Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to stand tonight to speak to this very serious topic.
Last year, we learned that a Canadian citizen was killed on Canadian soil by a foreign government. Very few things are more serious for the House of Commons to deal with. Then, of course, last week, we learned from the RCMP that the Government of India is allegedly intimidating members of the South Asian community, committing violent criminal activity and interfering in Canada's democratic process, which are shocking allegations. They are allegations that Canadians from coast to coast to coast heard on Thanksgiving Monday, and we are reeling from them as we think about the attacks on our democracy, the attacks on Canadian citizens the impact this has particularly on the South Asian diaspora.
No role for the federal government is more important than ensuring justice for Canadian citizens and ensuring that foreign governments that interfere in our country are held accountable. We need to ensure that the Government of India is held accountable for the actions that have taken place. Any involvement of a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an attack on the sovereignty of Canada. Many Canadians across the country are living in fear of threats from foreign governments like India's. We must hear their voices.
I sit as a permanent member on the Canada-China committee, and we have heard from those in the Chinese community for a number of years. For over 30 years, they have been saying that the influence and interference by the Chinese government have threatened them. We have heard from Canadians that the Russian government has actively impacted our democracy and that the Iranian government is actively causing disorder and misinformation and making threats against Canadians in our country. Now, of course, we know that India is also doing that.
However, that is not all; there are others. I want to make it very clear that, while tonight we are talking about Indian attacks on the sovereignty of Canada and the Modi government's alleged murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, it is important to recognize that foreign interference needs to be dealt with across the board. The New Democrats have been pushing for a very long time to ensure that all foreign interference is addressed and that we are looking at all bad actors attempting to harm our democracy and harm the citizens of Canada.
Tonight, as I stand here, I cannot help but think about members of the South Asian community who have been raising these concerns for years and who have not felt safe in their communities for years. I think about the fact that the South Asian diaspora helped build this country, yet they do not feel safe in their communities right now.
I listened to a radio program earlier this week where members of the South Asian community said they did not know how to talk to their children about the fact that they could be killed at any time on Canadian soil by a foreign government. They did not know how to talk to their spouses about the fact that they could be killed by a foreign government on Canadian soil.
We have heard that the violence that people are feeling, the extortion and threats of physical violence, is something that is not new in this community. We have heard tonight about the extortions and arson that have taken place in my city of Edmonton. That is deeply concerning. We have not dealt with this problem effectively. This has not been taken care of effectively. I am glad we are having this debate right now in the House of Commons, but we need to have an Canada-India committee, so we can look at this issue in greater detail.
We need to do everything possible to protect the South Asian community in this country. Some of my colleagues tonight have brought up the fact that this is not an issue of Sikh or Muslim against Hindu. This is a Canadian issue. It does not matter which faith or background people come from or what their views are. The idea that there cannot be a foreign government influencing our democracy or threatening Canadian citizens is something that we all have to get behind. We all have to push and fight for it, yet we have seen that, despite the fact that community members from various diaspora have brought this up for decades, very little has been done by either Liberal or Conservative governments.
In my opinion, the Liberals have been slow to act. They voted against our foreign interference commission. They also voted today against a Canada-India committee.
The Conservatives, of course, are compromised. The Conservative leader refuses to get a security clearance, even though we all know that the Conservative leadership race was interfered in by the Government of India. It is incomprehensible that the leader would not take the steps necessary to get information about how the Government of India interfered in the Conservative Party leadership race.
The fact that we have not heard a single Conservative today condemn the human rights abuses by the Modi government, along with the fact that the Leader of the Opposition, who is on social media quite regularly, has basically been silent, gone missing and refused to comment on this, is so shocking. Canadians are watching, and there can only be one rational explanation. It must be that the leader is afraid of what he will find, or perhaps afraid of whether he would even pass the security clearance screening. It has been months since the NSICOP report pointed out to Canadians that India interfered in the potential election of a Conservative leader.
