Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with the formidable member for Calgary Nose Hill.
I rise today to support the motion calling upon the Liberal government to recognize the atrocities committed by ISIS as genocide, because that is exactly what the deliberate slaughter of specific groups of innocent people is. It is genocide.
This barbaric and merciless organization is responsible for unspeakable crimes and human rights abuses against Yazidis, Christians, Assyrians, Shia Muslims, and others across the territory it controls. ISIS slaughters innocent religious and ethnic minorities, and captures prisoners and civilians whose only crimes are being or thinking differently from these terrorists. ISIS tortures and beheads children. These savages use rape and sexual violence as weapons of war and enslave innocent women, girls, and boys as a means to incite fear and to perpetuate their reign of terror. They have cruelly targeted gays and lesbians, torturing and murdering them in unimaginable ways, simply because of their sexual orientation.
We need to explicitly recognize it here in the House in support of the thousands of victims and on behalf of all Canadians. Those barbarians are ruthless. They are murderers and rapists. They are terrorists.
I want to talk about the tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children who have suffered the wrath of one of the world's most abhorrent terrorist organizations.
Samia is a 15-year-old Yazidi teenager who, along with her family, was captured by ISIS and held captive for six months. Men and women were separated, their possessions taken, and girls as young as seven years old were raped. Deemed unworthy to keep as sex slaves, older women were killed.
The British Parliament recently heard about the 16-year-old girl who had witnessed indescribably brutal violence. Her father and brother were executed in front of her. She witnessed the repeated rape of an innocent nine-year-old girl, so brutal and vicious that the girl died. She listened helplessly to the desperate screams of her friends as they were tortured and raped. She also witnessed ISIS barbarians force a mother to eat the ground-up remains of her child.
In the August heat of Raqqa, a two-year-old girl was placed inside a tin box and left in the middle of a courtyard for seven days. Her distraught mother was told that if she tried to rescue her tiny, innocent daughter, her other two children would die. The mother had seen her husband and father brutally executed by ISIS soldiers, so she knew they would follow through on their threat. After being beaten, the toddler died.
ISIS attacked the city of Sinjar in August of 2014 and tens of thousands of Yazidis fled to the mountains. Trapped, without food or water, thousands were massacred on the bloodstained slope of Mount Sinjar.
There would have been thousands more casualties if it had not been for an U.S. air attack targeting armoured ISIS fighting vehicles. The U.S. air strike is the only reason the Yazidis in the region were not completely exterminated.
After capturing the ancient city of Palmyra in May 2015, ISIS massacred over 400 people. It beheaded them and mutilated their bodies. Why? Because they had co-operated with the government and did not follow ISIS orders.
ISIS extremists were driven out of Sinjar in November 2015, after a two-day operation led by Kurdish forces and backed by U.S. air strikes. After the expulsion, Kurdish forces uncovered two mass graves where the bodies of men, women, and children were found. At least 50 of these mass graves have been found in the region.
The people committing these atrocities do not behave like human beings. They do not have a conscience. They do not believe what they are doing is wrong. They are not moved by the rule of law or due diligence or processes. They are monsters.
The victims of ISIS deserve recognition that genocide is taking place in the Middle East, and these words matter. Our government would not be the first to acknowledge this, without an unnecessary lengthy, so-called investigation. The European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing the systematic killing and persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East by ISIS as a genocide. The U.S. Congress and the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, declared that ISIS is committing genocide against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq. The British House of Commons unanimously passed a motion stating that Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria are suffering genocide at the hands of ISIS. The previous Canadian Conservative government also recognized the actions of ISIS as genocide.
In 2014, the member for Calgary Heritage said that ISIS was “committing genocide against people they see as different”, as did the previous foreign affairs minister, the member for Niagara Falls.
What else do the Liberals need to know before they call these atrocities exactly what they are? The whole world can see what is happening without an investigation, except the Liberal government. By declaring ISIS crimes as genocide, we are not precluding all of the other measures being taken to denigrate and destroy this terrorist organization.
Our allies are doing more, not less, to defeat ISIS, including declaring its actions as genocide. Calling it genocide drives their actions. Our allies are combatting this evil with full forces.
The destruction and specific targeting of minorities was the reason, along with threats to our own security, that the former government entered the war against ISIS along with our allies. It is why we continue to call for Canada's full participation, in contrast to the current Liberal government, which recently removed our CF-18 fighter jets from the mission. It continues to call it a training mission, and seems to believe a lengthy bureaucratic process will somehow provide more information that we do not already know in order to just say the truth.
The Liberals have yet to provide a single coherent reason for ending our air combat mission against these genocidal, barbaric terrorists, even after numerous attacks by ISIS around the world. Instead of pulling our CF-18s and proposing unnecessary processes, we need to explicitly stand with our allies, say what is happening, and participate fully in the combat mission against this evil. Let us not forget that Canada is not immune. We are not standing on the outside looking in. We are a part of this, and Canadians are as vulnerable to attacks as any of our allies.
While the Liberal government has worked to meet its election commitment to resettle 25,000 refugees in Canada, the religious freedom organization, One Free World International, says that it is turning its back on 400 Yazidi women and their families who could seek refuge in Canada to escape ISIS. Why is the government ignoring this proposal, while girls are sold as commodities, tortured, raped, and murdered? While the government delays, people are being exterminated.
The member for Spadina—Fort York earlier dismissed the importance of one word. Those whose lives have been changed by ISIS and its genocidal barbarism would disagree. The word “genocide” carries deep significance, particularly for the victims.
It is important for the House to pass the motion not only to band together with our allies, but also at a basic human moral level. Genocide is the most despicable, most heinous crime imaginable. Formally recognizing the actions of ISIS as genocide shows the victims of these atrocities that we respect their inalienable dignity and sanctity as human beings. It sends a clear message of support and solidarity during their deepest and darkest times.
The official opposition has continually called on the Liberal government to stay with our allies and to strongly condemn the atrocities committed by ISIS. This is our chance. I urge my colleagues from all parties, representing Canadians from every corner of our country, to support our motion today. Canada must join our EU, U.K., and U.S. allies in recognizing ISIS as a genocidal entity, responsible for horrific crimes against humanity.
Over the years, as monstrosities against mankind have happened across the world, every government in every developed country has vowed never to let these types of atrocities happen again, but they happen. We know right now that these crimes against humanity are being systematically being carried out by ISIS. The motion is our never again moment. It is incumbent upon all of us, now, to stand up to condemn ISIS and recognize its atrocities as what they are, genocide.