Mr. Speaker, in a few days the House will adjourn for the summer. The members will head back to their ridings, back to their families, and the government will have passed its priorities, far from Quebec’s priorities.
Do you know who is not a government priority? Do you know who will not be going back to his family this week? Raif Badawi, that is who.
In 2015, the Prime Minister said that Raif Badawi’s case called for quick, responsible, and progressive action. For five years now the Saudi blogger has been in prison and could be lashed at any moment, and this government has been neither quick, responsible, progressive, nor effective. That is five years during which Canada has done nothing for him. Ottawa has abandoned Raif. Ottawa has abandoned Raif Badawi’s family. That is this government’s human rights record. Canada is selling tanks to a regime that crushes those who think. That is a real shame.