Debates of Oct. 20th, 2016

Opposition Motion—Genocide Against the Yazidi people

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his speech, and the thoughtfulness with which he held himself today.

However, I did notice the member's response to the last question. He said we cannot act alone, and I understand that. What we do know, if we look across the world right now, is that Australia and Germany have created a very special program that is helping to get these young women into their countries and protecting them.

If we have a model out there that we can look at, not acting alone but looking at best practices, could we not see the current government take the initiative, work with those, and get those young people here and protected in Canada?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I believe the hon. member heard today from the Minister of Immigration that Canada just returned from a mission in the area, and is examining the possibilities, obviously looking at best practices.

I am not privy to the confidential discussions, but I have been given assurances that our intervention in this respect has been accrued. I hope to see concrete results within the timeline, at least, that we have agreed to in concept over the next 120 days.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his very moving speech.

I think every member of the House agrees that the Yazidis are in a horrible situation.

Could my hon. colleague elaborate on the importance of humanitarian and development assistance, as well as stabilization and security?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question.

Indeed, we have to look not only at our military contribution, which has tripled, but also our humanitarian contribution.

As I said, $3.3 million have been invested in order to bring justice for past crimes, and several million dollars were committed to clear IEDs from the liberated areas. Obviously, this has to be done in concert with the other 65 countries and that is what we are doing.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I begin by once again thanking the member for Calgary Nose Hill for her tireless advocacy on behalf of Nadia Murad, on behalf of the hundreds of Nadia Murads who have escaped Daesh's sexual slavery, and for giving voice to the thousands of women who continue to be enslaved by this genocidal death cult.

I would also like to thank the member and her colleagues for bringing this debate into our House.

All of our days are filled with busyness. However, as busy as we are in our institutions of caretaking and good governance here on the Hill, as much as we attempt to manage and control processes in this place, there will be events that intrude upon us, events that are beyond our control, events that require an immediacy of action by us, and that require hard decisions from us.

These will be decisions which will define us, decisions that carry a moral burden, decisions such as those of military engagement, of war and peace.

However, the most morally demanding of action occurs when confronting the darkest of evils, genocide. Genocide is defined as the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group. The simplicity of its definition is a stark contrast to the horror of its meaning.

It was a term coined and defined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, a Polish Jew born in Vawkavysk, within the bloodlands of eastern Europe, the epicentre of mass killings in Europe's decades of death during the 20th century, where the Holodomor occurred during the 1930s, and where the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust took place in the 1940s.

Lemkin later served with a team of Americans working to prepare the Nuremberg trials, where he was able to introduce the word genocide into the indictment against the Nazi leadership when the word genocide was not yet a legal, criminal term.

These last two years, the world has once again faced the horror of genocide. During these last two years, Daesh publicly declared genocide against the peaceful Yazidi people of Syria and Iraq on the Internet, and then the mass murders began.

Genocidal massacres do not pause and wait for international legal processes to make criminal, legal determinations of genocide. I was a member of the Canadian delegation at the United Nations World Summit in 2005 when former Prime Minister Paul Martin stated before the General Assembly:

Too often, we have debated the finer points of language while innocent people continue to die. Darfur is only the latest example.

In 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin made clear we could not allow another Darfur to occur. Yet, the Yazidi genocide took place during the last two years as we in the House debated the finer points of language while innocent people continued to die. In the next few days, we will be facing decisions requiring an immediacy of action on behalf of the Yazidi survivors of genocide.

This summer, the citizenship and immigration committee heard testimony from Nadia Murad. Nadia's mother and brothers were murdered by Daesh when they occupied her town, separated, and then slaughtered the men and older women. The younger women and children were horrifically abused and sold into Daesh's sexual slave markets.

This September, during the United Nations World Summit, a decade after former Prime Minister Paul Martin spoke at the World Summit, and the premise of the Responsibility to Protect, R2P, was introduced by Canada, Nadia told the horror of her story before the UN Security Council, the horror of the story of the Yazidi genocide at the hands of Daesh. As the UN Security Council chair noted at the conclusion of Nadia's testimony, it was the first time in its history that the Security Council had given a speaker an ovation.

Nadia's strength is inspirational and needs to be applauded. However, the clapping of hands is not a substitute for concrete action.

