Canada has a long history of being a leader when it comes to the principles of human rights, democracy and decency, and it should not forsake those principles for expediency, trade or pragmatism.
We heard earlier in this session from an honourable member whose family was involved in the Dutch resistance. It's to Canada's credit that thousands of Canadian servicemen are honoured every year. Candles are lit every Christmas Eve to honour the Canadians who defeated Hitler.
Canada has a great legacy when it comes to defeating evil and standing up for human rights. Indeed, John Humphrey was mentioned in this session. He was a Canadian law professor I knew at McGill University who helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
When our leaders go to meet the leaders of China and Qatar and send them a signal that Canada is going to kowtow to the powers that be, that's wrong.
We heard from an honourable member that Canada does not support Iran in its leadership positions, but actually, Canada did support it. Canada joined the consensus on April 8 to nominate Iran. Canada joined the consensus to elect China to the United Nations Committee on NGOs. This committee oversees the work of human rights groups. Thousands of accredited human rights groups around the world have to answer to the UN Committee on NGOs. There are only 19 members, and Canada joined the consensus to elect China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Sudan, which, as we heard before, is a place where mass rape is taking place.
It's not enough for Canada to go along to get along at UN bodies. It's not enough for Canada to go to Beijing and shake hands with dictators and say we have to be pragmatic. Canada cannot abandon its leadership role.
There are concrete steps that Canada could take to help human rights defenders. You need to give them a platform. Don't give a platform to Beijing. Give a platform to those who are defying Beijing. Amplify their voices in Parliament and internationally. We need to impose real costs on the oppressors. We need to use Magnitsky sanctions, visa bans and legal tools to target officials who are responsible for oppression, including the Chinese intimidation of Canadians, which is widespread, and the Iranian IRGC.... There are hundreds of them, allegedly, on the streets of Canada.
We need to be consistent. Human rights can't be selective. We can't turn a blind eye to our Uyghurs, who are subjected.... One million Uyghurs have been put into camps and had their beards cut off to erase their religion and their culture. If we're not consistent on human rights, then we lose our credibility, and credibility is protection for dissidents.
Thank you, honourable member.