Mr. Speaker, in a parliamentary democracy, it is critical that we respond to foreign policy crises that confront our country with debate in the House of Commons. This is how we adjudicate these matters, but it is also how we show the world how seriously we take responsible government.
Therefore, pursuant to Standing Order 52(2), I would like to propose an emergency debate on the situation unfolding in Burma and Canada's response. This issue has been raised regularly by our party in question period for over a year and a half, but the issue has not had a full airing in parliamentary debate.
Let me be clear on what the situation is right now on the ground. According to Amnesty International's crisis response director, the evidence is irrefutable that Myanmar security forces are setting the northern Rakhine State ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar. Make no mistake, this is ethnic cleansing.
We have a campaign of ethnic cleansing presently going on in a country that is a major recipient of Canadian development assistance against which we have yet to impose new sanctions and in a country where the de facto leader is an honorary Canadian citizen and Nobel laureate. Notwithstanding the Canadian connection, the Prime Minister failed to mention this issue at all during his speech at the UN.
Earlier this year, Mr. Speaker, you granted an emergency debate on the proposed executive order by the Trump administration. This was an important issue and I spoke on it. Surely, if that merited an emergency debate in the House, the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Rohingya does as well. If the emergency debate is granted, I would suggest that it be scheduled for tomorrow to ensure that as many members as possible have time to arrange their schedules in order to be here to participate, but certainly whatever time you think is best. The world is watching.