Mr. Speaker, the Act Against Slavery was passed in the legislature of Upper Canada on July 9, 1793, making Upper Canada the first British colony to abolish slavery.
John Graves Simcoe, the then lieutenant-governor, had been a long-time abolitionist. When he was a British MP, he described slavery as an offence against Christianity. The British parliament finally abolished slavery in the Empire in 1833.
It is appalling that in 2014 we still have slavery in the world. According to NGOs and media reports, thousands of women and girls in Iraq have been forced into marriage and sexual slavery by Islamic State fighters. An Islamic State document obtained by Iraqi news outlets in October indicates that Yazidi and Christian girls aged 10 to 20 years old are sold for $129, while those aged 1 to 9 years old are sold for $172. This barbaric practice must be stopped.
I applaud our government, along with those of our like-minded allies, for intervening. When the world faces a regime as evil as the Islamic State, we know that doing nothing is not an option.