Mr. Speaker, I want to correct the record. I certainly would not put forward facts that cannot be backed up.
I have here one day, in particular, when the former prime minister, the current member for Calgary Heritage, said, “we deployed forces to northern Iraq to help minorities withstand genocide.” He went on to say, “not just genocide against large populations in the region but planning attacks against this country”. He used “genocide” three times. That is just in one question period. I could probably go back and find more. The thing is that he called it a genocide. He did not wait for the House to force it upon him to call it a genocide; he called it a genocide.
Let us look at the United States. It is not just the House of Representatives. It is Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking for the president, who called this a genocide. The only people who are afraid of calling this a genocide are the Liberals in the House.
I will ask the parliamentary secretary this. If these are just symbolic words that do not mean anything, she should vote for the motion. What is wrong with voting for the motion if the words are purely symbolic? On the other hand, as I suspect to be the case, if there are actually consequences from labelling this a genocide, what are the consequences that she is afraid of?