Deepak Obhrai

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am once again rising in the House to debate this topic. I do not know how many times I have spoken on this subject, both when I was in government and now.

During the time of the Conservative government when ISIL came onto the scene, we joined the coalition because of the horrendous crimes that started happening. Throughout the debates we had on the extension of the mission and other things, it became extremely clear that we were dealing with a type of group we had absolutely never dealt with before. It was very cruel. Everybody here, even members on the government side, have said very clearly what this group has done.

We have now reached the point where the question is not about engagement in the fight against ISIL. That we have done. The Conservatives have an absolutely different approach than the current government. We took a very strong approach, including air strikes. The Liberal government is taking a different approach in fighting ISIL, which we do not think is a very robust fight.

The point is that we brought in the ICC. We were concerned that the people committing these horrendous crimes against humanity across the world would go unpunished, so we brought in the ICC. The Rwanda genocide tribunal was in my hometown of Arusha, where I went to see the people who committed these crimes being brought to justice.

The same situation is arising now. Crimes have been committed and everybody is talking about it. As a matter of fact, everybody is talking about preserving the evidence. The evidence already exists. People are dying. Why are we preserving the evidence? We need to recognize what exactly is happening in this region by this group, which is the most violent non-state group ever.

The horrific crimes we have seen shock everybody's conscience. It absolutely shocks everybody. Therefore, it is right for us to stand up and say exactly what it is. It is genocide. Genocide is being committed in that part of the world. To say the UN should do it or a bunch of lawyers should do it is like saying, and I do not know if these are the appropriate words, but coming from Africa, it reminds me of an ostrich putting its head in the sand and not recognizing what is happening in reality.

What difference does it make? The Minister of Foreign Affairs tends to get angry and says it is partisan. He is admitting to me that he has been partisan all this time, even when he was on the other side. What difference does it make? It is not partisan. Conservatives are trying to bring attention to an issue that we think is absolutely necessary. We want to put it in the spotlight and say exactly what is happening. We cannot close our eyes.

If I recall correctly, it was a Liberal government that brought the right to intervene to the United Nations. Where did this right to intervene come from? The right to intervene came about so that genocides and massacres would not occur and states would have the right to intervene if the government did not. In this case, the governments of Syria and Iraq both did not have the capacity, so we intervened as part of the coalition.

Does it change the fact that this group has committed genocide? Does it change the fact that this group has committed horrendous crimes? Does it change the fact that this group needs to be brought to justice in front of a tribunal? We had the Rwanda tribunal, the Nuremberg trials. We can do it now. We can say it is genocide.

Today we are debating something that Canadians do not understand. They ask why we are debating this when ISIL is committing crimes. We are talking about genocide and whether lawyers should decide if genocide is occurring or not. Yes, it is genocide. They are crimes against humanity. We need to bring them out into the open. Genocide is a strong word. I agree. We need a strong word to describe what this group is doing.

The group ISIL is committing horrendous crimes, so what is wrong in saying that this group does commit crimes? Telling them it is genocide does not change one fact. It is exactly what this group is doing. It has taken the Armenian genocide and other genocides to be recognized, and now after 100 years, countries across the world are recognizing the meaning of genocide. What is the point after 100 years in recognizing this? We want to do it now so that we can start the process of setting up a tribunal under the United Nations and bringing these people to justice.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs said that he would have supported if we had put in our motion to do something about it or to work with the United Nations to set up a tribunal. If they agree to the motion and they are the government, they should start the process. The Liberals should go to the United Nations. The opposition cannot, but they can. They can set up the tribunal right now and encourage the world to set up tribunals. We are debating what a British parliamentarian said, or John Kerry said. Let us move along and get these people who have committed this horrendous tragedy so that they do not get away. Many of them are trying to run away so they will not be charged under crimes against humanity.

Nonsense. We have laws in Canada to stop them from going there, but things have not changed. The fact of the matter is that the Liberals want to close their eyes and not do anything. This is genocide. We have to go there and bring these people who are committing crimes to justice.

Roméo Dallaire is very clear when he speaks about genocide in Rwanda. There was killing in Rwanda, and at the time no one did anything. I myself have been to Burundi and have talked to a child soldier. When I looked at a child soldier, he was a 13-year-old boy who had already killed 20 people by that time, and there was no emotion there. This was a child soldier.

I am not talking about child soldiers, but about those people who are responsible and should be brought to justice. Right now, we are at war. Many of them have been eliminated through strikes, which is good, because we have to stop this group. At the same time, we should start the legal process to recognize what is taking place there. We should not wait for another 50 or 100 years from now for other parliamentarians to get up in the House and say, let us have unanimous consent to say that what happened in Syria and Iraq was genocide. Let us do it now.

