Madam Speaker, this evening in the House of Commons, I would like to raise the issue of the Yazidi genocide.
The Yazidi people are a highly persecuted ethnic and religious minority primarily based in Iraq. They are some of the most persecuted people in the world. In the last two years, they have suffered extreme atrocities at the hands of extremists within the religious majority in the area. That is ISIS. The Yazidi people have suffered rape and mutilation. Their people are in mass graves in the area, and their women have been taken as sexual slaves.
In October, after many, many months and much pushing, the House unanimously adopted a motion to prioritize Yazidi victims of genocide to come to Canada as refugees.
For people who are listening, Canada has two main ways for refugees to come into the country. First, privately sponsored refugees are those who come through the generosity of Canadians who have raised funds to sponsor refugees. The second is through government-assisted refugees. That is where the United Nations refers cases to Canada and then the government pays for the sponsorship of the refugees. The sad reality is that exactly zero out of tens of thousands of refugees who have been referred to Canada by the United Nations have come from this group of people. That is shameful.
I've had United Nations officials in my office. I have asked them why there are no cases being referred to Canada. They actually told me that because of the time constraint the government placed on them last year for the refugee initiative, it was easier just to pick out of the religious majority in these camps. That is shameful, because these people cannot actually get to refugee camps in most cases. They are internally displaced and they cannot get to refugee camps, because they are persecuted the whole way there. Then when they get to the refugee camps, in order to make these United Nations lists, oftentimes there are great delays. We have heard allegations of discrimination against these people by UN processing agents. The reality is that they are not making the lists. They are not being referred to Canada. That is an issue the government needs to look at.
The reality is there are non-governmental organizations on the ground that have been working very hard and which are highly reputable. The government could use them in order to bring those refugees to Canada. That is completely within the government's jurisdiction. It should be doing that, but what have the Liberals done to date? They have not talked to any of those non-governmental organizations and they are not working to bring those people here.
We are now in February, almost four months after the motion passed. None of the non-governmental organizations have heard any word about how many Yazidi refugees are going to be processed or how they are going to come here.
This weekend the Prime Minister sent out a fairly asinine tweet saying that we are open and welcoming refugees. Where are the Yazidis? Why, when I stand in this House of Commons, can the government not tell me how many Yazidis will come to Canada in the next couple of weeks? My gut says it is because it is lip service. The Liberals do not have a plan. They are not going to meet the terms of this deadline.
My question tonight is very simple. How many Yazidis will the government bring to Canada before the motion's deadline?