Mr. Speaker, we rise today in solidarity with the over 200 schoolgirls who, by all accounts, were abducted while they were writing a physics exam. These girls had, we can only hope, a promising future. They represent the future of Africa. We can only imagine the horror they are currently experiencing. Where are they now? What are they going through? I think everyone is deeply concerned about their fate.
We stand in solidarity with these girls, and with those who fortunately managed to escape but who are clearly traumatized by their ordeal. We stand in solidarity with their families and friends, who surely are suffering tremendously and experiencing deep anguish. We stand in solidarity with their families, brothers and sisters. I am thinking especially about their sisters. Not that their brothers are not suffering, because I am sure that they are, but I feel especially for their sisters. We want the several hundred girls who were abducted to come home, we want Canada to help and to continue to lend assistance as the situation evolves, and we want their sisters to go to school.
As my colleague mentioned earlier, we cannot help but think about the Global Partnership for Education, which is doing some amazing and outstanding work. It is set to hold its refinancing conference and has expressed the hope that Canada will substantially increase its contribution to the GPE fund, which makes it possible to provide an education to millions of children around the world. We hope that this happens, considering the young sisters of these unfortunate girls.
However, as was also mentioned earlier, more needs to be done. Schools and education are needed, but this situation needs to be resolved and steps taken to ensure that it does not happen again. Since these tragic events first unfolded, eight more young girls have been abducted. If we want to prevent similar tragedies from happening, there is much we can do. I would first like to quote Malala, who had this to say:
“...if we remain silent then...this will happen more and more and more”.
We must speak out. We must stand up and raise our voices. I must admit that I am rather proud to see this Parliament considering this issue and talking about it today.
We must fight against organizations like Boko Haram. The most important thing is that justice be done. There can be no room for impunity. Far too often impunity is the source of the biggest problems and a recipe for a reoccurence.
We must work on governance, government structures and training. Earlier in his speech, my colleague from Ottawa Centre mentioned, in the context of training, that we should not only send equipment and people immediately, but also help mentor the Nigerian military forces to ensure that the current situation is resolved with the release of all the young girls, without any harm coming to them and without risking an operation that might degenerate and get the young girls in question caught in the crossfire.
There is therefore a lot of technical support, training and assistance that needs to be provided right now. However, in the longer term, we must also think about governance, security systems and the type of support that we can provide to Nigeria, as well as to many other countries, especially the whole of the Sahel.
I would like to reiterate that we hope the current situation will be resolved positively without any of these girls suffering further. To prevent this kind of situation from happening in the future, we must fight with strength and determination for the rights of women and girls. Often when we speak about this issue, we get the impression that we are speaking only about foreign countries and that only developing countries are involved. However, that is not the case. We must fight for the rights of women and girls abroad, of course, but also here in Canada.
In that respect, I would be remiss in failing to mention the 1,200 missing or murdered aboriginal women. We know so very little about them and Canada must do so much more, as we have been told by United Nations experts.
Finally, we must also stop groups such as Boko Haram and so many others from having easy access to weapons of all kinds. Attempts have been made to get funding. Years ago, we established the Kimberley Process to prevent diamonds from being used to fund these groups. My colleague from Ottawa Centre also has a bill on conflict minerals to prevent these minerals from financing such groups. However, it is just as essential to cut off their supply of arms and munitions.
The best tool that the international community has to do this is the Arms Trade Treaty. This evening, I would be remiss if I did not once again ask the government to sign this treaty, which all of our partners have signed, including the United States. Canada is the only country, or nearly the only one, that is still refusing to sign.
These are my words and my hope for the future. My hope for today is that we can finally bring back our girls, because they are all our daughters. We are all in the same situation. We must be able to bring our girls home, safe and sound. Thank you very much.