Bill Graham

[Human Rights, April 16th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to warmly welcome back the member to the House. It is good to see him back and in form.

He is in good form but he is badly informed, I am afraid, because in fact if he had been following the success of the Prime Minister's trip he would know that the Prime Minister was going on specifically the view of bringing this message to Africa: “We can help you, we want to help you. You must help yourself with good governance and respect for human rights”. The answer he received back from African leaders was “Yes, we will work with you”. This is a great success for the Prime Minister and for Canada.

[Foreign Affairs, April 15th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, this is precisely why the government has listed and bans any fundraising for military activities of Hezbollah in this country. My friend makes the point precisely as to what our policy is about. We are not, however, going to stop doctors and politicians from doing their work to try to bring peace. Let us work constructively where we may and let us ban those activities which we know will lead to more violence. That is precisely what the government is doing.

[Foreign Affairs, April 15th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as I have explained in the House in the past, this government does not fund Hezbollah. This government allows some Canadian citizens to send money to an arm of Hezbollah that supports doctors, lawyers and politicians in Lebanon who are working to restore peace. We do not want to kill the chance of peace by putting institutions that might be worthwhile on the list.

I remind my friend that he was wrong the other day, when he said that France had put Hezbollah on the list, because this is not true.

[Foreign Affairs, April 15th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to assure the House that we take this matter very seriously. We are in contact with Mr. Sabzali's lawyers to make sure that we make all representations possible for the Government of Canada.

I want to remind the House however, that this gentleman was convicted not only for activities which he conducted in Canada, but the majority of activities for which he was convicted were when he was in the United States and in the jurisdiction of United States laws and courts. This makes this case somewhat more complicated than other cases that we have had to face in the past. However, I want to assure the member and the House that we will follow it closely and give every aid we can to this Canadian citizen and his problem.

[The Middle East, April 15th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we have always said that our objective is to support Mr. Powell.

Mr. Powell wants the UN resolution to be respected and a return to negotiations based on the Tenet and Mitchell plans, which clearly show the way to peace.

The important thing right now is that the violence must stop and the parties must resume negotiations. This is what we have to focus on. This is what the Canadian, German and American governments, and the whole world, are hoping for.

[The Middle East, April 15th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian government has always made it clear that it supports all the principles stated by the German government, which are to respect UN resolution 1402, to return to the negotiation table and to support Mr. Powell in his increasingly important role.

The only problem I have is that this is not a formal plan. These are only ideas put forward by my counterpart, Mr. Fischer. We support Mr. Fischer and Mr. Powell in any attempt to achieve peace in the Middle East.

[Middle East, April 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we are always ready to consider proposals put forward by the UN secretary general. The UN is a component of our foreign policy and we will continue to work together with it.

As regards the terrible events that took place this morning in Israel, we reiterate our great sympathy for the victims and their families. People on both sides of the conflict continue to die as a result of this violence. We call for an end to the violence and a return to peace talks. This is necessary for the negotiations—

[Middle East, April 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister recently said specifically that, in the right circumstances, Canada is quite prepared to do what it has always done, and co-operate with the international community to establish peace. We will do so in the future as we have done in the past.

[Terrorism, April 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot speak for the Prime Minister but I can speak for the government. I will repeat what I said yesterday. It is not what France does or what the United States does. It is how we analyze in Canada what is taking place here. The government has been very conscientious in examining at all times what activities are taking place.

We have examined this with great care and have decided that we should not at this time do anything other than to stop Hezbollah's military arm from financing in this country. We will continue to do that but if the member has proof that there are other activities going on in this country which are illegal--

[The Middle East, April 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, what we are proposing is what we have been proposing in the House for some time: to help Mr. Powell with his mission. The violence absolutely must cease. Mr. Power is now in that region.

Let us all help him in his undertakings so that resolution 1402 can be applied and we can now have the opportunity to intervene in the region because of the very serious humanitarian issues.

We are calling upon Israel and the Palestinians to put an end to the violence and we are calling upon Israel to allow humanitarian intervention in the region, this being more important than any other type of intervention at this time.