Borys Wrzesnewskyj

[Women, Peace and Security Ambassador, September 20th, 2018]

No.

[Women, Peace and Security Ambassador, September 20th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, within a motion it is not the prerogative of the House to set a budget for the executive branch of government. This is where the great debates of the day can take place. It is up to the legislature to pass the laws, but when it comes to budgetary questions, procedurally they are not allowed in the body of a motion.

That said, I certainly hope that with the support of all colleagues from all parties in the House, we would see a robust and ambitious response by the government to this motion.

[Women, Peace and Security Ambassador, September 20th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, we have people in various places in the House and government departments who do their work because they feel passionately and strongly about these issues. I would like to thank Ms. Galadza and her team for all of their tremendous work. I am glad she has been singled out because she has done tremendous work in laying the foundations of something that has the capacity to be a game changer.

Our committee on foreign affairs did a study two years ago that proposed a number of resolutions, and as part of that package, one of the final resolutions was for every government department to have a person engaged with this file on women, peace and security.

An ambassador would have an opportunity to bring cohesion and to do this in a way that is not just reactive, looking at what happened over the past year, but works proactively.

[Women, Peace and Security Ambassador, September 20th, 2018]

moved:

That the House: (a) recognize that Canada has a rich tradition of peacekeeping, peace-making and peacebuilding; (b) recognize that Canada is a world leader in the promotion of human rights and peace, having crafted the wording of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, envisioned the creation of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, championed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (the “Ottawa Treaty”) and initiated and led on the Responsibility to Protect doctrine; (c) recognize that the government drafted Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which calls on member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to contribute to the further development of peaceful international relations, including by seeking to eliminate conflict and promoting conditions of stability and well-being; (d) recognize that harmful practices and social norms, including among women, that uphold gender hierarchies and other intersecting forms of marginalization and exclusion or condone violence are often exacerbated during conflict and that women and men must be equally committed to changing attitudes, behaviours, and roles to support gender equality; (e) acknowledge that overcoming insecurity and achieving sustainable peace are daily concerns for these communities and that women and girls suffer disproportionately in these conflict settings but remain almost entirely excluded from the processes that build peace; (f) recall resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, notably Resolution 1325 (2000), which reaffirm the important and consequential role in women’s engagement in preventing and resolving conflicts, in peace operations, in humanitarian response, in post-conflict reconstruction, and in counter-terrorism, and countering violent extremism; (g) acknowledge Canada’s own challenges, including gender-based violence and underlying gender inequality and work to develop a framework to implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda domestically; and (h) reaffirm Canada’s commitment to build on our recognized accomplishments and enhance our leadership role in advancing the cause of peace domestically and throughout the world by calling on the government to develop a plan to appoint a Women, Peace and Security Ambassador to: (i) promote research and studies relating to root causes of and preconditions leading to violent conflict and to conflict resolution and prevention, for respect for women’s and girls’ human rights and to conditions conducive to peace, (ii) support the implementation of education, training and counselling in non-violent conflict resolution, (iii) initiate, recommend, coordinate, implement, and promote national policies, projects and programs relating to the reduction and prevention of conflict and empowerment of women and girls and the development and maintenance of conditions conducive to peace, (iv) encourage the development and implementation of gender and peace-based initiatives by governmental and non-governmental entities including engaging with stakeholders, educational institutions and civil society, (v) lead the implementation of the Canadian National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, (vi) promote gender equality and the integration of gender perspectives into peacebuilding and peacekeeping, (vii) review and assess the Departments' yearly Action Plan reporting.

Madam Speaker, this past summer I hosted a series of round tables on women, peace and security from coast to coast, from Vancouver to Halifax. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the participants, who represented over 100 Canadian NGOs, not just for their participation and their good counsel, but also to thank them for the years, decades, and in some cases a lifetime of work and commitment on issues of gender equality, human rights, democratic rights, international development and peace.

In the House we often disagree on matters, but there is one thing on which all of us would agree and that is that we are blessed to live in the best country on the planet. We do not just say that because we are exuberantly proud Canadians; it is actually substantiated by the facts. For instance, the World Forum last year in its annual rankings of the most livable countries in the world based on multiple matrices listed Canada and Switzerland as the two most livable countries in the world. We are a people blessed. However, when we give thanks for those blessings, we should also pause and reflect. Yes, we are the most livable country in the world, but it certainly does not mean that we are perfect. It definitely does not mean that we cannot do better. Let me provide some context.

