Madam Speaker, this afternoon in Montreal, people gathered at the urging of Amnesty International to once again demand the release of Raïf Badawi. I say “once again” because Mr. Badawi has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for nine years now, without having committed a single crime. For nine years now, his wife Ensaf and his three children have been hoping that the Canadian government would take action to reunite their family, but nothing is being done.
We actually thought that the process would speed up in January, when the House unanimously demanded that the federal government grant Raïf Badawi Canadian citizenship. However, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship has done nothing. If this continues, Mr. Badawi will serve his entire unjust sentence before Ottawa takes the slightest measure to facilitate his release.
Enough is enough. There are four days left in the session. The House has been asking the minister to grant Raïf Badawi citizenship for five months. His wife and family have been waiting for him for nine years. The minister must do his job.