Alexandre Boulerice

[Business of Supply, March 18th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the people of Gaza are not responsible for the actions of certain groups like Hamas, yet they have been disproportionately suffering the consequences for the past five months. A child dies every 15 minutes in Gaza. Collective punishment is a crime. Using hunger is a war crime too.

We are extremely concerned about what is happening right now on the ground. That is why we need to act urgently to save lives. Human lives are at stake.

[Business of Supply, March 18th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I think we need to use every possible and conceivable tool to put pressure on that government, which is possibly committing war crimes as we speak. In any case, the massacre of the population is real. We see it every day on social media and on the news. It is horrifying.

People in my riding of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie are also extremely worried and concerned. They want the Liberal government to act. I have received nearly 15,000 emails in my office about this issue. People want us to do more. I think this is one of the solutions we need to put forward, but, first, the House must adopt this motion.

[Business of Supply, March 18th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, the NDP condemns Hamas and the brutal and horrific attack on October 7, but that does not mean we should give a blank cheque to Netanyahu's regime and government and to his far-right ministers.

My colleague talked about the importance of providing humanitarian aid. Right now, on a good day, 200 trucks can enter Gaza. When they can get in, that is. More often than not, only 100 get in. Before the October 8 bombings even began, Gaza needed at least 500 trucks of food a day. Today, it probably needs 1,000 trucks a day. The Netanyahu government is blocking this humanitarian aid. That is causing famine and misery for the two million Palestinians trapped in this hell on earth, which is the most dangerous place in the world for a child today. That is what we are addressing in our motion.

[Business of Supply, March 18th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is with deep emotion and a sense of responsibility to history that I rise today to speak to the important motion that my party has moved in the House.

History is dramatically unfolding before our very eyes. It is a bloody chapter filled with suffering, violence, fear, pain and death. On October 7, 1,200 Israeli voices were silenced forever, victims of a brutal attack by the Hamas terrorist organization. Some 100 hostages are still being held captive and living in terrible anguish, as are their families. They must be released safe and sound.

Since October 7, nearly 31,000 Palestinian voices have been silenced forever, almost all of them killed by the Netanyahu government's mass indiscriminate bombing. The majority are women and children. More than 12,000 Palestinian children have been killed. In Quebec, this would be the proportional equivalent of 48,000 Quebec children being killed by bombs. In fact, more Palestinian children have been killed in the last four months than in all armed conflicts in the last four years. It is happening every day, right in front of us, live. We can never claim that we did not know. This is a test for humanity, for our own humanity. Right now, humanity is failing.

We must keep in mind what the daily reality has been in Gaza for months. There is no water, no food, no electricity, no housing, no fuel. People are starving, besieged, displaced, and being bombed every day. It is happening every day. Desperate people are being shot at while trying to get a little water, flour or rice from one of the too few humanitarian aid trucks.

In bombed-out hospitals that have no electricity, doctors have resorted to performing surgeries without anaesthesia. We have seen the footage of a little girl in a wheelchair crying and pleading to get her legs back, a woman lifting debris too heavy for her as she frantically searches for her husband in the rubble, a child all alone covered in blood and dust, dazed and shaking like a leaf, with nowhere to go. We have seen the mass graves being hastily dug to keep the dead from contaminating the living. It is unbearable to watch.

For many Quebeckers and Canadians, these people are their friends or relatives. The Palestinian death toll does not include the bodies buried in ruins, the 72,000 who are wounded, the thousands of orphans or this generation that will be traumatized for life. We cannot ignore the horrors and massacres. Our humanity will not let us.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, “In Rafah I have witnessed the gates to a living nightmare. A nightmare, where people have been suffocating, under persistent bombardment, mourning their families, struggling for water, for food, for...fuel.... Gaza has already been described as the world's biggest open-air prison before 7 October, under a 56-year occupation and a 16-year blockade by Israel.... The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts also to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians.”

As former French foreign affairs minister and prime minister Dominique de Villepin put it, “The right to self‑defence is not a right to indiscriminate vengeance”.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Netanyahu government and its far-right ministers are not just trying to destroy Hamas, but are pursuing other war aims, political aims. This becomes even clearer when ministers state it publicly, in a terrifying process of dehumanizing Palestinians. The defence minister called Palestinians “human animals”. The national security minister, who, incidentally, is distributing weapons to settlers in the West Bank, equated civilians in Gaza with terrorists who must also be destroyed. The heritage minister opposes humanitarian aid and said that “there is no such thing as uninvolved”, in other words, non-combatant, “civilians in Gaza”.

The infrastructure minister said, “They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave”. The agriculture minister said, “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba”. Finance minister Smotrich, who denies the very existence of the Palestinian people, said he was prepared to tolerate a Gaza Strip with 200,000 Palestinians, when the territory now has more than two million people. It is clear, is it not? They are saying these things to us. We should listen to what they are saying. The genocidal rhetoric is there.

We support sanctions against Hamas officials. We also call on the Liberal government to sanction extremist Netanyahu cabinet ministers who incite violence and genocide.

What happens next? That is the crux of the motion we are putting forward today. Basically, we need to increase the pressure on the Netanyahu regime. We need to turn up the heat. There need to be consequences.

First of all—and we were the first party to say it here, starting on October 10—there needs to be a ceasefire, and both Israel and Hamas must respect it. The massacre must stop. The hostages must be freed. Lives are truly at stake. This is not a figure of speech. After nine weeks of dithering, the Liberals finally asked for a ceasefire, but only half-heartedly, and they have done nothing since.

Next, there is an urgent need to get enough humanitarian aid in to meet people's needs. The risk of famine is real. Some 20 children have already died of dehydration and malnutrition, including Samar's daughter. She died over there while her mother was desperately trying to bring her here. I met Samar.

