Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Mount Royal.
I rise in this House to talk about the situation in Lebanon.
As we know, Lebanon is the country of cedars, often referred to as the “Switzerland of the Middle East”. Lebanon is a founding member of the United Nations and was represented at the time by Charles Malik within that organization. It is a country of builders and an active member of the international Francophonie. This beautiful country invented the alphabet and built the first ship in history to better export its knowledge and share it with the rest of the world.
Canada, its parliamentarians and the international community cannot remain silent in the face of the bloody conflict in the Middle East. We must continue to take action. We must continue to promote a just and lasting peace. Above all, we must ensure that the most vulnerable, the innocent, do not continue to be preyed on in this terrible war.
A week ago, on the first day of this conflict in Lebanon, when the pagers exploded, in one single day there were 600 dead. Among them were doctors and nurses who worked in the medical field at hospitals. More than 2,000 were wounded and the hospitals were not able to meet the needs of those patients. The day after, there was another explosion of walkie-talkies, which caused more than 400 deaths and a couple of thousand injuries.
In the operating room at the hospital, there was a doctor who is an ophthalmologist and president of the University of Balamand. I know him very well and I spoke with him. In an interview with BBC News, he said, “Unfortunately, we were not able to save a lot of eyes.” Dr. Elias Warrak added that more than 60% to 70% of the patients ended up with at least one eye removed. He said, “Some of the patients, we had to remove both eyes. It kills me. In my past 25 years in practice, I’ve never removed as many eyes as I did yesterday” in one single day. That kills me too. I am sure if any of my colleagues in this chamber witnessed such a situation, it would kill them too.
I would like to assure members that neither the Lebanese people nor the Lebanese government wants war. They are seeking peace. They are people who deserve to live in dignity, to live in prosperity and to have everything they need in their daily life. I believe the best and quickest solution is to apply United Nations Resolution 1701. It was agreed to on both sides in 2006. That resolution must be applied and respected by both parties to the conflict. That would put an immediate end to this war and let peace prevail.
I condemn the killing of any human being. I am not a religious man, but I was born and raised in the church as a Christian, and I respect all religions in the world. I respect Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and all human beings. Our Christian religion orders us to love even our enemies. How can someone ask me to approve a killing? I have a deep feeling that it is criminal, it is terrorism, when any human being, politician, leader, prime minister, president or state kills or orders the killing of a human being. We do not approve of that; we have to condemn it. We have to work together and see peace prevail.
Last week, I was touched when I spoke to one of my Jewish colleagues after our national caucus. He is the member for Winnipeg South Centre. He asked me to do a video with him, asking for peace. I am happy and proud that I did it.
I would also like to thank the people of Canada, the Government of Canada and the Prime Minister of Canada for rapid financial aid to those people who are in need. In a single week, more than one million people have been displaced, most of them in Beirut. They need drinking water, food and shelter; our government practically, and fortunately, is not there. Corruption and terrible mismanagement have also crippled the country and the population. I would like to appeal to our government and every government in the world to send the money directly either to the Red Cross or to NGOs that are registered with, approved by and reporting to the United Nations in order for the money to reach the people who are in need.
I end by saying that I hope to see a permanent, lasting peace among Jews, Muslims and Arabs in our lifetime. I hope to see peace prevail in all corners of the world; this will pave the way for generations to come to live in peace, to live in security and to enjoy life. I have a lot to say, and I will be more than happy to answer questions from my colleagues.