Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Winnipeg North for his comment. As he mentioned, he and I have been to Ukraine a number of times. I have been there over a dozen times in the last two and a half years. The issue of religious freedom is paramount to how human rights are implemented within a country. He and I both witnessed that in Ukraine.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not say freedom of thought. It does say freedom of religion, so it is freedom of religion that we have to focus on here.
If they are going to protect freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly, they have to protect freedom of religion first and foremost. That is because those who violate our human rights around the world first attack the ability to express religious freedoms through worship, through assembly, and through freedom of speech.
That is what we have witnessed in Ukraine with the Russian occupation of Donbass and Crimea. We have to continue to speak out against Putin's aggression and Putin's illegal occupation and illegal annexation of that region, and to stop the human rights violations, which start with his cracking down on those people who do not share his Russian Orthodox views.