Yazidi genocide survivors and many of the women who escaped Daesh's sexual slavery are currently languishing in IDP camps, internally displaced persons camps, and refugee camps, where they often continue to suffer discrimination and abuse as members of a religious minority. However, they also face an even harsher reality, as Nadia stated during our committee hearings in early July three months ago, Yazidi women have no home to return to.

How can women whose villages have been razed, whose families have been massacred, whose neighbours stood aside, or worse, as they were chained and taken to Daesh's sex-slave markets, return to villages that no longer physically exist, to face neighbours complicit in their horror?

Every year on the Hill, we memorialize the Armenian Genocide, the Holodomor, the Holocaust, and solemnly pledge and declare, “Never again”. Yet, Rwanda happened, Srebrenica happened, Darfur happened, and in the last two years, the Yazidi genocide happened.

We cannot predict what will happen in three years time when our elected mandate comes to an end. However, we can all agree that each and every one in this House will have changed during our time in this place. In those moments of quiet reflection three years hence, will each of us individually be able to say, “I passed the test”, or will some of us look back and say, “What happened to me”?

To my colleagues of all parties in this House, this is the institution where the great debates of the day can take place, which can lead us collectively to find unity in motions that arrive at decisions of great moral imperative and immediacy.

Surely, for the sake of the Yazidi genocide survivors, we can rise above partisanship and the splitting of hairs on the finer points of language and details.

One evening, after last summer's hearings into the Yazidi genocide, I brought Nadia into this chamber, with only the security personnel present. In fact, I invited her to sit in your chair, Mr. Speaker. As she looked out into the magnificence of this chamber, she seemed unsure. Perhaps she was thinking of where she had been a year prior, and where she found herself that summer evening.

As she looked out, I said to her, “Nadia, I'm sure that one day the child or grandchild of a Yazidi genocide survivor will stand in this place as an elected member of Canada's House of Commons and reaffirm humanity's pledge of “Never again”. I believe I saw a tear in her eye.

Let us reach out with a Canadian helping hand, as has Germany, and bring a group of these genocide survivors to the sanctuary of Canada. Let us begin the process of restoring their shattered lives.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his thoughtful presentation. Given every word that he said, it has to be difficult for him to be sitting here almost without a voice, because over the last year, the government could have acted. It could have done something.

I read a news article saying that 19 Yazidi girls were chained in a cage and burned alive because they would not have sex with ISIS militants. His presentation is exactly what Conservatives have been saying: action needs to take place now. It is one thing to be clapping and saying all the right things, but we need action now.

Given what my hon. colleague has just said, how is he going to vote on the motion? He said all the right things. Is he willing to stand behind them and put action to his words?

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member stated that we on this side are almost without a voice, in his words. In fact, we all have a voice. We all have the opportunity to voice our beliefs and concerns, especially on issues of this nature.

I began my speech by referencing the good work of the member for Calgary Nose Hill. I believe that, collectively, we have a responsibility to find a way to put forward a motion that brings all of us together. We can set our partisanship aside. This is the moment to do that. Pointing fingers at one side or the other does not help in that process. I absolutely believe that it is within our capacity to do what is right for the Yazidi genocide survivors.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on my colleague's question. I would like the member opposite to explain what it is he objects to. The amendment says:

(c) support recommendations found in the June 15, 2016, report issued by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria entitled, “They came to destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis”; and (d) call on the government to (i) take immediate action upon all the recommendations found in sections 210, 212, and 213 of the said report, (ii) provide asylum to Yazidi women and girls within 120 days.

He seemed to indicate there was some sort of partisan or political interest in the motion and I am wondering if he can point out what that might be.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member well understands, debating the precise words and trying to parse which words would work in a motion that would allow us to do what is right on this motion is not the way to do it. We need the House leaders to come together and arrive at that decision. My understanding is that we were very close. I believe we still have an opportunity to arrive at a motion that would allow us, as I said in my speech, three years hence, to look back in quiet reflection and say we rose to the occasion and we were able to do the right thing.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, before I begin my speech, I will be sharing my time with the member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.

