Madam Speaker, it is good to stand n the House today to address a question I asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs on March 9 regarding the imprisonment and the health conditions of Nadiya Savchenko.
It is fitting that we are having this discussion today, because it is Nadiya's 35th birthday. I would like to wish her a happy birthday, but I know that it is definitely not a joyous occasion for her to be wrongfully charged and convicted as she has been by the Russian government.
As members know, Nadiya is a member of parliament in Ukraine. She was captured in the fighting that has been taking place in eastern Ukraine, in Donbass. She was a member of the army. She is a pilot. She flies fighter jets and bombers, and attack helicopters, but she was actually on the ground when she was abducted by Russian forces and illegally taken across the line in complete contravention of the Geneva Convention.
It is important to note that during her imprisonment for the past two years, she has gone on numerous hunger strikes. While she was in court she was on a dry hunger strike to protest the sham of what has happened to her.
I have been calling upon the Government of Canada and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take a very aggressive stand with Russia. I have only seen one statement that has come from the Minister of Foreign Affairs on this issue, and that was on March 8, when Nadiya was in very rough shape from a health standpoint because of the hunger strike.
The new government always talks about how it is going to have a more working relationship with Russia than we did as the previous Conservative government. However, we have not seen its words to Russia match the rhetoric that we hear from Russia on things like Ukraine and the case of Nadiya Savchenko.
It is also important when dealing with Russia that we come across as very strong in our rhetoric because President Putin seems to be provoked by weakness. Unfortunately, we hear statements coming from the Minister of Foreign Affairs that he appeals to Russia to act compassionately and immediately when dealing with Nadiya Savchenko. What I want to hear, and I think what the Ukrainian community needs to hear from the government, is stronger language than that. It has to demand it.
At the same time, when the government is demanding the release of Nadiya Savchenko and the overturning of this kangaroo court decision to convict her for 22 years in jail back on March 22, is the government is going to have a conversation with the Kremlin, then the Minister of Foreign Affairs needs to pick up the phone, call foreign minister Lavrov in Russia and demand that Nadiya be released.
We are seeing the right things coming from President Poroshenko in Ukraine in working to get a prisoner exchange so that Nadiya can finally go home and assume her seat in the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine.