Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim or any other faith, is of equal precious value. We must do everything in our power to preserve this precious life and to minimize the suffering of innocent civilians.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, I have a great deal of respect for that member, and I am deeply disappointed by that intervention.

He spoke about the need to eliminate Hamas. The children who are being bombed in Gaza today are not Hamas. The children who are dying every 16 minutes, right now, in Palestine are not Hamas.

Would the member agree that collective punishment is against international law, and that that is what is happening right now in Gaza?

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Chair, I agree with my hon. colleague that we should not conflate the terrorist group Hamas with the Palestinian people.

We support the aspirations of the Palestinian people who aspire to an independent sovereign state, a two-state solution in the Middle East. We believe in the aspirations of the Palestinian people to live in peace and security in their own country, with their own self-determination, among the community of nations.

However, we must also be clear that Hamas is a terrorist group, and Hamas committed horrific war crimes, not just in attacking Israel in the first place, but in slaughtering over 1,000 innocent civilians in what were clearly war crimes and which were so systematic they might actually rise to the level of crimes against humanity.

At this difficult time in Israel's history, we must stand with the state of Israel, as we stand with other democratic nations, in their defence and security.

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask my hon. colleague if he could comment on the following two questions.

First, what does he believe would happen should Hamas announce, at this moment, that they were releasing the hostages being held in Gaza?

Second, what does he believe would happen in the region if Hamas were to change from its charter, its aim and its pursuit of the eradication of the Jewish people from the Earth?

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Chair, I am not going to speculate on what Hamas might or might not do.

What I will say is that Hamas must release the some 199 hostages they are currently holding, three of whom may be Canadian citizens. We will be watching very carefully to see what Hamas does with these three missing Canadians.

I would further add that Hamas is a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code of Canada. As such, providing material support to this organization within Canada is a criminal offence, something that we expect our law enforcement to prosecute to the full extent of the law.

Let us be clear here, Hamas has been an organization in the Middle East that has created great misery, not just for Israelis but for Palestinians themselves. The elimination of Hamas will hopefully lead to a two-state solution that would allow the Palestinians to fulfill their aspirations to live in their own country, side by side, peacefully among the community of nations.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, as it is my first opportunity to take the floor on this issue, let me first say that the Green Party stands with all other parties in this place in condemning, unconditionally, unequivocally, Hamas as an organization and its quite horrific assault on innocent Israeli civilians on October 7.

I think we stand with a lot of commonality here. I hope my hon. colleague for Wellington—Halton Hills will forgive me for picking up on what I see as the place of divergence and hope we can find consensus there too. As the Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres said recently, “Even wars have rules.”

Clearly, Hamas violated all humanitarian norms and international law. That does not mean, as our friend from Edmonton Strathcona said, that we do not say to Israel that as hard as it is in this moment, when we stand in solidarity with them with the goal of eliminating Hamas, that innocent children must not be bombarded indiscriminately in Gaza.

We must help Israel eliminate Hamas. We also must stand up for humanitarian goals and international law, and call for a ceasefire so that we can protect human life in Gaza.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Chair, we agree that innocent civilian lives need to be protected, and that is why we have called for three things.

First, we have called for the establishment of a safe zone in the southern part of the Gaza Strip to allow Gazans who are fleeing from the north, where a lot of the IDF is targeting Hamas infrastructure, to get to the south of the Gaza Strip in safety.

Second, we are calling for a humanitarian corridor to allow for food, water and medical supplies from outside the Gaza Strip to enter the Gaza Strip.

Third, we are calling for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate foreign nationals who are in Gaza, particularly Canadian citizens, who are trapped there.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Chair, on Saturday, October 7, Hamas launched a coordinated attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip. The attack was sadly dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”. It was a large-scale terrorist operation that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians—men, women, children and babies only a few months old—who, according to some sources, were beheaded and burned.

In the face of that cruelty and brutality, in the face of terrorism and hatred, we must all first and foremost offer the Israeli people our deepest and most sincere condolences. It was with sadness and concern that I spoke these words earlier today, and it is with equal emotion that I repeat them tonight in the House. The Bloc Québécois strongly and unequivocally condemns these terrorist attacks by Hamas. We reiterate that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas. However, we must not conflate Hamas with all Gazans or with the Palestinian people.

Israel responded to these terrorist attacks by declaring war on Hamas and ordering half the population of the Gaza Strip to leave. Over one million civilians have been forced from their homes. It is an impossible situation, one that the UN even describes as illegal.

Nevertheless, more than one million residents of Gaza have fled south, raising ominous concerns for young families. In addition to bombing the Gaza Strip, Israel has laid full siege to the area. The resulting blockade has forced Gaza's only power plant to shut down, cutting off the water supply and depriving hospitals of electricity. According to a number of sources, many Palestinians are now resorting to drinking salt water, leading to rising mortality rates. The worst is yet to come, as the days dwindle to hours before Israel's anticipated ground offensive against Gaza begins.

Faced with this situation, we are appealing to Israeli authorities. A democracy like Israel has a duty and a responsibility to act within the framework of international law and human rights. Not enough attention is being focused on the need to create a humanitarian corridor into the Gaza Strip. Time is running out. The situation is beyond urgent. Human lives are at stake.

