Mr. Speaker, I was under the impression that the members would use up the whole hour allocated to private members' business, but seeing that nobody else was asking to speak, I had to get up and say a few words. I would first like to thank and congratulate my colleague from Laval Centre for raising this important issue in the House once again.
Unlike what the previous speaker said, however, I believe that it is most important that parliament take a stand on such an issue. Not that we should rewrite history or think we can rewrite history, not that we can rectify history. We simply want to recognize what happened.
As my colleague from Laval Centre was saying, if history is not recognized, it does not exist. There is nothing more dramatic in the collective memory of a people than when the great moments of its history, happy or tragic, are considered as non events, as never having occurred.
I am in a particularly good position to say this. As everybody knows, a short while ago I submitted a motion to the House. No later than last Friday, I have submitted to the House a new motion asking that a tragic moment of our history be recognized.
As my colleague, the member for Laval Centre, mentioned earlier, the Armenian genocide may well seem like a distant even that took place at the gateway to Asia, and therefore it may seem far removed from us and we may not feel that it affects us much, if at all. However, this is not the case. First, many Canadians are of Armenian descent, and by recognizing the Armenian genocide, this in no way reflects badly on Canadians of Turkish descent, since, as my colleague from Laval Centre said, the Republic of Turkey is not responsible for the former empire, the Ottoman empire.
Obviously, we are concerned because of Canadians of Armenian descent. Incidentally, I have the pleasure of employing here on the hill, a Quebecer of Armenian descent. Which goes to prove that each and every one of us in our respective communities is affected by this issue.
As citizens of this planet, which is getting smaller and smaller as a result of globalization and improved communications, we have a responsibility vis-à-vis the history of humanity. We must record these tragic events that did occur, if but to ensure that human memory strives to avoid a recurrence of them.
I will come back for a few moments to a specific issue. I certainly would not want to give the impression that I am trying to branch off the debate on this fundamental issue of the Armenian genocide to another issue that seems just as fundamental. I simply want to indicate how greatly I am affected by the issue brought to our attention by my colleague from Laval Centre.
I am a Quebecer of Acadian descent. I am proud of my roots, but there is another major, fundamental, undeniable historical event, the deportation, which caused the extermination or disappearance--if I can put it that way--of more than half of the Acadian population at the time. This event is still considered to some extent, in the eyes of history, as a non-event.
It is a non-event, because it has never been officially recognized. No one has taken responsibility for this tragedy. In fact, for a long time, Acadians took the blame or felt they had to take the blame for this, as if they we responsible for what they were subjected to in 1755.
To come back to the issue before the House today, I would like to say that we should not suggest, as some people tend to do about the deportation of the Acadians, that there were reasons for such a horrendous event. Nothing can justify the inhuman and degrading experience Armenians had to go through in 1915 and in the following months.
This is the latest attempt to ensure that this parliament, just like the Quebec National Assembly, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and several European parliaments, does what history and fundamental justice require from us, which is to recognize the Armenian genocide for what it was.
Ever since it took office in 1994, the government has used lots of euphemisms to avoid talking about a genocide. Let us find the political courage--which is what our constituents expect from us--to call a spade a spade.
There certainly was a tragedy, a disaster. However, since the definition set out by the government which, as pointed out by my colleague from Laval-Centre, is the exact replica of that definition by the United Nations of what is now called a genocide--because this disaster, this tragedy in light of the definition put forward by the government and the UN actually is a genocide--why do we not call it just that?
Mr. Speaker, I urge you once again to ask unanimous consent to make this motion, brought forward by my colleague from Laval Centre, a votable item.