Bill Graham

[Foreign Affairs, April 24th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Gagliano is serving his country as ambassador today as he served in the House honourably for many years on the front benches of this government and was responsible for many of the policies which have given good government to this country and which have provided many benefits for our citizens. I am confident that he will do a wonderful job for us in his post in Copenhagen.

[Middle East, April 24th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I was confused about whispers. I was not too sure what member they were coming from, but I take it they were coming from the leader of the party who is representing her party on the Middle East.

I want to assure her that the government does speak in more than whispers. We speak forcefully on this issue and we continue to pursue, in all cases, those measures which will lead to a peaceful conclusion and the end of this conflict.

[Middle East, April 24th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Annan is pressing the sending of his mission. We support Mr. Annan and the United Nations in this. I understand negotiations are going on today in New York between the Israeli government and the United Nations.

We pressed the Israeli government to accept a fact finding mission. I am confident that Mr. Annan will work out with the Israeli authorities the right composition of the mission so that the world will know what has taken place in Jenin.

[Middle East, April 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased by the introductory comment in the question suggesting that propaganda on both sides is what we want to avoid. I explained to the House that we were trying to get the facts. We are working through the United Nations to do that.

We have been responsible for providing immediate humanitarian aid through proper UN agencies to the people who are there and we will continue to do that. We will act responsibly. We will ensure we avoid the propaganda war and get to the root causes, which is to help people and try to reduce tensions in the area.

[Middle East, April 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, at the moment I believe we should all be concerned about access to Jenin and providing humanitarian aid to the people who are suffering there. That is what we are stressing and what we are doing.

The member might well be aware of the fact that at the moment there is a British resolution before the security council which will include, not only access to Jenin for the purpose of humanitarian aid but to find out exactly the facts, both what the world can do and what has happened. We are supporting that process. I and the government have raised these concerns with the Israeli ambassador.

[Middle East, April 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member well knows from my evidence before the committee yesterday, the government opposed the sending of a human rights mission to the area for the reason that it was entirely biased and unacceptable at that time, because we strongly believe that in fact the move by the security council, which is presently supported by this country, is the right one. The government will continue to take practical steps to aid the people in the region and not resort to polemics, which in the end will only exacerbate and render the tensions more difficult.

[Middle East, April 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as I reported to the hon. member yesterday in committee when she was there, we have spoken to the ambassador from Israel and urged him and his government to lift the curfew and enable humanitarian aid to get through.

As members know, the United Nations is seized of this matter. Mr. Kofi Annan has spoken about it. It is being discussed in the security council.

We ourselves have announced $8 million of aid, through various UN agencies and respectable agencies in the area, to provide immediate aid for humanitarian purposes. We follow this issue carefully. We want it resolved in a way which will enable the parties to come back to the bargaining table in peace and not exacerbate the terrible situation there.

[Armenia, April 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for the work that he has consistently done for the Armenian community in this country.

As he will recall, the government and the Prime Minister on many occasions have expressed the sympathy of our government and our people for the tragedy that occurred to the Armenian people with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

In specific terms, in 1996 we in the House dedicated the week of April 20 to 27 in memory of the Armenian people and the suffering they had. In 1999 we remembered specifically the tremendous tragic fate that occurred in that country.

We still urge that we should consider these tragic events in their historical context and remember that we must move forward and try to ensure peace and harmony among all people.

[Foreign Affairs, April 17th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, there are obviously tremendous problems in Somalia but we can take some comfort in the fact that there have been positive results in Eritrea and Ethiopia next door. We would like to replicate that. We are working with the Somalis on this.

We have been providing substantial humanitarian aid to enable a better environment to deal with the drought and to deal with the humanitarian crisis and we urge our Somalian-Canadian citizens of whom many are represented here in the House to do their work, the diaspora, and to tell their colleagues in Somalia to work for a peaceful solution to this.

We can do this if we work together, and I thank the member because I know that he has many constituents who want to be helpful in this area of the world.

[Human Rights, April 16th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member's question is very pertinent, because we will recall that in the House recently we had the example of the Commonwealth and two African leaders, the leader of Nigeria and the leader of South Africa, who rated Mr. Mugabe insufficient to be a member of the Commonwealth. The African leaders themselves are buying into the agenda that they must offer responsible government. They believe in it.

For the member who has experience in Africa, I ask him to join us and all members of the House in encouraging this fantastic initiative which will bring all of us benefits throughout the world.