I would like to recognize the fact that Nadia Murad is going to be arriving in Ottawa sometime later today and will be staying in the area for the next four to five days. We certainly want to thank her for taking the time to join us here in Ottawa.

I know it has been said before, and I want to repeat it because I think it is important. Nadia is a Yazidi woman who was captured by ISIS, endured unimaginable horrors, and by the grace of God escaped. She has told her story repeatedly around the world, hoping that decision-makers will listen and act to help the Yazidi community in Iraq and Syria.

The plight of the Yazidis is very real and extremely devastating. Even though Canada is thousands of miles away, I believe that as a country we have a moral obligation and responsibility to speak up for this vulnerable community as they endure systematic extermination at the hands of the murderous ISIS terrorists. ISIS, the so-called Islamic State, located in parts of Iraq and Syria, has been one of the most, if not the most, talked about global issue for the last number of years.

Many victims of ISIS atrocities have come forward and told their horrific stories. The horrors ISIS members have inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including Nadia will long be remembered. These events will be painfully added to the list of genocides of modern times. We see clear evidence and listen to personal accounts of genocide, systematic rape, sexual slavery, beatings, and mass graves inflicted upon the Yazidi people.

How is Canada helping the Yazidis? We say we are monitoring the situation and we are sending people on fact-finding missions. However, it is really not a difficult situation to grasp. The Yazidis are dying at the hands of ISIS barbarians and Canada must start playing its part, and not just through monetary aid that may or may not help Yazidis directly.

Canada needs to step up and bring more Yazidis here for safety. Given the circumstances, this needs to happen now. It has already been proven that ISIS terrorists have been deliberately and systematically targeting the Yazidi people. It is not up for debate. It is actually a fact.

In August 2014, ISIS invaded the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, home to the majority of the world's Yazidis. They are a community that is thousands of years old, with its own beliefs and practices. For having a different set of beliefs and practices, along with a different religion, ISIS began systematically killing, raping, enslaving, and forcibly displacing Yazidis.

As a religious minority in the region, Yazidis were, and are still, caught in the struggle to survive ISIS brutality. Estimates say that at least 5,000 Yazidis have been massacred, and 3,200 women and children are still being held captive by ISIS. Sexual slavery is the most common role for the captured Yazidi women.

ISIS barbarians pay no regard to whether the women are married, unmarried, or have children or no children. Just to paint a picture, because it is absolutely necessary to expose ISIS, these murderous terrorists sell Yazidi women and girls in slave markets like cattle. It is unbelievable what has happened there. Sometimes ISIS fighters buy a group of Yazidi females, take them into rural areas that do not have a slave market, and sell them individually at higher prices. It is unimaginable that something like this is possible in 2016.

The Yazidis have suffered and continue to suffer immense physical and psychological torture. That is also not up for debate. It is also a fact. If they attempt to escape, the punishments are severe and extreme, including brutal beatings and sometimes execution.

There are far too many stories of horrific atrocities committed against the Yazidi people, things that we could never even fathom happening here in Canada. Personal accounts like that of a 16-year-old girl, which I know was mentioned by other members of the opposition and government members, who spent seven months as a sex slave to an ISIS fighter and was forced to watch them behead fellow Yazidis. There is the story of a Yazidi woman held for 16 months and sold three times, who then asked her captor about her children. She asked, “What did you do to them?” To which he replied, “They are kafir”, meaning non-Muslim children, “It is good they are dead. Why are you crying for them?”

There are far too many heart-wrenching accounts of Yazidi women in ISIS captivity: Yazidi women scratching and bloodying themselves to make themselves more unattractive to prevent potential ISIS buyers, Yazidi women committing suicide in ISIS holding sites, Yazidi women and girls committing suicide by cutting their wrists and throats, while others are hanging themselves with their head scarves. Many of these accounts are detailed in the report of the UN commission on the inquiry into Syria.

The report makes it unequivocally clear that, “ISIS has committed the crime of genocide as well as multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis”.

The Yazidi community is still under threat of extermination by ISIS, especially now that ISIS is getting desperate and fighting for its own survival. Improving conditions and saving Yazidi lives must be made a priority for Canada now and into the future. Canada must play its part. We cannot turn a blind eye to the situation. History will not be kind to us if we do nothing for the Yazidis.