There is probably no more beautiful sight in our country than when we look through the window of a maternity ward and see all the newborns. Think of the little girls and project out to the point in time when they become young women and they enter the workforce. If the status quo does not change, if it is maintained, what will they encounter? They will be paid 75% of what those little boys will be paid. How is that possible in our Canada? How is that just? That seems to say that we value women at 75% of what we value men.

It is not just as a society how we value women; it is also how we treat women. Once again, when we look at international studies, we find that Canada is ranked as the most peaceful country on the planet. It looks at state violence, interpersonal violence, and once again uses various matrices. However, when we dive into the Canadian figures, we find in the under 30 age bracket there is a very large portion of those violent acts. Most people would assume that it is young men committing acts of violence against other young men, but in fact, that assumption is incorrect. Young Canadian women are 1.9 times more likely to be the victims of violence than young Canadian men.

What about the sanctuary of home and hearth? Seventy per cent of the victims of domestic violence in Canada are women and girls. Eighty per cent of the victims of partner homicide are women. If we really want to dive into some darker statistics, all we have to do is look at the statistics in our indigenous communities.

Young indigenous women in Canada are five times more likely to be the victims of violence than young men. Yes, we are lucky enough to live in one of the best countries in the world, Canada, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

That is why, in November 2017, we launched our national action plan on women, peace, and security. We are showing leadership on this on the world stage. In February, we committed to providing $2 billion for our feminist international development policy. In June, at the G7 summit in Charlevoix, together with our G7 partners we announced historic funding of $3.8 billion for the education of women and girls in crisis and conflict situations.

I have had the opportunity over the years to travel into war zones and civil war zones. I have seen how hatreds are nurtured and are stirred up. I have seen how conflict and violence are planned out and executed, and I have seen the consequences. Humanity has an incredible capacity for violence, destruction and bloodshed. However, it is not, in fact, humanity, and I will say something that is perhaps politically difficult but correct: It is mankind. Mankind has an incredible capacity for violence, destruction and bloodshed. When I have travelled into war zones or postwar zones, I have seen the men—it is men—who commit the horrors, and often it is women and children who bear the brunt of the suffering.

In the summer of 2005, just off the peak of the genocide in Darfur, I travelled into Darfur to the IDP camp, the internally displaced persons camp, of El Fasher. I listened to the horrific stories of women who had survived Janjaweed attacks on their villages. Most often these villages were devoid of men. Older women and children were massacred. Younger women and girls were rounded up and their testimonies were horrific and gut-wrenching.

When I left El Fasher, I noticed outside the perimeter of the camp what appeared to be villas behind the walls. I asked the driver what those structures might be. At first he was reluctant to tell me, but I did not stop asking questions. Finally, he said that they were harems that belonged to peacekeepers who selected the most beautiful of the young women and girls in the displaced persons camps.

That was just over a decade ago. However, crimes against humanity and genocides are not just something that we read about in history books and pledge “never again” during solemn commemorations on Parliament Hill. It has happened on our watch.

In 2016, at the time that I chaired the citizenship and immigration committee, the committee undertook an extraordinary summer hearing in order to hear from the survivors of the Yazidi genocide, including Nadia Murad. It was the first time that a warning to the viewing public was necessary on CPAC due to the nature of the testimony that we were about to hear.

Later that evening, I spent some time with Nadia in my office. We became friends. I am so grateful and thankful that with her engagements with members of Parliament we were able to, in a non-partisan, collective way, lay the political tracks to acknowledge this genocide in this House and to bring 1,200 Yazidi survivors to Canada. How encouraging it was that on such a fundamentally critical issue of humanity we were able to rise above our conditioned partisanship in this place and do what was right for the Yazidis and Yazidi women.

When we had those hearings, I also thought that we should have hearings into the developing situation in Myanmar and Rohingya people. Crimes against humanity and genocide are predictable. These hearings took place in the summer of 2016. We are now at the end of the summer of 2018. Just today the House unanimously voted to call what happened a crime against humanity and genocide.

What happened between that committee hearing in 2016 and 2018? Hundreds of thousands, almost a million, Rohingya are in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Thousands of young Rohingya women have no families, because they have been massacred, have no villages to return to because they have been razed, and have no possessions other than one: babies, the progeny of ethnic cleansing and mass rapes.

Clearly, crimes against humanity and genocide, these horrors, continue in our world and on our watch. It is not something that happened in the past. The question then becomes, “What will we do?”

Canada has an incredible legacy of bringing peace to the world. We have our Pearsonian legacy of peacekeeping. Prime minister Brian Mulroney took the lead in the Commonwealth on the fight against apartheid. The treaty on the prohibition of land mines is called the Ottawa Treaty due to the hard work of Canadians and the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy.

