Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for sharing his time with me today.
It is interesting, because the member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands brings up a good point, and that is about Canadians feeling safe. The motion states:
That the House:
(a) condemn the horrific acts committed by ISIS;
(b) acknowledge that individuals who joined ISIS fighters are complicit in these horrific acts and pose a danger to Canadians;
(c) call on the government to bring to justice and prosecute any ISIS fighter returning to Canada; and
(d) insist that the government make the security and protection of Canadians its priority, rather than the reintegration of ISIS fighters, or the unnecessary financial payout to a convicted terrorist, like Omar Khadr.
It is the reintegration of the ISIS fighters over the course of the last couple of weeks, where this debate has gone on, that has really concerned many Canadians. It has concerned many people in my riding of Barrie—Innisfil. The Omar Khadr payout has done this as well.
This is not stoking a fear issue. This calls on the government to prioritize, with respect to safety for Canadians, and look after and ensure we hold the ISIS terrorists back, and not allow them to reintegrate back into our society. I had to laugh when the member for Central Nova spoke about this being an anti-intellectual debate. When it causes concern to Canadians, it is not anti-intellectualism. It is a concern for Canadians and that needs to be debated in the House.
In the last election, nobody voted to elect a government to focus on the rights of ISIS terrorists over Canadians. This reintegration policy the government is now proposing certainly flies in the face of safety and security. These people, and it has been said through the course of this debate today, have raped women. They are terrorists who have burned people alive, have beheaded people, and in some cases Canadians have gone over there to engage in those types of activities. They have become normalized to those types of activities.
They are going to come back to Canada and somehow reintegrate into Canadian society, with the help of things like poetry. We saw the Prime Minister get upset last week when this question was asked, stoking the fears of division.
That is really the answer to everything with the Liberals. Whenever somebody has a concern about an issue, they label them as a foe. If members call into question the concerns of ISIS terrorists, the Liberals will call them an Islamaphobe. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a proud Muslim community in my riding of Barrie—Innisfil. The people work hard and they do not agree with ISIS ideology or this jihadist ideology. I am very proud to call many of them my friends.
I want to focus on the latter part of the motion. It relates to the issue of Omar Khadr and the payment. The Liberals have stood up today in defence of that payment. Members on that side of the House have served in the military, members like the member for Orléans, the Minister of National Defence, the member for Kanata—Carleton, the member for Kelowna—Lake Country and the member for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill. After being engaged in the anti-terror fight, I find it hard that they actually would defend that payment $10.5 million to Omar Khadr.
I will remind the House again that thus was done in July. There was a sense that somehow people were not going to pay attention to that issue. They did. We certainly heard about it. The Liberal side certainly heard about it.
This was not a case that dealt with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said that clearly his rights were violated, but Omar Khadr filed a civil case. For the Liberal government to preclude judgment of that civil case, and as I said earlier, by simply rolling over and giving this money to Omar Khadr in advance of any decision of any court, in advance of any argument that was made, why do we even have a court system? Why do we have judges? Why do we have lawyers? Why, if all the Liberals are going to do is preclude any civil action by deciding they are going to do is roll over and effectively give a convicted terrorist $10.5 million?
Repatriation, coming back to this country, was enough for Omar Khadr. It was enough, and he deserves nothing more after what he did to Christopher Speer and his family.
However, I remind the House that many Canadians were killed in Afghanistan. Shortly after the payment was made to Omar Khadr, I received an email from Fred McKay. Fred's son, Kevin, was killed in Afghanistan just days before Omar Khadr was scheduled to come back. The email stated:
Sir...I would very much appreciate it if you would stand up against this ridiculous reward and apology being given to a convicted terrorist. It is beyond my comprehension why our government would do this. Is it because Khadr was “only fifteen years old” when he killed U.S Army Medic Christopher Speer? His lawyer claims that the confession was obtained “under duress”, thus creating the impression that Khadr was tortured, when it has been reported that the method used to extract this confession was nothing more than sleep deprivation! His captors didn't lay a hand on him!
I have more than a passing interest in this matter. My fine young son, Pte. Kevin McKay, lPPCLI, was killed by an IED on May 13th, 2010, only two days before the end of his tour of duty. He was on his very last night patrol in the village of Nakoney, in the Panjwaii District.
Kevin willingly went to Afghanistan with the intended purpose of ensuring the kids could attend school without having acid thrown in their faces, and be free from oppression. Kevin went to Afghanistan to HELP, and not to HURT. He didn't think it was right that teachers were being murdered just for being teachers. The Taliban are not afraid of guns and bombs; they are afraid of school children with school books, because as those kids become educated, they will reject the Taliban's archaic ideology of oppression and ignorance. Kevin spent close to eight months in the combat outposts (“outside the wire”, in harm's way). During this time Kevin and his section did not have to fire a shot in anger, but rather had to play “IED hopscotch”. During their patrols, they found in excess of 160 IEDs...all of them built with the intention of killing and maiming our Canadian soldiers. Kevin's Battle Group suffered six casualties. Our son was the 144th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Shortly after Kevin was killed it was brought to my attention that the person that had built the bomb that killed our son was “only fifteen years old”. Sound familiar? He and his father were known to be Taliban bomb makers, but our soldiers were hamstrung by their Rules of Engagement (ROEs). I was very pleased to hear some months later that retribution, with extreme prejudice, was visited upon them by the subsequently arriving Canadian Battle Group just two weeks after Kevin's death.
Should we feel sympathy for Omar Khadr because he was only fifteen years old? I'm sorry, but I do not. Just like I don't feel sorry for the fifteen year old bomb maker that killed our son. Should we feel sympathy for Khadr because his confession was “coerced” by “sleep deprivation”? I'm sorry, but I do not. I wish I got paid ten million bucks for every sleepless night I spent while Kevin was deployed into one of the most dangerous places in the world for eight months. Any parent or anyone who works for a living to make ends meet knows all about sleep deprivation! We complain about it, but is it to be considered a form of torture?
Am I to believe that, should these bomb maker's families come forward, with a lawyer, our Canadian government would apologize and compensate them to the tune of ten million dollars for the loss of their loved ones? By the way, we received $90,000 from the government when we lost our son, a far cry from the $360,000 maximum. We were told we were receiving that particular sum because Kevin was single and had no dependants...
I am going to conclude with the words of Fred McKay:
I am a proud Canadian, and Kevin was a proud Canadian soldier. The honour and respect that our family was shown as we came along the Highway of Heroes was unbelievable and unforgettable. Apparently that honour and respect is not mirrored by our government. That pride is now being strained like never before. It is wrong to offer Omar Khadr an apology and a compensation package. The only way to right this wrong is to ensure that this money, rather than ending up in Khadr's hands, must be forwarded to Chris Speer's widow, should she be inclined to accept it.
It is for Fred McKay, his wife, and Kevin that I bring this letter up. The payment to Omar Khadr was wrong, and the government was wrong to do it.