Madam Chair, I will start my speech by giving a deep note of thanks and appreciation to the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces who are participating in this mission and other missions abroad. Oftentimes we do not take enough time to appreciate the sacrifice of these people and their families in upholding the law and the Canadian vision of democracy and peace around the world.
I am disappointed that the first debate the Liberals have initiated in the House of Commons is on a mission that the Conservatives put forward. The Liberals are really not doing anything different with respect to this mission and have declined to start debate on sending our men and women in the armed forces into harm's way on a peacekeeping mission, which for all intents and purposes is just a bid to buy a seat on the UN Security Council. They should be ashamed of that, given the UN's complete lack of any sort of response to the crisis in Syria. The Liberals are exceptionally misguided in their approach to defence and foreign policy in this regard.
None the less, this debate gives me an opportunity to highlight the fact that it was our Conservative government that took leadership in starting Operation Unifier. We were one of the first voices in the world to firmly and strongly stand against the illegal occupation of Crimea and to stand with the people of Ukraine, especially in light of the exceptional contributions that the people of Ukraine have made to Canada's history. As an Alberta MP, whenever I have an opportunity to talk about the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Alberta, I always choose to do so, and I am acknowledging that today.
In the brief time I have, I would like to speak about my exceptional disappointment in this self-congratulatory exercise that the Liberals are engaging in tonight. They have done little to nothing to address the issue of internally displaced people in Ukraine. I do have to give credit to my colleague who is the chair of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. He went against his party to a certain extent and forced a study on internally displaced people around the world and how the government would respond to that. In that committee study, we heard testimony, which frankly made vomit rise in my mouth, about the situation facing over 1.2 million people in Ukraine.
If members have not had a chance to read the recommendations in the report that came out last summer, I would encourage them to read the testimony. The human rights violations and abuses against internally displaced people in Ukraine should light the world on fire. The Liberal government has done nothing on the internally displaced persons issue to date in spite of the Ukrainian community in Canada asking for action.
The Liberal immigration minister stands in the House of Commons and talks about how the Liberals are bringing in tens of thousands of refugees. However, I have not once heard about the prioritization of internally displaced persons from Ukraine. It is wrong for the Liberals to stand in the House of Commons and force a take-note debate on this issue without talking about how IDPs are going to be supported.
There has been a lot of discussion about the amount of aid going from Canada to assist Ukraine. Before my Liberal colleagues get up and offer talking points in this regard, I would note and pre-empt them by saying that most of that money was announced under the previous Conservative government. There has been little to no additional support for Ukraine announced in spite of what we expect to be an unprecedented level of deficit to be presented in the federal budget this year.
With my remaining time, I would draw the attention of my colleagues to the statement made by my colleague from Thornhill on some of the things the Liberal government should be doing to support this initiative, including supporting and implementing Magnitsky legislation. I have heard nothing from the Liberal government indicating that it wants to support this. This is a huge call from the Ukrainian community in Canada and around the world.
A number of recommendations from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress have not been addressed by the Liberal government to date. If the Liberals have the audacity to stand in the House of Commons and pat themselves on the back, I wish they would do so by offering something new.