At this very moment, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy are working together to try to open humanitarian corridors and help civilians. Canada must join these efforts and do everything in its power to pressure its partners and use every means necessary to help at-risk populations. Canada can and must do more in the current context. This is a matter of responsibility in the face of the real humanitarian crisis that is unfolding right now.

I stand before the House this evening knowing how little impact my words can have on the situation and on the despair of those whose lives are being ravaged by the atrocities of war, but wholeheartedly supporting victims on both sides of the armed conflict, the families of the missing, and those who have perished in the inhuman attacks we have witnessed in recent days.

I cannot imagine, even for one second, how terrified the civilians must be. Hour after hour, they live with the uncertainty of not knowing whether they will ever be able to return home and hug their loved ones again. Unfortunately, their fears are well-founded.

As reports emerge that Hamas is using civilians as a human shield and that Palestinian civilians could die in a ground assault on Gaza, there is nothing in this world that could justify an attack on these people, nothing that could justify the lack of humanity, nothing that could justify the horror.

At the risk of repeating myself, I believe that, most of the time, collaboration and cross-party co-operation must triumph over political agenda pushing. For the sake of the victims and everyone affected by the conflict, I am calling on my colleagues from all parties to show wisdom and compassion. I am also calling for respect for the principles of international law. They are often undermined, but they should prevail in this situation.

I spoke these simple words at the beginning of my speech, but they bear repeating: The Bloc Québécois strongly and unequivocally condemns the terrorist attacks by Hamas and reiterates Israel's right to defend itself. With men, women, entire families and children dying, we cannot overemphasize how vital it is to create a humanitarian corridor in Gaza because, sadly, history has taught us the hard way that it is always the eleventh hour when we talk about human lives. Everyone here in the House is human. Let us prove it.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Chair, this is a sad evening. Last week, we witnessed attacks by Hamas that cost brothers, sisters, parents and children their lives. What these families are going through is so sad and horrible. As the member just said, we know that collective punishment is not an option. Even today, tonight, we saw bombings in Gaza, a collective punishment that is causing the deaths of brothers, sisters, parents and children. My colleague spoke on the importance of a ceasefire, of a corridor for humanitarian assistance, and of insisting that all hostages be freed.

Can my colleague tell us how critical it is for Canada to speak with such a voice to ensure that there are no more victims after the many grim events of recent days?

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Chair, as a Quebec sovereignist I want to say that Canada is not a global military or economic power, but it has a history of leadership in international human rights. One need only think about Brian Mulroney during apartheid or of Lester B. Pearson and the peacekeepers. I will give only those two examples to keep things equal between the Liberals and the Conservatives.

It has been a long time since Canada has played that sort of role on the world stage and now an opportunity is presenting itself. We need to resume that leadership role and make this our mission. As I was saying earlier, everyone here, the 338 members from all parties, even the independent members, must unite in calling for this humanitarian corridor, which is so important for saving human lives. That is something tangible that we can do. We would save lives. In order to do that, Canada needs to unite, all of the politicians here in the House must unite and ask Israel to set up a humanitarian corridor to bring in international aid.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Chair, I agree with my colleague about the importance of having a humanitarian corridor. I would add that the setting up of a humanitarian corridor will require the buy-in and collaboration of multiple parties, but it is certainly important for the international community to work on delivering that outcome.

I wonder if he could share specifically what he thinks the response of Israel should be to this terrorist attack. I do not know if I heard that specifically, and I would appreciate hearing what he thinks the response of Israel should be to these events.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Chair, I am going to borrow my leader's words to answer my colleague's question. As I said at the beginning of my speech, Israel obviously has the right to defend itself, and the Bloc Québécois strongly supports that notion.

However, international law must be respected. I believe quite honestly that if we ever want the dream of two states in the region to become a reality, the State of Israel and the State of Palestine, Hamas cannot be part of the solution. Given what happened, Israel is right to want to uproot Hamas from the Gaza Strip. That said, it must do so while also upholding international law, and that obviously means ending the illegal blockade and giving people access to water, food and medicine.

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Chair, does my hon. colleague think that the actions of the Israeli government constitute revenge?

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Chair, the answer to that is no.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Chair, does my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean believe that the current Israeli government has everything it needs to resolve this situation peacefully?

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Chair, as I was saying, Israel is the only democracy in the region. Israel has the largest army in the region and is supported by the planet's major powers. Israel obviously has a greater responsibility for resolving the conflict.

I believe that it would be possible for Israel, as a democracy, to resolve this situation peacefully. However, it will depend on what happens with Hamas. Is Hamas ready to resolve this peacefully? That is another question.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, I completely agree with everything that my dear colleague from the Bloc Québécois said. A humanitarian corridor is essential.

I especially want to thank him for underscoring the role of our country. That may be a bit hard for him to do, as a sovereignist, but he underscored Canada's historic role and leadership as a country in favour of peace and international law. For that, I thank him very much.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for thanking me. Working with the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands is always a pleasure.

We are going to keep working together. As we said, we are all human. If there is one good and upstanding person in the House, it is certainly the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.