The government recently announced it will contribute $200 million in foreign aid and that aid will go to the Government of Iraq for economic reforms. These funds are important and critical for security and stability; I understand that. However, it is hard to see how this money will actually help the devastation and desperation of the Yazidi people. The government has said very little regarding bringing more Yazidi refugees to Canada and at this point the only thing that it has done is send a team on a fact-finding mission, which actually returned yesterday, to confirm what we already know, that the Yazidis suffer genocide and that they are in desperate need of help.

So far the government seems to be in full support or willing to comply with everything the UN asked for, so why is it not acting on the UN report recommendations to “Accelerate the asylum applications of Yazidi victims of genocide” and “Put in place a protocol for the care and treatment of Yazidis”? These recommendations are not asking Canada to put money in the hands of Iraqi government officials and hope for the best thereafter. The recommendations are clearly asking for direct aid, direct help, and direct involvement in bringing Yazidis to safety.

That is why I call on the government to support the recommendations found in the June 15, 2016, report issued by the United Nations commission on the inquiry in Syria. In terms of humanitarian aid, I am not sure if the government really thought through the $200-million plan to help Iraqi economic reforms, when that $200 million or maybe even part of that could have gone toward helping the community that is under constant threat, desperately in need of aid, and systematically being massacred.

It is safe to say that the majority of Canadians would agree with this. I am also not sure if the Liberals really thought through their decision to vote down our motion in June of this year. The motion urged the government to take action on the ongoing genocide Yazidis are facing by recognizing the crimes against Yazidis as genocide. The motion was non-partisan in nature and it was supported by the NDP. Two days following the vote, the UN proclaimed what we already knew, that the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria were facing systematic extermination. The UN named these crimes against Yazidis for what they were, genocide. Only then did the government choose to call it a genocide.

Nadia testified in front of our Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration this summer. She said, “After I was freed, I thought that the world would bring justice to us, that the world would be fair to us. But still nothing has happened.” These are chilling words that paint a very real picture. The world needs to do more to protect the Yazidi people, so let us start right here at home.

Let us review the selection process used by the United Nations to identify refugees for the government-sponsored refugee stream and encourage changes if we think changes are necessary. The system can be improved upon to help Yazidis come to Canada faster and in larger numbers. After all, those who have suffered genocide are the Yazidis; therefore, it makes perfect sense to prioritize them for asylum in Canada.

The citizenship and immigration committee heard many concerns about lengthy, sometimes more than five-year waits given to the Yazidi victims of genocide by the UNHCR for refugee selection appointments. Many victims of genocide are unable to stay in refugee camps. This happens due to financial concerns and worries that they will be revictimized in camps. Revictimized once again because of who they are, Yazidis.

The committee also heard another disappointing fact, the fact of discrimination against Yazidis by UN representatives in the UN refugee camps. The sad reality is that very few Yazidis have been recommended for resettlement to Canada and the United Nations. This is the major issue the government must take a closer look at as soon as possible.

This past summer on the steps of Queen's Park, I, along with the hon. members for Thornhill and Calgary Nose Hill, marked the second anniversary of the genocidal attack on the Sinjar region. We called on the government to help the Yazidi people in Iraq and Syria. We now repeat this call and ask the government to once again consider a more focused approach to helping the Yazidis. That includes fully recognizing that ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidi people, acknowledging that many Yazidi women and girls are still being held captive by ISIS as sexual slaves, and providing the House with a viable plan and the corresponding acts required to respond to this humanitarian crisis. Also considering the magnitude of the situation, the government must consider providing asylum for Yazidi women and girls within 120 days.

It is about time this happened and it is without a doubt the right thing to do.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to read something that we had proposed. I would be interested in the member's comment on whether he would support this:

That the House (a) recognize that ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidi people; (b) acknowledge that many Yazidi women and girls are still being held captive by ISIS as sexual slaves; (c) support recommendations found in the June 15, 2016, report issued by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria entitled “They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis”; and (d) call on the government to (i) take action as soon as possible upon all recommendations found in sections 210, 212, and 213 of the said report; (ii) undertake best efforts to provide asylum within 120 days to the victims of ISIS, including the Yazidi people, who experienced rape, torture, prolonged captivity, sexual slavery, and other atrocities.

