Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Scarborough Centre. I had an opportunity recently to call the Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the Pontian genocide. The minister said to me that he could not comment as he was not born at that time. Even today the parliamentary secretary to the minister told me to get real. I would like to get real.
I have in my hands the November 1922 issue of National Geographic . There is a picture called “The children of Smyrna” and it states that “This was a photograph taken shortly before the recent holocaust”.
I also have in my hands the November 1925 issue of National Geographic and it states “Dynamiting the walls and buildings along the quay along the Smyrna fire”. On page 558 of the same issue it states “Boat loaded with refugees leaving the railroad pier at Smyrna”. On page 559 it shows American sailors moving refugees on hand tracks to Smyrna. On page 562 it states “Weeding out men for deportation, Smyrna” and on the same page there is a picture of a member of my family. On page 565 it states “Ghouls fishing for bodies after the Smyrna disaster”.
This issue has pictures of people looking for loaves of bread. On page 578 there are people with lists of names looking for people. On page 580 it shows people raiding trucks in order to have bread. On page 587 a picture caption states “Housekeeping in a refugee barrack at Saloniki”.
For my colleague who says I should get real I have to tell her that I was born in one of those shacks because my parents were part of that history. This is not “I wasn't born then”; this is reality.
We have a duty to stand and recognize what happened, not coat it with smooth words. We have a duty to make sure that atrocities like that do not happen again. We sent people to Kosovo and today we are engaged in Afghanistan. What is different from what I see in these pictures from what I see in Afghanistan?
Yes, I will get real. This is why, along with my colleague from Scarborough Centre, I seek unanimous consent to accept this motion to make sure that events like this will not cause people to say I was not born then or it did not happen. We cannot say it was not part of history. It was documented by National Geographic . There was nothing better. Today we depend on CNN . At that time we depended on National Geographic .