Mr. Speaker, our Alberta Conservative family has lost a giant. Manmeet Singh Bhullar was a big man with a big heart.
In what turned out to be one of the last causes he ever took on, Manmeet championed the cause of Afghanistan's increasingly desperate religious minorities. At one time, Afghanistan had around 200,000 Sikhs and Hindus. Today, they number less than 10,000. Security concerns have even prevented some Sikh children from attending school.
The Canadian government can help Afghanistan's religious minorities by creating a special program under section 25 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. This has been done in the past, and communities in Canada are ready to step up if the government takes the necessary steps.
To honour Manmeet, but also because it is the right thing to do, I call on the government to take the necessary steps to help persecuted religious minorities living in Afghanistan.