Evidence of meeting #124 for National Defence in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was evacuation.
A recording is available from Parliament.
November 5th, 2024 / 5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Minister, welcome to the committee.
Earlier, you offered to read the letter you received from the MPs of multiple parties.
Can you read that for us? I think it's important to get it on the record and hear what those members had to say at the time.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Absolutely. Thank you.
It's about a page and a half long. I will mention a key portion that I did want to discuss.
Twenty-five members of Parliament wrote:
On March 25, 2020, ISIS-K terrorists attacked Gurdwara Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib in Kabul and murdered 25 Sikhs, including four-year-old Tania Kaur. At the funeral for the victims of this attack, a second attack was initiated involving the detonation of an explosive device. Earlier, in July 2018, the senior leadership of the Sikh Afghan communities was assassinated in a suicide bombing that took 19 lives in Jalalabad. In June 2020, an Afghan Sikh, Nidan Singh Sachdeva, was abducted from a gurdwara and tortured for weeks. That was followed on July 17 by the abduction of 13-year-old Salmeet Kaur who was kidnapped from a Kabul gurdwara where she was living with her blind mother and younger brother. Salmeet's father was killed in the March attack. ISIS-K has sworn to exterminate all Afghan Sikhs and Hindus if they do not leave Afghanistan.
I'll jump down a bit, to where it states:
Without internal flight options, international resettlement has become the only viable solution for Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. In light of the immediate threat faced by these communities, we urge you to create a special program for Afghan Sikh and Hindu refugees under 25.2 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, so that they can be brought to safety in Canada.
It goes on a bit and is signed by members of Parliament, the majority from the Conservative Party of Canada. It also includes members from the NDP and the Green Party. I will also note that the former minister of defence, Peter MacKay, signed it as well. What they're getting at here is that this was going....
The date of this letter was a year prior. Advocacy work had been taking place for some time by all parties here. The then minister of immigration added this, because members of Parliament wanted this added. Once it was added, it was my job to execute the government policy. That's exactly what I did.
I used to answer these questions about who I am 20 years ago. It was disturbing at that time. However, one thing I reflected on was that, when there are questions like this, address them. That's why I appreciate this opportunity to clarify what actually took place. Sometimes we forget that, in all of our advocacy. There is work happening among different groups.
I'll be honest with you. I didn't even realize that the 25 MPs.... I was focused on other work, but there were MPs working with NGOs all over, creating a policy within government. It shows that the work of members of Parliament actually has an impact.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Does it surprise you that no members of the Bloc asked you for the same?
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
It's disappointing, but I will also say, in fairness, that, when I was the minister of international development, they supported vulnerable groups in many other places.
I was more disappointed that.... The information about the government policy is for all members of Parliament to see. The statement I provided earlier had the information clearly stated. This was government policy, and I was executing government policy at that time.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
It's a bit of a coincidence that the motion that brought you here to the committee today is from the party that didn't sign the letter.
Liberal
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
For sure.
For the benefit of the committee, can you read the names of the people who signed?
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Excuse my pronunciation of some of the names.
They are Ziad Aboultaif, Kenny Chiu, Todd Doherty, the Honourable Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Garnett Genuis, Tracy Gray, Jasraj Singh Hallan, Tamara Jansen, Erin O'Toole, Brad Redekopp, Jag Sahota, the Honourable Tim Uppal, Karen Vecchio, Arnold Viersen, Brad Vis, Cathay Wagantall, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Matt Green, Leah Gazan, Jack Harris, Lindsay Mathyssen, Brian Masse, Peter Julian, Elizabeth May, Paul Manly and Jenica Atwin, when she was part of the group.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you.
That brings our session to a close.
I want to thank the minister for his appearance here today and for offering his clarification of the story.
Colleagues, we're going to suspend for a moment while the minister leaves, and then we will go in camera. We will then resume our deliberations.
With that, we are suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]