Would the member, in fact, support something of that nature?

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what I would support is immediate action. I know that all sides of the House would support anything that would bring these women and children here to Canada as quickly as possible. What I would encourage the government to do is to move as quickly as possible, now that the fact-finding mission has taken place, and to act and to move very quickly to bring as many as possible of these young ladies and young children here.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Mr. Speaker, my question for the hon. member would be on the specialized treatment for the Yazidi women and young girls. What would be involved in terms of the specialized training, the preparation, pulling those resources together, as well as translators, so that when they do arrive here, we can adequately help them work through this process?

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would just ask what process was involved when the 25,000 Syrian refugees arrived. As soon as we get them here, I would ask the government to look at language training and all of the things that are required to make sure there is a smooth transition, and I ask that they be afforded the same things that were given when the Syrians arrived here as well.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thought the previous question was well thought out and thoughtful as well. Again, when the government committed to providing for and immediately bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees by December 31, we saw what happened. There were indeed some refugees who were left in hotels and there were services that were not there. So I thought that was a very well-thought-out question.

For the life of him, can my hon. colleague understand why the current government has vacillated, delayed, and taken its time when we know that the atrocities are happening, that young girls are being enslaved, tortured, and raped? For the life of us, why are the Liberals playing politics with the Yazidi women?

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am not 100% sure. I know the concern in the beginning was why the Liberals would not recognize it as a genocide, because it was very clear to all of us in the House that it was actually a genocide that was happening. We are so grateful that they recognized it as a genocide, but it is unfortunate that it took time for them to wait until the UN declared it as such.

We have seen that, when the Liberals want to move refugees very quickly, they have the ability to do that, saying we want to have 25,000. It is a question of will, really, that we are talking about right now. As I said for my colleagues, we ask them to act as quickly as possible because this group is persecuted, this group is under serious threat, and this group needs help, needs help from Canada now.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We have time for one more short question and response.

We are out of time now, actually. I am sorry.

I had spotted another hon. member who was on his feet the last time around, and we had a few seconds left, but considering that I have taken half of that time now doing the explanation, I think we will move on, with due reverence to the hon. parliamentary secretary.

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate the people at home could not see the scramble on the other side, but it seems to be indicative of the scramble on the other side today dealing with this issue.

As my colleague from Niagara West pointed out so eloquently, the government could achieve this motion if it really wanted to. It had set a goal to have 25,000 refugees here in two months. It did not do it well, but it got them here. We know that it could do that again if it wanted to. The Liberals have claimed that this is not a hard thing for them to do. However, I do not think they are interested in pulling this off in the way it needs to be done. I think it is a bit of a demonstration of the cynicism of that first promise when they brought in 25,000 people. It was not about the refugees as much as it was about their trying to do a public relations exercise and get media attention for what they were doing. Certainly, a lot of people ended up spending time in hotels. They were sitting there without language training or job prospects. In fact, a lot of the private sponsorship opportunities that were in place were set aside because the system was jam-full with the government's program.

It is good that we are here. It is unfortunate that we are back here again talking about this issue. This is the third time I have spoken on this subject. We are all familiar with the history of conflict in the area. In 2005, an Iraqi government was appointed. I think there were great hopes for the government at that time. There certainly was hope that the government could bring the people together in the country. Rather than doing that, the Sunnis were excluded and, over time of course, that led to political disenfranchisement, and then eventually to people taking up arms.

ISIS has had a long development out of other jihadist organizations. We do not have time to go into that, but in 2011 it really began to expand and push out because of the deteriorating Iraqi security situation. In 2013, it was kicked out of al-Qaeda and became known as ISIL or ISIS or Daesh, as people have called it.

I think in 2014 the surprise was how quickly ISIS expanded its military capabilities. I do not think anyone expected it was at the level that it was. It began a quick expansion, especially in northern Iraq, and the general population was not prepared to defend the government, which left many people vulnerable to this military excursion. It was quick to capitalize on that and then to take over some of the oil production, which it used around some smuggling and those kinds of things to begin to fund its activities.

