Bill C-287 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act

This enactment amends the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act to add to the criteria to be met in respect of the provision of official international development assistance abroad by the Government of Canada.

Hazaras

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Madam Speaker, I respect that. Unfortunately, these are issues that I am not as familiar with, but I was asked to present them. I will do my best to shorten this particular one.

The citizens of Canada draw the attention of the House of Commons to the fact that Abdul Rahman Khan, the emir of Afghanistan, was installed by the British government and received a subsidy from it. They waged a genocidal campaign against the Hazaras from 1891 to 1893. It wiped out the vast majority of this ethnic group.

There were tens of thousands of Hazaras who were forcefully displaced from their lands and many other thousands were forcefully proselytized, raped and enslaved from 1891 to 1893. The petition goes on to talk about the fact that even as late as August 1998, hundreds, if not thousands, of men, women, children and elders were slaughtered in the cities of Mazar-e Sharif and Bamiyan.

The Hazaras still continue to face systemic and targeted persecution in post-2001 Afghanistan. It is clearly a serious issue. Canada has spent $3.6 billion in assisting Afghanistan and we lost 158 brave men and women in uniform in the fight against the Taliban. Afghanistan remains one of the largest recipients of Canada's international financial assistance.

Therefore, the undersigned call upon the Government of Canada to take action. They ask to formally recognize the 1891 to 1893 ethnic cleansing perpetrated against the Hazaras; to designate September 25 as Hazara genocide memorial day; and to support Bill C-287 to ensure that all development assistance sent from Canada to Afghanistan is contributing to the peace and security of the region for all peoples.

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

So, you're asking members of our committee to be sure to include a recommendation to reinstate Bill C‑287 in the report. It will be assigned a new number, but it will need to be passed.

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

So our allies have solutions that could guide us. I'd like to remind everyone that we are here to find solutions.

I will go back now to your appearance before the Subcommittee on International Human Rights in June 2021, Mr. Mirzad. Among other things, you called for support for Bill C‑287, which aimed to ensure that all development assistance Canada sends to Afghanistan contributes to peace and security in the region for all people. However, an election was called and that bill died on the order paper.

Are you still calling for that?

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

Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the situation of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. This particular petition was certified prior to the Taliban takeover, and there were significant human rights concerns about the violence against the Hazara community in Afghanistan, which goes back a very long time. The Hazara community has experienced successive waves of violence. The situation is particularly dire now for the Hazara community, as well as for Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and other minority communities in Afghanistan.

This petition, in particular, is calling on the government to formally recognize the 1891-93 ethnic cleansing perpetuated against the Hazaras as genocide and to designate September 25 as a Hazara genocide memorial day. The petition also supports Bill C-287 from the last Parliament, which aimed at ensuring development assistance was always contributing to the advancement of peace and security and focusing on the well-being of all individuals, including minority communities.

Afghan Hazara Community

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

Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan.

The petitioners are very concerned about an ongoing series of human rights abuses the Hazaras have experienced for centuries. Of course, this has become all that much more acute with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The petitioners want to see the government formally recognize the 1891 to 1893 ethnic cleansing perpetuated against the Hazaras as a genocide and to designate September 25 as Hazara genocide memorial day. They are also supportive of Bill C-287 from the last Parliament, aimed at ensuring all development assistance is contributed to peace and security of all people in all regions.

[Ali Mirzad]

Should I continue? Okay.

The Hazara people have suffered more than a century of constant persecution because of their religious beliefs, their ethnicity and their physical and facial characteristics.

At the end of the 19th century, thousands, if not millions, of Hazara were massacred, forcibly uprooted and sold into slavery by the Emir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan.

Through royal decrees, he openly labelled Hazaras as “heretic foreigners”. This paved the way for persecution that continues to this day.

In 1998, the Taliban issued a similar decree continuing that campaign by killing thousands of Hazaras in the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Bamiyan alone.

In post-9/11 Afghanistan, Hazaras continue to be the subject of daily attacks, be it within the sanctuary of religious places, in gymnasiums, in the streets or on public buses. Attacks such as the May 2020 assault on the Médecins sans frontières maternity ward in Kabul's Dasht-e-Barchi, where infants still in incubators were targeted, or the May 2021 attack on the Sayed Al-Shuhada, all-girls school where as many as 94 young girls died, have proven that Hazaras are a target regardless of age or gender.

To put it simply, the life of a Hazara in Afghanistan is that of a death row inmate living on borrowed time, awaiting an impending execution.

For years around the globe and indeed across this nation, coast to coast to coast, Hazaras have cried for help. We humbly request to this committee, and through it, the Canadian Parliament, to, first, formally recognize the 1891-93 ethnic cleansing perpetrated against the Hazara as a genocide; second, designate September 25 as a Hazara genocide memorial day; and, third, support Bill C-287 to ensure that all development assistance sent from Canada to Afghanistan is contributing to the peace and security of the region for all peoples.

At this point, Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the committee once more for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today.

My thanks also go to the three highly distinguished individuals representing our association. We have with us Dr. Melissa Kerr Chiovenda, assistant professor of anthropology, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and Dr. William Maley, emeritus professor of diplomacy at the Australian National University.

We also have Dr. Niamatullah Ibrahimi, lecturer in international relations at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Human Rights

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

Mr. Speaker, I only have five petitions to table today.

Canada has spent a great deal of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. The first petition I am tabling highlights the situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan regarding historical violence and the ongoing violence and persecution the community faces. The petition identifies a terrible genocide that took place at the end of the 19th century, and identifies more recent acts of violence, such as a horrific attack on a maternity ward in May 2020 and targeted attacks in Behsud, Jabrayil and Jalalabad in the earlier part of this year.

Over 150 Canadian men and women have lost their lives in the fight in Afghanistan, so Canada has a close relationship with Afghanistan. Canadians feel a deep desire to advance justice and human rights there.

Therefore, the petitioners call on the House to formally recognize the ethnic cleansing perpetrated between 1891 to 1893 against the Hazaras as a genocide, to designate September 25 as Hazara genocide memorial day and to support Bill C-287, which seeks to ensure that all development assistance contributes to peace and security when it is being disbursed.

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

Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the human rights situation of the Hazaras, and in particular the historical violence that has been experienced by the Hazara community, with various acts of genocide and other acts of violence. This is the indigenous community in Afghanistan.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to formally recognize the ethnic cleansing perpetrated against the Hazaras between 1891 and 1893 as a genocide, to designate September 25 as the Hazara genocide memorial day and to support Bill C-287 to ensure that all development assistance sent from Canada to Afghanistan is contributing to the peace and security of the region for all peoples.

Official Development Assistance Accountability Act

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

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-287, An Act to amend the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act.

Madam Speaker, hostile actors, most notably the Chinese state, are trying to use the good name of international development to advance neo-colonial objectives and undermine international peace and security. Tragically, we see a repeat of the kind of 19th-century colonial tactics that were used by powers in Europe being used in the 21st century by the Chinese state: Debt-trap diplomacy exploits economic vulnerabilities in the developing world to try to exert control and undermine peace and security.

Canada should take a stand against this 21st-century neo-colonialism. We cannot always stop it, but we can refuse to be complicit in it. Unfortunately, the government is funding, through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, aspects of this Chinese state neo-colonial policy. My private member's bill would amend the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, the legal framework governing foreign aid, to ensure that Canadian aid dollars cannot ever be used to advance the interests of hostile powers or to undermine international peace and security.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)