We are asking the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to fast-track repatriation cases and lift the arbitrary cap of only 1,000 visas. So far, the Canadian program has not brought a single person to Canada. Families here are terribly worried for their loved ones trapped in that hell.

We also need to stop selling arms to that government. The NDP has been calling for this for a long time, but now it is imperative. On February 23, UN experts warned that all arms exports to Israel must stop immediately because they violate international law. The experts also cited Canada as a bad example. The minister has a duty not to approve the sale of military goods and technology when there is a risk of human rights violations, like use against civilians. The Liberal government could be abetting serious crimes by allowing the sale of these weapons.

Speaking of obeying international law, the Liberals need to stop talking out of both sides of their mouths. Canada took part in building the institutions that uphold international law. Today, the Liberals cannot claim to support these institutions while only accepting their decisions when they see fit. We must respect human rights and international law everywhere and at all times. To do otherwise would be hypocrisy.

In December, South Africa filed an application with the International Court of Justice, arguing that Tzahal's offensive in Gaza constituted a violation of the 1948 genocide convention. The court agreed to hear the case, considering that there is a real and plausible risk of genocide. In the short term, it issued an order intended to protect civilian lives.

Human Rights Watch and 12 Israeli human rights groups are accusing the Netanyahu government of failing to abide by the court's decision. Canada has a responsibility and an obligation under international law to prevent genocide wherever and whenever it is committed by any of the signatories to the convention, including Israel. Unfortunately, on this issue, the Liberals are turning a blind eye and betraying their commitments to international institutions.

The situation in the West Bank receives less media coverage but is just as troubling. In 2023, nearly 400 Palestinians were killed, including over 100 children. In most cases, the Israeli army itself was to blame, but there were also extremist settlers who attacked Palestinian farms and houses. The staggering expansion of the illegal settlements is jeopardizing the chances of a peaceful resolution. To be clear, Palestinians are being robbed of their land by an illegal military occupation. It is a major obstacle to peace and stability. Canada must sanction these extremist settlers.

Finally, the government must forcefully and consistently advocate for a two-state solution. That is already Canada's official position, but we hardly ever hear it. To do that, the government must officially recognize the Palestinian state, which is what our motion proposes. Canada must take this step. One hundred and thirty-nine countries around the world have already done so. We need to join the majority of the international community. There can be no military solution. That will never work. The solution must be political.

For 75 years, Palestinians have faced confiscation of their land, eviction from their homes, demolition, military occupation, discrimination, checkpoints and daily humiliation. This cannot go on forever.

Hamas is also responsible for the hardships facing the people of Gaza and has made it clear that it wants to destroy Israel. That is why Canada must work towards a two-state solution made up of Israel, which has the right to live and exist in peace and security, and Palestine, which has the right to its own secure, viable state.

We need to find that glimmer of hope and offer it to the thousands of people who are suffering and crying as we speak. A first step in offering that hope is for the members of the House to support this NDP motion for peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.

[Business of Supply, March 18th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his statement and interventions. He is always knowledgeable and always shows compassion and empathy.

We have been witnessing mass killings for months, an absolutely immense humanitarian crisis. Millions of people have been displaced, are starving and are being bombed every day.

I would like to hear my colleague's comments on what happens next after tonight's vote on this motion. What message could this Parliament send to the international community and the world at large by supporting such a motion?

[Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act, February 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, my colleague, it seems, does not have to rely on social programs to send his children to day care. Maybe he has the means to pay $60 or $80 a day for those services. However, not everyone has that kind of money. Not everyone has grandparents or neighbours who can look after their children. That keeps some people, especially women, out of the workforce.

How can my colleague consider Quebec's social programs and policies such a great success, but refuse to offer the same thing to the people he represents in the rest of Canada?

[Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act, February 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his work.

To us in the NDP, what was really important in Bill C‑35 was that it prioritizes a public, not-for-profit, co-operative or community child care model. My colleague from Winnipeg Centre has done a lot of work on this and I congratulate her on that.

How important is it to my colleague that the private sector not be the one effectively prioritized in order to keep the prices reasonable and affordable for the families that really need it? That way we would be contributing to helping people return to work because their children could go to a co-operative or public affordable child care centre.

[Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act, February 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, obviously, as Quebeckers, we have known for quite some time now how important it is to have accessible public child care.

Not only is this a feminist and forward-thinking policy, but it is also good economic policy because it gives women in particular the opportunity to return to the labour market.

Economist Pierre Fortin estimated that, in the first few years of Quebec's child care program, 70,000 women were able to return to the labour market, since they no longer had to stay home because child care costs were far too high.

I would like my colleague to tell us more about how this is a feminist, social and economic program.

[Health, February 27th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, a recent report by the OurCare initiative reveals that 30% of Quebeckers, one in three people, do not have a family doctor. In the last election, the Prime Minister promised to invest and help the provinces hire health care professionals, but people are still waiting for a family doctor. While the Liberals drag their feet on transfers, Quebeckers are paying the price for this government's broken promises.

When will the Liberals finally do their part to ensure that every Quebecker has a family doctor?

[Criminal Code, February 15th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I simply want to remind my colleague that, yesterday, I voted in favour of the amendment for advance requests because there is a political and social consensus in Quebec society. I think that the message for the federal government is to find a compromise and a solution so as not to prevent Quebec from moving forward.

However, we must also not block the bill, because there is no medical or scientific consensus on the issue of mental health as the sole underlying condition. I think that it is important to meet the March 17 deadline and to ensure that we can reflect together on this issue because there is no medical or scientific consensus.