Madam Speaker, every day since October 7, I have heard from Yukoners by letter, by phone, on the street and in person, horrified and deeply concerned about the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. My constituents are calling for a ceasefire, for humanitarian aid to flow, for humanitarian law to be respected, for the targeting of hospitals and medical facilities to stop, for the bombing of civilians to stop and for the adversaries to come to the table once and for all. The hostages must be released, and we cannot let an entire population starve.
While all eyes are on Gaza, we know that terrible atrocities are also occurring around the world at this time, in Sudan, in Haiti, and in too many places to name. In the Yukon, we have kept hard conversations civil and respectful; the rest of Canada should take note. The tensions we are living must not escalate into the anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks we are seeing.
As parliamentarians, we would do well to bring people together and closer and not use fear and discrimination to drive people apart. The urgency for peace has never been greater. Let us all do our part.