Madam Speaker, as I rise tonight, millions of Israelis are watching the sun rise after spending their night in bunkers after the criminal region in Tehran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at them. I am here to argue for our duty as Canadians in this conflict.
First, it is our duty to support and proclaim Israel's right to defend itself. There is no ambiguity in this fact. Israel is the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people, and the state of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. This is an unambiguous fact. On October 7, the terrorist regime in Tehran and its proxies violated international law and started a war in the Middle East. It was they who broke the ceasefire and chose to keep the conflict alive. The only groups who deny this fact are extremist regimes that want to see the destruction of the Jewish people.
Second, it is our duty to acknowledge that the suffering, instability, death and destruction in the Middle East are caused by terrorist entities: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the IRGC. They reject the right of Israel to exist, seek the death of the Jewish people and seek the end of democratic nations. These are groups responsible for the deaths of countless Israelis, Canadians, Americans and people from around the world. This is also an unambiguous fact.
Third, it is our duty to acknowledge that even though we are a world away here in Canada from the physical reality of this conflict, we are nonetheless in its orbit. Resisting the genocidal regime in Tehran and all its terrorist proxies, like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others, cannot be left to Israel alone. These terrorist groups do not want to negotiate or de-escalate this position. They want to kill Jews and end Israel.
It is dangerously naive to believe that these groups, which have for the entire history of their existence killed Jews and subjugated women and sexual minorities, will somehow now, because someone asked politely, change their goals. These terrorist groups know that de-escalation is a modern-day euphemism for appeasement. They know that appeasement has never before stopped a Jew-killing regime.
As the wife of a combat veteran who has a military family in more than one sense, and a shout-out to CVMA OK-1, I know this fact all too well. I know this in my heart, and I know this in my family. These regimes will not stop if we ask nicely. This is also an unambiguous fact.
Fourth, it is so easy for us here in the comfort and safety of our country to revel in our decadence and to take academic positions on this conflict. We do not sit in bunkers or have to fear for the lives of our families, that they will be murdered, kidnapped or raped by terrorist organizations.
We must support those who are fighting against this terror, those who support the right of Jews to exist in their indigenous homeland and the freedom that democratic values of human rights bring. That is because to do otherwise is the antithesis of Canadian pluralism. If those in this place are not willing to fight against murderous terrorist regimes that want to end our democratic values and kill Jews, then I fear for more than the state of Israel. I fear for the sustainability of Canada's own sovereignty.
Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, we must call for an end to the crass politics with which the federal government has approached this conflict. Canada has a diverse pluralism of people from around the world and from every faith, but instead of projecting a national identity that would knit this nation of many people together, the Liberal government has long purported that there is no such thing as a national identity and no common values for the people who live on these lands to rally around. I reject that notion.
The Liberals have attempted to wedge the various diaspora groups of this country apart. This conflict has shown the lengths to which the Liberals are willing to go to achieve this political goal. Instead of instantly condemning the atrocities of the criminal regime in Tehran today and their proxies against the Jewish people and the innocent civilians living in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, they wait. They wait for a very long time.
The Liberals take hours to test the waters and have focus groups to see which group they can curry the most favour with. Then they send out backbench members of their caucus to take diametrically opposite positions. That is not fair either. Then the foreign minister makes a weak statement, sometimes inferring that Israel does not have the right to defend itself. Only then, hours or days later as the case may be, does the Prime Minister weigh in with a sanitized statement that leaves so much room for interpretation.
Why do the Liberals do this? They do this because they are failing in the polls and they have lost the ability to inspire Canada with a stand that takes a courageous position. They do this because their caucus is divided behind a failed and feckless leader and their foreign affairs minister who is planning a leadership bid to replace him. She first considers the calculus of how many memberships she can sell within diaspora groups, as opposed to doing what is right for any of the people affected by this conflict: Palestinian, Lebanese or Israeli alike. It is disgusting. There are names for the type of people who do what the Prime Minister and the foreign affairs minister are doing right now. None of them would be considered parliamentary language.
The net effect of this Liberal fecklessness has been felt by minority communities here in Canada. In Calgary, my home city, the federal government's inability to stand for what is right is a clear reason and it is the reason for the rise in anti-Semitism in this country. If the federal government, the Prime Minister and the foreign affairs minister continue to say that it is okay to give a wink and a nod or turn a blind eye in moments when courage is needed, when they turned a blind eye to the genocidal regime in Tehran and their proxies, then what is to stop those who hold extreme beliefs here and act upon them here in our own country? The answer is “nothing”, and that is exactly what we are seeing on the streets across this country and it is why, as the Calgary Jewish community goes into the high holidays tomorrow night, instead of being able to focus on their Jewish new year dinner with friends and families, they need to focus on efforts of security to ensure their community can go to synagogue and gather safely. It is why university students in the Calgary Jewish community say that they do not want to promote Jewish events on campus for fear of retribution, in Calgary. These people should be allowed to be proud to gather as Jews as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are upon them, without feeling the hate and fear that has constantly surrounded them for the last 11 months.
Therefore, I stand here in proud solidarity with them to demand the following: that the federal government recognize that the suffering of the Palestinian, Israeli, Lebanese, Iranian, Syrian and Yemeni people is directly and solely due to the murderous actions of the genocidal terrorist regime in Tehran and its proxy groups; that the federal Canadian government demand the immediate release of Israeli hostages and that the regime in Iran and its proxies immediately lay down their arms and cease their attacks against Israel; that the Canadian government support unequivocally the right of Israel to defend itself, which means unambiguously rejecting calls to end arms support to Israel; that the Canadian government unilaterally reject the anti-Semitic boycott, divest and sanctions movement; that the Canadian government publicly recognize the failure to enforce UN Security Council resolution 1701, which was designed to disarm Hezbollah and prevent its re-arming, which it has clearly failed to do; that the Canadian government reject recognizing a Palestinian state while Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for the death and destruction of countless people, reigns, and without condition; and that the federal government immediately cease funding to UNRWA, whose workers took part in perpetrating the October 7 massacre.
This afternoon, someone I know in Israel sent me a picture of her and her daughters in their bunker. What struck me was the eyes of her girls, filled with normalization of daily assaults on their nation, their ethnicity and their faith; but also embedded in their eyes was a look of defiance and confidence. That look in the eyes of the Israeli people is an ember of hope; not just for Israel but for the entire world and every one of us in this place. In their eyes, I saw peace born in strength. May each of us see the same.