The obstruction on the committee of studying and looking at the Liberal bail system, which, as we have talked about over and over again tonight, is not seen as a priority.... In fact, it's odd to me that Liberals would stand in the House and talk about the obstruction of their own Liberal bail laws while obstructing their own legislation at committee.
We'll start from the beginning. We learned last week about a secret deal between the Liberals and the Bloc to eliminate the obvious safeguards that we've had in this country for a number of years, for a number of decades, regarding the expression of religious freedom. When we come to Parliament, I think if we grew up in the background that many of us grew up in, in communities.... I was raised by my community and, indeed, by my family, who moved to this country so they didn't have to practise religion behind a curtain and light candles under floorboards, which is dangerous but obviously what they would have had to do in the Soviet Union to be able to practise freely.
I have to say that over the better part of the last two and a half years, we've seen, particularly in the community I represent and come from, an explosion of anti-Semitism. We've seen gunshots at schools. We've seen firebombings at businesses and protests on a weekly basis in residential neighbourhoods. This is what this is predicated on trying to solve. The problem is that Bill C-9 doesn't do any of that and wouldn't stop any of that.
It is sad that trying to convince a community coming in at the eleventh hour.... Remember that when Bill C-9 was introduced, it was a day after the government recognized the Palestinian state. That's exactly why Bill C-9 had an announcement when it did, which is shameful in its own right, to try to distract from the absolutely vitriolic relationship that this government has created with the Jewish community and a long-standing democratic ally. That's why Bill C-9 was introduced.
Particularly on this amendment, there is no reason that anybody should come here to fight on behalf of their community, fight the scourge of anti-Semitism in the community, fight what's going on in the streets and fight what's going on in schools, in universities, in every institution, in labour unions, in our university faculty clubs and in police forces themselves if they don't do it on the basis of something they believe in. Taking away the right to believe that is a very big problem in the country.
I don't think anybody would fight the fight that our party, our leader and I have been fighting for the better part of two years if they didn't do it from a place of deep religious belief. This isn't about a state or conflict on the other side of the world. It is rooted in the value of Torah and religious scripture—not necessarily if you're Jewish but if you're Christian, if you're Muslim, if you're Hindu or if you're Sikh. If you're not fighting for the things you believe in, not fighting on the basis of that and not fighting to protect them, then there's no point of doing any of this at all.
That's why I think Mr. Lawton's amendment is important. What I don't understand is how it could be interpreted as anything other than the protection of the freedom to believe what you want to believe, because none of what has been expressed by either the Bloc or the Liberals, who have aligned themselves with the Bloc and who used to stand up against this stuff.... None of what they have said would be prosecuted would have been prosecuted.
This was already against the law. We see it in communities over and over again, on every weekend and after every weekend, and I'm oftentimes the only one to stand up and denounce it, and at great peril. It's because I believe fundamentally that you should be able to practise your religion in this country. You should be able to hear your religion preached. You should be able to teach it in school, because it is a fundamental value in fighting for the things we fight for.
My background is not dissimilar to the background of so many other Canadians. My parents came here from the former Soviet Union. My father was an uncredentialed engineer. He drove a taxi and put my mom through school, and in one generation we went from the front seat of a taxi to the front row of Parliament Hill. That can only happen here.
One of the fundamental reasons they moved here was so they could be who they wanted to be and practise the religion they wanted to practise out in the open. They weren't relegated to a corner. Jews in the Soviet Union were subjugated to punishment or much worse throughout history. They came here for one of those freedoms. They came here to be able to raise their children the way they wanted to, to be able to stand up for what they believed in and to be able to have that protected in law.
To watch the party that once believed in all of those things line up with the Bloc and put all of that in jeopardy, you have to wonder if saying anything at all against hate in this country is ever going to be worth it with members opposite in this committee.
We've said these things. We've defended communities at great peril to our own safety and to the safety of our families, and I think all of that is worth it because it's predicated on the fact that we are protecting the fundamental freedom to believe what we want to believe in this country. I don't have to believe what everybody else believes and nobody has to believe what I believe, but I believe in the right to protect it, because without that, we lose it all.
I think Mr. Lawton's amendment is critical. It is critical to send a message to all Canadians who have faith—and to those, frankly, who don't—and tell the world and the rest of the G7 and the G20, if you will, that this is a country based on the rule of law, democracy and freedom, the values that we used to hold as shared values. I wouldn't want to think that the last two years of advocacy on behalf of any community, whether it's the community that I come from or any other one that I have stood up for and fought for, are in jeopardy because the Liberals want to make a deal with the Bloc.
I can't imagine that anybody who stood up for their community could support their amendment or would support making a deal to eliminate any of the safeguards that go to the critical centre of the way many of us were raised and the way many of us live in our communities and interact with our communities. If the thought you have when going into a place of worship is to wonder whether what the clergy at the front of the room is saying is criminal or not, I think we have a very big problem in this country.
We will sit here day after day and hour after hour. I have spoken to 50 rabbis today, and I will speak to 50 more before tomorrow is over, and they too will express their concern on this. They too will express the same concerns that all clergy in this country will express on this piece of legislation or on this amendment.
We haven't even gotten to how it all started and the rest of Bill C-9, but for all those watching, particularly in the Jewish community, if you think this legislation will protect you, it will not. It will be used against you. The very same people who purport to protect the community will use this legislation against you. It happened with Bill C-63, and they were wrong on that.
You cannot have freedom in this country when you curtail freedom. You cannot have safety and security for a community if you're going to pick and choose which verses out of which books you're going to defend. I will not stop sitting here, not for a single hour of a single day. My life has changed over the last number of years, and it's for standing up for a community that I believe in. There is no chance that being under 24-hour RCMP protection is ever not going to be worth it.
I will continue to say the things out loud that many of my colleagues and that many in government and far too close to government do not have the courage to say. I will never be silenced from saying them, not by this amendment and not by any piece of legislation that we will ever allow to come through this House.
With that, I am happy to have other colleagues who have come here—who have cancelled all of their plans and who I'm sure are happy to cancel all of the rest—do this. For those who can't do this on Christmas Eve, I am happy to fill that role. I can do it on Christmas Day, and I can do it every other day of the week. I'm happy to sit in for my colleagues, who have stood up for me when this government did not.
Mr. Chair, I'm happy to cede my time to the many other Conservative members who are here fighting for your rights.