Mr. Speaker, we are back this evening to discuss UNRWA and the government's failure to safeguard Canadians' hard-earned taxpayer dollars against funding terrorism.
On October 2, I asked the Prime Minister if he shared his minister's very blind trust in UNRWA. Unbelievably, the Minister of International Development had described UNRWA as one of his “trusted agencies”. So profound was the minister's trust that he broke his promise to Canadians and reinstated Canada's funding to UNRWA. This happened even before the release of a UN report on its investigation into UNRWA staff being involved in the October 7 terrorist attack. Let us be honest here: As is true whenever the UN investigates itself and examines one of its own agencies, the report had no intention of derailing the global funding gravy train. This is expected. However, the report was not all rainbows and unicorns. Even the UN had to admit that there was something very wrong with this tainted agency.
Let us look at the recommendations. The report recommended that UNRWA create a centralized neutrality investigations unit. That sounds impressive. Let us have a unit to investigate the neutrality of a UN agency. However, if UNRWA was so lily-white, why call for the establishment of such a unit? The report also recommended that UNRWA update its code of ethics and its staff training, as well as that it find more ways to screen UNRWA applicants. That is a bit strange for an innocent UN agency.
Why does it need to screen better? Could it be that it has been hiring terrorists? Unfortunately, that is exactly what has been happening. We recently learned that UNRWA is seeking immunity for staff involved in the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. The agency was even forced to admit that one of its employees, an alleged educator killed in Lebanon, was a Hamas leader. What a revelation that is. It does, however, bring ridicule on the UN report's findings and its absolution of UNRWA.
In my initial question, I asked whether the Prime Minister shared his minister's very blind trust in an agency that Canadian taxpayers fund into the millions, which just happens to employ terrorists. What a sad charade it is. With so much smoke swirling around how UNRWA operates, it is unconscionable for Canada to have acted so quickly to restore funding. We are not talking about a few dollars. In 2022, Canada pledged almost $32 million, making us the 11th biggest donor. In May, the Minister of International Development doubled down on his largesse in terms of terrorist support. The minister announced that Canada would provide $65 million, including $25 million as part of Canada's recurring payments to UNRWA. An additional $40 million would go to UNRWA and to other experienced partners in the region.
While we have Canadians who are hungry and struggling to make ends meet, the government is giving Canadian taxpayer dollars to a terrorist-hiring agency. This is completely immoral and unacceptable to Canadians, and the government is failing its duty to safeguard our dollars against funding terrorism.
My question to the parliamentary secretary is the same one the Prime Minister refused to answer: Does the parliamentary secretary share the Minister of International Development's trust in UNRWA? If they will not answer that question, would they agree that Canada should not fund terrorism, yes or no?