In August 2014, which is this sweep that we are talking about, it was able to move into the area around Mosul and Mount Sinjar, and the Yazidi people were directly impacted by that. We have heard a lot this afternoon about the impact on those 700,000 people who were concentrated in northern Iraq. Mount Sinjar for them is not just a place that they go to visit and to take a look at, but it really is holy ground for the Yazidi people. They have been there for a long time, dating back 6,000 years.

Obviously, it took a while for the world to react and to understand, but in June 2016, after we had been calling upon the current government for a couple of months to recognize this as a genocide, which it refused to do, the United Nations finally declared the Yazidis victims of genocide and laid out some recommendations for the international community. As we heard earlier, people in the Yazidi community thought that might make a big difference for them. However, it does not seem to have done that to this point.

Nadia Murad is a young lady who will be with us for the next few days. She is one of the heroes of that time who has been able to come forward and speak about the incredibly horrible experiences and atrocities she had to go through. She talks about how on August 3, 2014, they were living normal lives in their village and all of a sudden that was shattered when Daesh attacked the village and, over the space of 12 days, it was conquered by Daesh. Members of the Daesh gathered the men together, and the estimates are that they killed up to 700 of the men in the village and then took the women and children captive.

We have gone over the resulting consequences of that. I do not think any of us can possibly understand what it means to have the women and children of an entire ethnic group taken, with many killed or sold into slavery and used as sexual slaves. The Syrian Christians were thrown into this as well. It is incredible that people can even come out of that and then speak about the situation that they found themselves in.

More than 500,000 Yazidi people are displaced, with 100,000 of them in UNHCR camps, but many others are not in the camps because they just do not feel comfortable going there.

That ties into the government's refugee resettlement program that it ran earlier.

The government insisted it was not going to consider religious or ethnic characteristics in deciding who it was going to bring here, but instead it went to the UN. As a result of the way it was done and because of the fact that most of the smaller minorities were afraid to be in those camps, the Yazidis were neglected and were not brought here. Only nine Yazidi families have come here in the last two years.

That alone speaks to the disinterest that the Liberal government has in addressing the issue. The Liberals knew about this. We talked about this last February and in June. We pushed them on declaring this a genocide. They cannot pretend they did not know about this. They had all summer and all fall to begin doing something about it, even after the United Nations declared this a genocide. None of that has been done.

So we find ourselves with today's motion. I do not understand how this could be considered unreasonable. The deputy House leader on the other side just came forward with some more wordsmithing and splitting of words. That is the kind of thing the offices of the House leaders are supposed to do. We have a solid motion here, and we are asking the government to support it. There is nothing about this that should be a threat to it in any way.

The motion has been read a few times, but I am going to read it again. It states, “That the House...recognize that ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidi people...”. The United Nations has declared that. We were calling it that long before it did. The government refused to recognize it and was basically forced to by the United Nations declaration.

It goes on, “...acknowledge that many Yazidi women and girls are still being held captive by ISIS as sexual slaves...”. That cannot be argued against, because everyone knows that is the case. Many of those women suffer to this day. Many women have been killed. My colleague from Niagara West gave a couple of examples. Children are being killed indiscriminately.

The motion goes on to ask that we support the recommendations found in the United Nations report on Syria. We all support that. Nobody here expressed that they would not. The motion calls on the government to take action on the recommendations found in that report. No one has spoken out against those today either.

The motion asks the government to provide asylum to Yazidi women and girls within the next four months. That is not a difficult thing for the government to do.

The motion is not a difficult thing for the government to support. If Liberal pride and arrogance will keep them from supporting a motion like this, then I do not know what it would take to get them to consider this issue as seriously as it needs to be considered. We are going to have some of these folks around in the next few days. Maybe they can talk to the Liberals and convince them of the seriousness of this issue.

This continues to go on for the folks who are living under the rule of ISIS. The good news is that ISIS has been pushed back. A fight for Mosul is going on right now.

All most of these people want is to go back to their homes. I was on the foreign affairs committee in the last Parliament, and we talked about this issue numerous times with both Syrian refugees and some of the Yazidi refugees. They told us they want to go home. They told us it is great to come to Canada, but they really want to go home. We need to see over the next few weeks that ISIL is pushed back through Mosul, pushed off Mount Sinjar, and that we can hopefully bring them back to their homes in peace.

