Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I apologize to Mr. Oliphant for not calling him by his riding name—I'm not familiar with it—but I do not appreciate, Mr. Chair, being told how to feel when I feel deeply personally offended by a comment from the member from Edmonton—Strathcona.
Mr. Chair, again, I don't feel that there is any place for any man or woman on this committee to tell me how I've interpreted something said by another member when from my perspective she has deeply insulted Conservative men generally. I just want to put on the record how very proud I am of the Conservative men in my caucus and, frankly, how very proud I am of Mr. Genuis. There is no one in Parliament who has stood up for religious minorities across the world with the relentlessness and dedication of Mr. Genuis, and I'm very proud to call him my colleague.
On the motion to adjourn, Mr. Chair, I very much agree that Ukraine needs to be the focus—very much. I represent a riding in which at least one in four constituents, if not more, is of Ukrainian descent, and some are very first-generation Ukrainian. I also have in my riding the most folks of Polish descent out of any riding in Canada.
Also, the nephew of a very dear friend of mine was killed within the first couple of weeks of the war on Ukraine. He was 26. As well, a number of family members with relations in my riding have been killed in the war on Ukraine. I represent them when I am in Parliament.
I cannot see anything more important for the foreign affairs committee to be studying or to be focused on than the war on Ukraine right now, how Canada can play a greater role in supporting Ukraine, and further, how we can ensure that we can be reaching out to our allies so that they also provide more resources and more support to Ukraine.
I have to say that I receive a considerable number of comments from my Ukrainian constituents with concerns that the Liberal government is not providing enough defence supplies to Ukraine and that they were very late to the game. I think something that this committee—and the defence committee as well—should clearly be reviewing why it took so long to send military defence. That is consistently a piece of information and feedback that I have received from my Ukrainian constituents. Perhaps the committee would wish to discuss that in its study, or in a future study, so that this mistake is not made in the future and perhaps lives could be saved.
Something I found very personally alarming when the war on Ukraine broke out was from a young member of parliament there. She's my age and she is an opposition MP as well. Her name is Kira Rudik. She shared something on Twitter to the effect that “a few days ago I was a legislator and now I'm fighting for the freedom of my country”. She was photographed with a firearm, a very large firearm. I will never in my life, as long as I live, get that image from her tweet out of my head. It was the most relatable moment that I had felt concerning a war in a country that we call an ally, that we call a friend. To see a woman just like me, who is at her job just like we are right now, and to think that in just a few days you're taking up arms to defend your homeland, I think is possibly one of the most shocking, disturbing and scary things I could think of.
I very much support her and the efforts of women there to stand their ground and to defend their homeland and their sovereignty against an aggressor. Obviously President Zelenskyy and many male leaders in Ukraine are involved in this as well, but I would say that their women are really shining as well.
If we look to the Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, who was 34 years old when she was first elected as the Prime Minister of Finland and is now 37 or 38—very young—and one of the youngest world leaders in the world right now, she is very boldly and very bravely following many decades of neutrality with NATO by putting her country forward to join NATO. They share an extremely long border with Russia.
As a woman politician, to see a young woman who's similar in age to me with that sort of gumption and that bravery to stand up to one of the most intimidating authoritarian figures in modern times is also incredibly inspiring. I very much applaud the Prime Minister of Finland, as well as the Prime Minister of Sweden, for standing up to bullies, so to speak, and pursuing NATO membership.
I very much support the Canadian government in supporting those initiatives from the prime ministers of Finland and Sweden. Also, on our leader, I think she's been very eloquent in putting on the record in the House of Commons, in the chamber, how important it is that Canadians and members of Parliament understand the severity of what's going on.
She said something that I thought.... I remember that when she said it, it gave me goosebumps. She was talking to President Zelenskyy when he came virtually to the chamber. She said to him in her speech, “The kind of leadership that you are showing, sir, is very rare, and it serves as an inspiration to all of us who are elected. You are the leader of Ukraine for such a time as this, and we remain indebted to you.”
I just mentioned Prime Minister Marin and the Swedish prime minister, whose name escapes me at the moment. In looking at many of these leaders, including MP Rudyk, the opposition MP in Ukraine, I continue to think of Canada. Should Canada—God help us—ever face something like this, would I be brave enough to do what the Ukrainians are doing? Would you be brave enough, Mr. Chair? Would our Prime Minister or the leader of the Conservative Party be? I hope so. I think we all hope we would be, but as our leader said, it is extremely rare to see this. I think President Zelenskyy's leadership and bravery will stand the test of time, as he is one of the bravest leaders in the western world in the 21st century.
On the issue of Ukraine and the importance of this committee's ensuring that it focuses on Ukraine, everyone has seen the images. It's so strange to think that one day my constituents are visiting their families in Ukraine—their families are coming here to visit us and they are breaking bread—and then we see what's on Instagram. There are so many videos, and I actually had to stop watching them because of how alarming they were. You see families huddled in bomb shelters, ruined children's hospitals and maternity wards, dead bodies in the streets, women who were raped and people who were shot in the back of the head—absolutely barbaric war practices that I don't think any of us ever anticipated we would be seeing. To think the individuals in Ukraine are related to the constituents I represent.... When I was asked to join the foreign affairs committee today to talk about the importance of this committee's focusing on Ukraine, I willingly took up the opportunity, given how close to home this is for the people I represent.
Again, I think we're seeing the global order shift. That's why foreign affairs, more than almost any other committee, should be extensively studying Ukraine. I would hope to see it study Canada's position in the international order and how it has changed relative to the Russian aggression and that posture, as well as what we're seeing with Finland and Sweden. I think that would likely warrant a committee study, as would how Canada is looking at its Arctic.
At the national security and public safety committee, I put forward a motion of study, which we're addressing right now, to review Canada's ability to defend itself against Russian aggression should the worst happen. Of course, it's highly unlikely, but I think that regardless, our duty as legislators is to ensure that—