Madam Speaker, today is the first anniversary of the horrible October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. One year later, we continue to grieve with the families who lost loved ones and with the survivors of sexual and other forms of violence who carry the scars of that terrible day. We continue to demand the release of the many hostages who remain captive. We need to bring them home.
My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. Growing up and learning about the Holocaust, I was always haunted and perplexed by the images of Holocaust victims. It is with these images in mind that Jews today fight back against those who try to kill them. It is good, right and necessary that peoples and nations defend themselves. While self-defence can be morally complicated and necessarily involves the making of difficult distinctions, it remains absolutely necessary for a people with the will to survive.
At the root of this conflict is the aggression sponsored by the Iranian regime. This regime is pursuing a threefold strategy in the Middle East: to demonize Israel, to thwart regional peace efforts and to use the struggle with Israel as cover to colonize Arab states through terrorist proxies. This strategy responds to significant strides that have been made in the pursuit of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours. It is wrong to suppose some inevitable antagonism between Jews and Muslims or between Israel and Arab states. Israel has, in fact, normalized relations and is actively collaborating with a growing number of regional partners.
However, in response to this collaboration, Iran's regime seeks to unite Israel's remaining opponents and use them for colonial expansion against other regional rivals. While Israel is the primary rhetorical enemy, Iran and its proxies are also waging a campaign to destroy and subjugate other states in the region, starting with Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. These, along with the Gaza Strip, are now places where the regime ruthlessly suppresses its opponents and stages attacks against Israel that are aimed at undermining regional peace efforts and creating further opportunities for the Iranian regime's expansion.
We have good reason to believe that the Iranian regime specifically wanted the October 7 attacks and directed them in order to create the conditions in which the expansion of the Abraham Accords, particularly the expansion to include Saudi Arabia, would be much more difficult. Given this context, the Iranian regime will not accept a ceasefire as long as its strategy continues to advance its real objective, which is the subjugation of its Arab neighbours. The real path to peace, therefore, runs through the weakening of the capacity of the Iranian regime; the strengthening of popular movements against the regime, inside Iran and elsewhere; and the strengthening of engagement with regional players who have an interest and a capacity to make and enforce regional peace. These are things that we have long called for.
More than six years ago, the House passed my motion calling for the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. While this has now finally happened, the failure to act for so long gave the regime extensive runway to continue to operate, recruit and fundraise here on Canadian soil. Much damage has already been done as a result of this senseless delay. In government, Conservatives would take swift action against the Iranian regime and its proxies. That action would be in support of the people of Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iran itself, all of which have been victims of this terrorist regime. We reject doctrines that demonize whole peoples, and we call for the liberation of all peoples from Iranian domination. The Iranian regime is the greatest threat to the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples in the region.
Here in Canada, the principal concern that I hear from many Jewish and Muslim leaders is about security. For everyone, Canada feels less safe than it once did. Foreign interference, attacks on different communities, the dramatic rise in anti-Semitism and an increase in crime in general leave many people feeling that they are a long way from home. While working for peace and justice everywhere, we must place the highest priority on the security of all people here in Canada.