I am concerned with the government's response to these things. We could be playing a major role in this battle around Mosul, but instead our jets are on the ground and our troops are supposedly in some sort of training regime. We could have been playing a major role in trying to get the country back for these people so they can go home.

Our immigration system has ignored these people. There is no way that anyone can say that the immigration system has treated these people fairly over the last year.

I am calling on the government to set aside its partisanship, agree that we are right, accept that the motion is valid, and move quickly. I want the government to say that it will give these girls and these women a new home, give them an opportunity to make a new life, and hopefully at some point in the future they will be able to forget most of the horrible activities that have been a part of their lives for the last two years.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there are many wheels within wheels in this issue.

Part of what the member said involved the notion that what these women really want is to regain their homes, in their homeland. In considering the motions, etc., and all of the information from the United Nations, I am wondering if perhaps there is a strategy whereby, rather than bring them all the way over here and then perhaps one day try to replant them back in their homeland, we could find them a safe haven in Iraq. That could help to re-establish them more quickly and more effectively in their homeland, which is where they want to be.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I think the wheels within the wheels are grinding inside the Liberals' heads today in trying to find a way out of supporting this motion. I just said that when the committee hears from refugees, they typically say they want to go home. The reality on the ground around Mosul and Mount Sinjar is that people cannot go home right now. We do not know if they will be able to or when they will be able to. Any one of us who was separated from what we consider to be our homes would just want to get back there.

These ladies need protection. They need asylum. Many of them are in camps. They are not safe in those camps. We are going to hear these stories in the next few days, and I would urge my colleagues opposite to listen carefully to them, because these people are not in safe places. It is not like they are coming from a middle-class existence somewhere in the Middle East to a middle-class existence in Canada. If we bring them here, they are going to need lots of help.

My colleague talked a little earlier about language training, employment prospects, and those kinds of things. Those are the kinds of things the Liberal government should have learned from with its last project. It should be able to deliver those things fairly quickly and effectively for this smaller group of people.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague, who sits with me on the Subcommittee on International Human Rights, for his excellent speech, especially with regard to the increasing role the international community sees as extremely crucial in combatting Daesh, aside from what we call traditional combat.

The hon. member alluded to a very complex problem with regard to refugee camps and the challenges they create. Could he expand a little more on what he thinks is an important role and responsibility Canada could assert in improving conditions in those refugee camps so that people feel safe and secure, whether they are going home or have to flee to a new home?

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, this is a very interesting question. I do not have enough time to address it properly. We had a conversation today at the subcommittee about the United Nations camps in another country. One of the issues is that the really small minority ethnic groups did not feel comfortable going into the camps, because they did not feel that they would experience anything other than the discrimination they had already faced. It left them in a spot where it was hard to identify them as refugees, which then made it difficult for them to get into an immigration stream.

I think the international community needs to do a better job. In many places around the world, women and children are at particular risk, even in the camps, because they do not have the kind of protection they should have. Those are bigger issues than I can address in the next minute, but in this situation, I would say generally that the international community failed to recognize both the Syrian Christian community and the Yazidi community, in particular, and give them the kind of relief they needed.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard some well-thought-out and honest discussion from all sides of the House. I am going to go back to what was said before, which is that it is good that we are having this discussion, but it is time for action now.

We have mentioned these girls and the incredible atrocities they have experienced. Often they are seen as having little value. We have seen it. They cannot go home because of the atrocities that have been done to them. We need to bring them to Canada to give them a safe haven.

We have heard the government say that all the Syrian refugees wanted was a chance. All the Yazidis want is a chance, and Canada can do that. We can and should be doing more.

I would appreciate my hon. colleague's thoughts on what we can do immediately to get these Yazidi girls out of this terrible situation.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the simplest thing we can do is support this motion. This is not a partisan political motion. It is not unrealistic. It is not something the government cannot take seriously. It could implement it within four months. It would be pretty simple for it to take this seriously and provide asylum for these young Yazidi women and girls. They have already been identified. It is not like it is going to be a big challenge for the government to find the first few groups of women, young and old, who could come here and gain asylum in Canada.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Windsor—Tecumseh. I thank her for her work on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. I know that she does very good work.

