Mr. Speaker, once again, I am extremely honoured to have the opportunity to participate in this debate and this discussion in the House of Commons. We are debating a fundamental and extremely important topic. Once again, I would like to thank my colleague from Mississauga—Streetsville for moving this motion and giving us an opportunity to put our thoughts together and have a rational discussion on some tragic events that took place over the course of the 20th century. There was the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, and then the Holodomor, the Holocaust and, more recently, the Rwandan genocide.
This is an important discussion for us to have, and this is an important week to have it. It is no coincidence that we are debating this motion today on April 24. The NDP worked very hard this week to ensure that the debate would be held on or before April 24. Why? April 24 is an important date. One hundred years ago, the interior minister of the Ottoman empire send a fateful telegram that would trigger a series of atrocities and massacres that went on for several years, during which time some 1.5 million Armenians were killed. That was the first time concentration and death camps were used. For the first time in the 20th century, there was a deliberate attempt to exterminate an entire population, to eradicate it from the planet. Fortunately, it failed.
Nevertheless, considerable force was unleashed for the purpose of destroying and killing people simply because of who they were. State resources were used to exterminate a people, a language and a culture from the face of the earth. The people who lost their lives over there are now considered saints and martyrs, as recently confirmed by the Pope. That is significant; it means something. Those people suffered through utterly horrible ordeals, and families were wiped out. People were killed and massacred. There were massive deportations of women and children, who were forced to walk in the desert for weeks. Obviously, they did not survive.
It is important for us to remember this because it must never be used to justify more such atrocities and attempts to exterminate a people. Though not unknown, these events are not well known enough. Remember what Adolf Hitler said when attempting to justify his plan to exterminate the Jewish people from Europe: “Who speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” He was trying to prove that it was okay to kill millions of people because of their identity, their ethnicity, their religion or their language. That is extremely tragic, and people need to know what happened if only to prevent it from ever happening again. Sadly, it did happen again. We have a moral duty to make sure people are informed about and aware of what happened.
Earlier today I attended the rally on Parliament hill with my colleague from Mississauga—Streetsville and thousands of other people who came here today at the invitation of the Armenian National Committee of Canada to mark what happened 100 years ago. I shared a fact. It is not an anecdote, but indeed a fact. There are a few photos on our piano back home. One of the photos is of my wife's great-great-grandfather. He was a photographer. It is a lovely photo. He looks like a very dignified and upstanding man. The photo next to his is of this three oldest children, three sons. We look at those photos every day and we know full well that he and his three sons did not survive what happened in 1915. They were all killed. It is the story of millions of Armenian families. It is no coincidence that today in the Republic of Armenia there are three million people, but the Armenian diaspora represents eight million people.
Naturally, those who survived or were able to escape went to other countries, such as Uruguay, Canada, Australia, France and the United States.
Fortunately, in addition to the three sons who died, this man also had a daughter, who today lives in Paris, and another son. This fifth child went to Greece and also had two children, including a son, Andranig, who came to Canada and had three children: Shant, Gary and Lisa, my wife. We have a young son whom we called Sevan, an Armenian name, to preserve this family tie, history and continuity. It is important for us to proclaim this message about the fight against intolerance, racism and xenophobia. We must work every day, here in Parliament, but especially beyond these walls, to find a way to live a life that is good and congenial and allows us to respect differences by accepting them.
Then, in the 20th century, other tragedies and genocides also occurred. The Holodomor, the Ukranian genocide, is not very well known either. Stalin industrialized the U.S.S.R. on the backs of the people of Ukraine, by stealing and extorting Ukranian wheat and other grains, and then selling them on international markets in order to buy factories that were crumbling, which is what made possible the industrialization of the U.S.S.R. However, he did this on the backs of millions of people who lost their lives. He caused an intentional, deliberate famine, an act of organized crime. This was later repeated with the Holocaust, as we all know. We cannot forget the death camps, the extermination camps and the trains that led Jews to their deaths in furnaces and gas chambers. Six million people died at that time.
In 1994, not all that long ago, we saw the massacre of the Tutsis in Rwanda, when 800,000 people were killed in three and a half months. It is our duty to remember. The Parliament of Canada is the ideal place to reaffirm that we know what happened, that we acknowledge it and that we remember those men, women and children who were killed simply for who they were. We need to do everything in our power to ensure that it never happens again.
That is why the NDP is calling on the Canadian government and Canada to do more with our international treaties on genocide prevention and to punish the government officials responsible for these atrocities. We have already done so. In 2004, Alexa McDonough was one of the sponsors of a motion that was adopted here in the House on the recognition of the Armenian genocide, and we are proud of that. My colleague from Ottawa Centre also tabled a resolution in 2010 to make April 23 the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Mass Atrocities. This is a day to commemorate the victims of all atrocities, including genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and major war crimes.
It is unfortunate to see that these types of crimes are still being committed today. I would also like to point out that even though they are not included in this motion, crimes were committed against the people of Cambodia, where between 1975 and 1979, one in five people in that country went missing or was murdered. That is completely unacceptable and atrocious. War crimes and crimes against humanity are still being committed even today. We need to talk about them, condemn them and take action to stop them and to keep them from happening again.
Today, on behalf of the NDP, I am extremely proud to be in the House with my colleagues to support this motion and to remind everyone of the Armenian genocide in 1915, the Ukrainian genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. We remember. We will never forget, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that this does not happen again.