I was honoured to be in Canada's delegation at the 2005 U.N. World Summit when former prime minister Paul Martin laid out the concept of R2P, the responsibility to protect. Canada has shown, over and over, that we have the capacity to think outside the political box and to come up with innovative ways to find peace.

Our current Minister of Foreign Affairs announced the Elsie initiative, which will increase the participation of women in peace operations. This weekend, she will co-host, with the EU foreign minister, a global gathering of female foreign ministers. What an opportunity to demonstrate Canadian leadership.

Historically, Canada has and continues to demonstrate the political determination to make a difference internationally. I believe it is time for Canada to step forward once again, and to lead.

We can be at the forefront in building institutions, a department of peace, which will foster a culture of peace domestically and internationally. Let us begin by passing Motion No. 163 and create the institution of an ambassador for women, peace and security, and finally give substance to our commitment to UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

[Petitions, June 18th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the honour of presenting a petition signed by Canadians from across the country.

The petitioners express great concern about the harvesting and trafficking of human organs and body parts without consent and for profit, as documented by the independent Matas-Kilgour investigations.

In an effort to put a stop to the industry of harvesting and trafficking of human organs and body parts, the petitioners urge Parliament to adopt House Bill C-350 and Senate Bill S-240. These bills continue the work of Bill C-500 and Bill C-381, introduced by myself in 2008 and 2009, and Bill C-561, introduced by Irwin Cotler in 2013.

The petitioners urge Parliament to move quickly on this legislation and end this horrific multi-million dollar industry.

[Public Safety, June 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the government has the responsibility to protect the private information of Canadians and the integrity of our critical infrastructure. Budget 2018 committed $155 million toward a new Canadian centre for cybersecurity for a unified government source of unique expertise and support.

Could the Minister of National Defence update the House on the government's next steps to ensure Canada is able to address the cyber-challenges of today and tomorrow?

[Canada-Ukraine Friendship Group, June 11th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I join all members in welcoming to Canada a delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, led by First Vice-Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko and the co-chair of the Ukraine-Canada parliamentary friendship group Ivan Krulko.

The delegation is here to advance the special and strategic relationship between Canada and Ukraine, based on historic bonds that extend over 125 years and rooted in the 1.4 million strong Ukrainian Canadian community.

Building upon the unanimously passed Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-Ukraine defence co-operation arrangement, as well as the military assistance provided through Operation Unifier, jointly we will be discussing Ukraine's security, human and economic development, and its Euro-Atlantic integration.

To our Verkhovna Rada friends, Canada's Parliament stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine during this time of Russian military aggression and occupation.

Slava Ukraini. Slava Kanadi.

[Human Rights, June 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, film director Oleg Sentsov entered the fourth week of his hunger strike in an Arctic hard-labour penal colony 5,000 kilometres from his native Crimea. He is slowly starving to death to raise awareness of 74 Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar political prisoners who have been abducted to Russia and put on show trials for their opposition to Russia's military annexation of Crimea.

Sentsov's case is being championed by European and Canadian cultural figures, yet when a journalist asked President Putin about Sentsov, he snapped that Sentsov was part of a terrorist community—this from the president whose military invasion of Ukraine has killed 11,000, whose pilots bomb civilian markets and hospitals in Syria, who shields those who shot down MH-17, and who poisons and assassinates opponents and journalists.

It is time to use the Magnitsky law and sanction Sentsov's abductors, torturers, prosecutors, and show-trial judges.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely correct, and I am glad that the member raised the issue of the very special relationship we have between India and Canada based on the 1.4 million people of Indian descent who live in Canada. Perhaps this is an opportune point to also express gratitude to the Sikh community for all the contributions Sikhs have made over a century to the respectful, multicultural Canada we have.

When we travel and people around the world see that reflection of Canada, especially in a country that is as multicultural as India is, it makes it that much easier to say that Canada is a welcoming place. We are a welcoming place in terms of people and in terms of students. This is a place where they can invest and do business.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2018]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, in fact, there is a lot we can point to. There was $1 billion in investments in bilateral trade between our two countries. Even more important are those hundreds of relationships that were established. There were four ministers and 16 MPs. We had a whole team meeting with business leaders and political leaders establishing those relationships. How do they put a value on all that hard work, which was laying the foundation for economic relations going forward? Headlines come and go, but these established relationships will lead to increased trade between our two countries, and our country is dependent on trade.