I want to begin by saying that I support the motion moved by the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill. Obviously, Canada has a moral and legal duty to try to stop the genocide of the Yazidis. After the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, the Canadian government sponsored and took on the responsibility to protect people. I know a lot of people, mainly soldiers who served in Bosnia and Rwanda, who are still deeply affected by what they saw there. When it comes to genocide, we have to do everything in our power to try to stop these situations that leave indelible marks on the victims and on those who eventually step in. We have a responsibility to protect these people so that such horrible things never happen again or at least are stopped as soon as they come to our attention.

In 2016, the Yazidi population was estimated to be around 600,000, 400,000 of whom are in the Sinjar district in Iraq. On June 16, 2016, the UN report entitled “They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes against the Yazidis” concluded that the atrocities committed by Daesh against the Yazidis constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Canadian government finally formally recognized that Daesh is committing genocide against the Yazidis.

A number of colleagues have repeatedly expressed how horrific and unimaginable the extreme violence the Yazidi people have faced has been. We are talking about torture, sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, slow, violent death, separation of families, as well as various means of forced sterilization. What is going over there is absolutely horrible, and no one can deny how serious and sad the situation is.

As MPs, we also sometimes have a duty to educate so that people know more about certain things. I want to take a few moments to talk a little about about the Yazidi people so that anyone who is listening to my speech can learn a little more about who they are. It is important to take the time to do that. A better understanding of their reality could also help guide our actions.

The Yazidis believe in a form of Christianity. However, in Sinjar, they are considered to be of Arab origin since it is believed that they came from Syria. Their religion is supposedly derived from Islam. They consider Jerusalem and Mecca to be holy cities. Their religious calendar dates back over 6,500 years. They are very attached to their beliefs and their language, Kurmandji. Like us, the Yazidis from Sinjar and the northeastern region of Mosul are farmers and live in small towns. When I say “like us”, I am perhaps referring more to my region, which has a large number of farmers and where most people live in small towns. Like many of us, the Yazidis drink wine and eat pork. The women have a lot more freedom than women in the Orient in general. They do not wear veils and they will speak to strangers. I think that helps us to better understand the Yazidis and what makes them different.

The magnitude of the genocide is even more sad when we know that it is being committed against people with a different culture. Daesh ruthlessly attacked not only many buildings and historic sites but also an entire population. Daesh clearly indicated that it wants to commit genocide against this people.

We therefore have the duty to protect the Yazidis and to ensure that they survive this horrible situation and are able to return to their homeland and practice their traditions and culture once something has been done about this situation. We can do a lot more, particularly by helping Yazidis relocate to Canada. As I said before, they are farmers who live in small towns.

In my riding, many constituents were more than happy to volunteer to welcome Syrian refugees into their spacious homes. I am certain that that would be the case if Yazidi women and girls fleeing violence wanted to come here as refugees. I am certain that my fellow Canadians are still willing to take action and to welcome them. I could easily, no matter the circumstances, find several people who are willing to do their part to help them.

Resettling the Yazidi people is very important especially when we consider that they are extremely vulnerable. At first, they were a minority in Iraq and Syria. Now, an enemy is shamelessly attacking them and wants to wipe them out. We therefore have no other choice than to do our part to welcome these people and to protect them.

We have to bring everything to bear so that humanitarian aid gets to these regions and helps those in need. It is another scourge. In addition to being exposed to the possibility of extreme violence, these people are often condemned to living in truly awful conditions. They have little food and other resources. We must do everything we can to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches these regions.

Another very important measure has to do with processing times for refugees' immigration applications. Every day counts for these women and girls. We need to speed up processing times for their applications as much as possible. Obviously, security is important, but we need to figure out how to work more efficiently so we can spare these women weeks and months in stressful, terrifying situations.

When they get here, they are going to need psychological support and care. Canadian experts will be able to help them. Health professionals can be trained if the government chooses to use regions that were not initially targeted for Syrian refugees. They helped us gain experience. We learned from our mistakes, and now we can work hard to bring these women here quickly. We have to act fast, and there are many things Canada can do.

As I said several times, every day counts for these women given what they are experiencing. As parliamentarians, we should be thinking of better ways to help them every day.