Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The war in Gaza has been a very important topic, and the community has been going through a lot in the last 16 months. For over 400 days, we have seen the suffering of the people in Gaza. We have seen international reports on this as well.
I represent a big Muslim community, especially a big Lebanese community, and I've been hearing stories of the people in Gaza. So many people in Canada have lost 15, 16, or 20 family members on average—their loved ones. It is very important to make sure we have programs through which they can bring extended family members out of Gaza and here to Canada. Many of our constituents are living by the phone just to hear from their loved ones—their parents, brothers and sisters.
We have been hearing about the issue that Israel is not letting people leave Gaza even if the Canadian government puts them on a list. I have a family living in my riding that had family members on the exit list. They came to Rafah, but the 16-year-old boy was not allowed to leave with his mother and sisters.
Initially, the mother was not willing to leave the child and come here, but with insistence by her husband, who is living in my riding, the mother crossed the border with her daughters. The 16-year-old boy was then sent back, although he was on the list provided by the Canadian government. When that child went back to his home with his older siblings—because they were over the age of 21 and were not counted as dependants—that same night there was a bomb blast in the building. That constituent of mine lost his 24-year-old daughter, who was a doctor, leaving behind two toddlers.
In the same bomb blast, my constituent's two sons, who were over the age of 21, were seriously injured, along with their wives. One of his daughters-in-law's legs were burned. The child who was not allowed to leave had serious injuries, life-threatening injuries, and lived in the hospital for many weeks. There was no care available for him, and he had to be transferred to Cairo for treatment.
These are the types of horror stories we have been hearing about from constituents. My constituent had to get custody of his two grandchildren, whose mother died in that bomb blast. These are the horrors our constituents are living every day, and they have been living them for over 400 days.
Many of our constituents were not allowed to get their mothers and siblings on the exit list because they are not considered immediate family. Based on Canadian law, only spouses and children under the age of 21 are considered immediate family. These are the parents and siblings of our constituents, and I think we need to make a serious effort to make sure we reunite these families. There have been a lot of challenges crossing the Rafah border and people have been paying money at the border—