I'm a father of a beautiful young girl, and I hope she will grow up to be a very strong woman like yourself, Madam, and will have a role to play in Canada. I want her to be that. I want her to be a free and brave woman. But I wouldn't like to see what has happened to a woman who wanted to be brave and like any other Canadian; she was strangulated—Aqsa Parvez. She just wanted to be a Canadian woman.
Every aspect of what is Canada was ignored for Aqsa Parvez, was ignored for the girls in the Shafia family, and there are innumerable such things. That is the fundamental contradiction that we have brought upon ourselves. We have contorted our society. The Europeans are now facing up to it, and some of us will have to face up to it. Maybe you members are reluctant to face up to it for all sorts of political considerations.
Some of us have to speak out. Ironically, as a Muslim I'm speaking out here, reminding you that this is a deep struggle that is going on. This is a 1,400-year struggle. When you tell me that this is not about Islam or about Muslim...that it's simply about resources, well, that's a patchwork answer. Yes, we have symptoms; it's like an illness. You have to deal with it with aspirin or with other medication. So you have to have resource centres, but that doesn't answer the fundamental problem that we are importing into our country.
I only raise the issue of Islam, but there are all sorts of other issues.