Members will not be surprised to hear that I am also interested in talking a little about human rights. I speak about human rights a great deal in this place. I am the foreign affairs critic for the NDP. For years, I have expressed concerns in this place about the Modi government and its attack on minority groups in India. We have raised the alarm within the NDP about the violations that the Modi government has brought forward, and we have not heard an adequate response from the Liberals or the Conservatives.
In 2022, the New Democrats called the Liberal government to ban entry to BJP officials from India who have called for racist and genocidal violence against Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities in India. We have also called on the Canadian government to boycott G20 events in India's Kashmir region. The Liberal government ignored both of those calls. I do not want this to just be me talking about the human rights abuses that I worry about with the Modi government.
Here is a 2023 report from Amnesty International on human rights in India.
National financial and investigation agencies were weaponized against civil society, human rights defenders, activists, journalists and critics, further shrinking civic space. Government officials, political leaders, and supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—the ruling political party at the federal level—advocated hatred and violence against religious minorities with impunity, particularly Muslims, marking a rise in hate crimes. Punitive demolitions of largely Muslim properties—including homes, businesses and places of worship—resulting in mass forced evictions after episodes of communal violence, were commonplace and went unpunished. India continued to impose arbitrary and blanket internet restrictions including internet shutdowns. The government withheld the Twitter (now known as X) accounts of journalists and civil society organizations without due process. Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalized groups continued to face violence and entrenched discrimination, with women and girls facing specific attacks on their right to bodily autonomy.
Attacks on women and girls are something that Canada, with a feminist international assistance policy and a purported feminist foreign policy, should be very vocal against.
Human Rights Watch says that during the 2024 presidential campaign:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2024 electoral campaign frequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities, inciting discrimination, hostility, and violence.
Inflammatory speeches, amid a decade of attacks and discrimination against minorities under the Modi administration, have normalized abuses against Muslims, Christians, and others.
The new Modi government needs to reverse its discriminatory policies, act on violence against minorities, and ensure justice for those affected.
Clearly, that has not happened.
I also want to talk a little about the fact that, right now, Canada continues to send arms to the Modi government. Canada's fourth-largest destination for arms exports in 2022 was India, with the highest-ever total of $54.8 million. These items were designed for military use. They include ground vehicles, aircraft, firearms, ammunition, imaging equipment, software and parts. That goes against our Arms Trade Treaty.
In 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs issued 38 permits for military goods and technology to India. We do not know what goods these export permits were for. Canadians deserve to have that information and to have that transparency.
We have called on the Canadian government to be more transparent. In fact, in the foreign affairs committee, I have called for a study on Canada's relationship with India, specifically regarding human rights and arms exports.
We know from past cases, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, that the Canadian government has not taken into account repeated human rights violations by those governments. We can only assume that this is the same case with India.
It should not need to be said, because it is in fact Canadian law, but the Canadian government should not be sending arms to any country that violates the human rights of its citizens.
What are our next steps? What do we do now? The NDP is calling for a complete review of India's diplomatic presence in Canada, with further diplomatic sanctions, if necessary. The NDP is calling for a ban of the extremist RSS network. The NDP is calling to establish a new Canada-India committee to help spur a dialogue and research into ways that we can protect Canada, Canadian sovereignty and Canadian citizens.
We want urgent action that will protect Canadians now.
It is too long to wait. It is too much to ask. We need to take these steps now. We need the reviews. We need the work to be done. I urge the Liberal government to reverse their objection to this committee and to let us have a space where these meaningful conversations can happen.
It is important that, as parliamentarians, we do everything possible to protect Canadian citizens and Canadian sovereignty. We want to ensure for Canadians that they can be confident in the democracy in our country, that they can be confident that India is not forcing its will upon the people of Canada or our democracy or other countries and that Canadians are safe in their communities to live, work and practice their faith as they wish. These are the values and the principles of being a Canadian.
South Asian Canadians deserve this. All Canadians deserve this, and when we do not provide that safety and security, we have failed as parliamentarians. We are a country of rule-based international order. We are a country that believes in justice, in human rights and in peace. However, those beliefs are not enough if we are not willing to do the hard work to ensure that every single Canadian has the ability to live a life free of violence and threat, in peace, with a sovereign and strong democracy.
