Mr. Speaker, I am compelled to rise in the House today to speak to and support the motion of the member for Calgary Nose Hill.
This summer, members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration approved holding an emergency meeting for a study on protecting vulnerable groups.
The declaration made by the United Nations Human Rights Council in its report released in June of this year, entitled “'They came to destroy': ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis”, explicitly stating the ongoing crime of genocide being committed, was certainly the impetus for this study.
While the committee had the opportunity to hear about vulnerable groups and internally displaced persons from a number of countries and regions, the testimony regarding the still ongoing situation facing the Yazidi people was nothing short of harrowing.
The Yazidi people follow an ancient religion believed to have been founded in the eleventh century and are a historically misunderstood group. One of the major points of this misunderstanding is Tawsi Melek, the peacock angel. The reverence for the peacock angel, a fallen but forgiven angel, has led them to be misconstrued throughout history as “devil worshippers”. Tragically, this gross misunderstanding has led to the Yazidi people being subjected to more than 70 genocidal massacres since the 18th century.
Today, the most recent attempt to exterminate the Yazidi people is happening before our eyes.
The UN Human Rights Council report and individuals appearing at the citizenship committee have provided heart-wrenching details of the crimes against humanity being perpetrated against these innocent people. To quote the UN report:
ISIS has sought to destroy the Yazidis through killings; sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily and mental harm; the infliction of conditions of life that bring about a slow death; the imposition of measures to prevent Yazidi children from being born, including forced conversion of adults, the separation of Yazidi men and women, and mental trauma; and the transfer of Yazidi children from their own families and placing them with ISIS fighters, thereby cutting them off from beliefs and practices of their own religious community, and erasing their identity as Yazidis.
After the release of this report, the Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered a statement in the House of Commons echoing the declaration of genocide against the Yazidis. Unfortunately, despite this recognition and Canada's historic key role in the establishment of the international doctrine, “responsibility to protect”, the government has thus far failed to take any concrete and direct action to provide humanitarian assistance to the Yazidi people.
This report in turn served as both the impetus and foundation for an urgent, intensive study that was undertaken by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, which took place from July 18 to 20, on immigration measures for the protection of vulnerable groups.
The committee had the opportunity to hear first-hand accounts from both survivors of trauma and those working on the ground to extract vulnerable people from suffering.
We received many thoughtful recommendations from individuals and organizations on how Canada can best position itself as a world leader in addressing the extreme suffering facing vulnerable people in the world today.
As a result of our committee's study, I had the privilege of meeting Ms. Nadia Murad, both through her appearance at committee and in a separate meeting.
Ms. Murad is a Yazidi genocide survivor. Her strength, resilience, and dedication to her people after facing such incredible atrocities, which attempted to strip away her humanity, are nothing short of astounding.
Ms. Murad was enjoying her summer vacation from school when ISIS attacked her peaceful village in Sinjar. She was preparing to enter grade six and focus on getting good grades. Horrifically, the next time she was at school was a moment she will never forget. As she explained to our committee:
I was in the village, along with more than 1,700 individuals, and we were seized for two weeks under the control of ISIL. We asked for help from all sides because we knew that our destiny would be for the men to be killed and for the women and children to be taken hostage. We asked for help, but unfortunately we did not get help. On August 15, they gathered us at the village school, they separated the men from the women. They killed our men. More than 700 men in a matter of two hours were killed in the village of Kocho. We saw our fathers, our brothers, and our sons getting killed at the outskirts of the village.
The atrocities did not stop there. Ms. Murad detailed what she and thousands of other Yazidi women and girls were subjected to. She said:
When they took us, the girls and children, we were not simply held prisoners, but they committed crimes against us. They forced us to change our religion. They raped us. They sold us. They leased us. This continues today against more than 3,000 women and children in Iraq and Syria.
In a show of unbelievable resilience, Ms. Murad was eventually able to escape ISIS enslavement. During our committee's study, I stated that this study was perhaps one of the most important moments of the work that we would do here at this committee, so for that reason, we needed to focus on solutions.
While much of the testimony we heard was of tragedy, the atrocities committed, the cataloguing of mass graves, and the discrimination that Yazidi people can still face, even within a refugee camp, we did hear that not only were there ways Canada could help, but these actions were already being taken by some countries.
Mr. Murad Ismael, the executive director of Yazda, spoke to the committee about the decision made by Germany. The German government acted quickly, formed a committee that was sent to Iraq, and engaged in an expedited process to bring 1,100 Yazidi women and children to Germany within a few months. Mr. Murad also informed us about project Yazda, which has been working with the Australian government to resettle Yazidis. We were further informed that they have registered about 200 people and believe about 300 in total will be resettled in Australia. Understanding the gravity of the situation, the Australian government bypassed the UN system, bringing these people directly to asylum in Australia.
Mr. Murad stated that his organization alone has a detailed database of 900 Yazidi women and children who have gone through similar atrocities and traumas as Ms. Murad, of which 600 are still in Iraq. Additionally, Mr. Mirza Ismail, from Yezidi Human Rights Organization International, noted that “In total there are about 3,363 Yazidi refugees in Greece”. There are also thousands currently in the Turkish camps.
Precious time has already passed since the summer when the committee met on an urgent basis. Action needs to be taken now. I implore all members of the House to recognize what we are talking about in this motion. It is genocide, and as Canadians we have a duty to act. Protecting human lives in the face of genocide is not something that should be done if it happens to fit within our “immigration levels plan”. This is an exceptional situation that requires exceptional action.
I laid out in my letter to the minister, as well as in my supplementary report for the summer's committee study, a series of recommendations for immediate action that can be taken. One such recommendation is included in this motion: to immediately act on the UN report's recommendations 210, 212, and 213.
I would like to quote Ms. Murad's committee testimony. She said:
When I was besieged I heard that thousands of girls had been taken as hostages. I thought, well, maybe they would take me as a hostage, and perhaps I would try to reason with them, try to convince them that I am a human being, that I have done nothing to deserve to be raped, to be sold for nothing. I thought I would try to reason with ISIL because they are human beings, but when they took me away they did not give me any chance to say anything, to say that I was a young girl, that I had the right to live. When ISIL did not give me the chance, did not want to hear from me, I said I was going to talk to the world, and the world would understand me. For more than six months I went to more than 17 countries, talking to presidents, to parliamentarians, and other people, and saying, “Listen up, we're talking about girls who are being raped in the jails of ISIL, people who are dying of starvation in the camps, thousands of children who have been deprived of education.” And they were just simply silent, quiet about it, quiet about our right as Yazidis.
If Canada is back, Canada cannot be simply silent. Canada must match its words with action. I implore all members of the House to support this motion.