Mr. Speaker, the members opposite seem to think that if they say the word genocide three times, spin around in a circle, and click their heels, suddenly something stops. It is as empty a set of rhetorical arguments as the notion that saying “Get out of Ukraine” suddenly solved the crisis in that part of the world.
Margaret Thatcher once said, “if you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman”.
In this Parliament, it seems if people want something said, they should choose the opposition; if people want something done, choose what the Liberal government is doing. What we are doing is actually setting the stage for the prosecution and the end of the atrocities. We think that these atrocities are just as evil as anyone else in this House.
What we are trying to do, and what we hope the opposition will support, is a move to declare this a genocide legally under the conventions of the United Nations. Additionally, we are not waiting for that action. We are taking actions specifically on the ground, with an increased support for the people who are fighting to stop this.
Would the members not agree that the action to stop this outweighs any word that they could ever attach to the atrocities, all of which we denounce with them?