This is the opportunity to do it, and then I think we should pick up on what the Minister of Foreign Affairs said. His government can start doing it by going to the United Nations and saying let us set up a tribunal now. We do not have to wait until they are defeated. Set it up now, and they can be brought in front of a tribunal. That is what ICC has done.

There have been talks in Africa where the African leaders are upset with the ICC, but the fact is that we need to bring people who are committing crimes to justice. Genocide or not genocide, it does not matter. It is there, so let us set it up. Let the message be clear to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the Liberal government, to go to the United Nations and start setting up a tribunal to bring them to justice. Whatever we want to say, it is genocide.

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I debated in the House quite a lot on the issue of ISIL and the engagement of Canada, when he was in the opposition and I was on that side. Therefore, for him to now get up and get really angry, he should not be getting angry.

However, the fact of the matter still remains that over the period of time that we started debating in the House on ISIL, we could see the steps that ISIL was taking. Every day, more and more incidents are coming out to say that ISIL has been acting, not just in massacres, which the minister talked about, but in many massacres that have mounted to the level that there is absolute unanimous opinion that it is a genocide.

Now, if the minister says it is a genocide today, and stops hiding behind the law, it does not change the fact that those who committed this crime need to be brought to justice, either through the International Criminal Court or whatever means of international justice there is.

Therefore, it is still beyond my understanding why the minister would not simply say this and why he would hide behind the law.

[Spring Festival, June 1st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise up during spring and talk about the spring festival.

As Canadians, we all love festivals. Most of our festivals, due to the weather, are in summer. We should not forget the traditions that have come from other parts of the world to Canada today, which is home to millions of Asians who live in this country.

I want to commend my colleague for highlighting the contributions of Asian-Canadians to the society of Canada. I am delighted. I want to thank my hon. colleague from Richmond for giving me this spot to speak and highlight more about the spring festival.

In Asia, there are spring festivals. The spring festival comes from the countries of Southeast Asia. I have a very large community of Vietnamese-Canadians living in my riding who celebrate spring festival. It is a joyous occasion that we always look forward to. We look forward to it not only because of celebrating with them, but we look forward to understanding the great achievements they have made.

When we go down to the spring festivals and cultural shows, it is just outstanding. It is absolutely outstanding. Do not forget about the great food and the 10-course dinners that we get, which my hon. colleague just enjoyed in Vancouver. He greatly enjoys the cultural heritage of the Chinese community. It does not matter whether it is from Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, or wherever, it is an honour to be there.

I must give credit, as the cultural events that are performed by these great groups are outstanding and a great heritage to Canada. While we can say that this is a Vietnamese show or a Chinese show or an Indian show, or whatever, ultimately it boils down to the fact that they are Canadian shows. They are done by young Canadians.

It is great, and we are honoured that in this great land of ours, without going to distant countries, we can see the diversity and the cultural heritage. Spring festival is part of that. I would be remiss if I did not say that I think it is a great thing to organize, and to recognize our fellow Asians on this occasion.

Similar to spring festival, another great festival that comes from Asia is the Vaisakhi celebration. It is celebrated in China and other countries. The Vaisakhi is a celebration when the harvest is done and people want to go out and celebrate. It is a great spring celebration that we can see across this country, with great parades taking place.

On the other hand, in India they celebrate Holi, which is throwing colours onto each other. I have been a victim of that colour throwing. Again, it is part and parcel of the festival, and part and parcel of Asian heritage. Indeed, it goes without saying that it is a great thing that we in Canada celebrate the diversity of our history.

The hon. member talked about the Chinese head tax and the recent apology made by the Prime Minister about the Komagata Maru, all of those things. In putting all of this behind us as we look forward and move forward, these festivals bring the richness of the culture and push the past away.

It is quite a great pleasure and honour to be supporting this motion and recognizing the contributions made by Asians in this country. I will just say in closing, let us celebrate the celebrations for everyone. Let us celebrate our land and move on.

To everyone I say, enjoy the spring celebrations.

[Spring Festival, June 1st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for bringing this motion in front of the House. Indeed, he can count on our support for this motion. It is a great motion for spring festival. It is a great way to celebrate the Asian heritage. During my speech, I will allude to the bigger festival that automatically comes from Asia.

Just as a little context, as I was saying to my friend from Lloydminster, in Canada we come out of winter. When we come out in spring, we go into farming. We go seeding and everything, and start working. In our case, we come out after the harvest is done. Indeed, I will be supporting the motion with my colleague from Richmond.

[International Development, May 30th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are all over the place on international development.

The minister has launched yet another review and another consultation to determine how Canada can refocus its international assistance. On one hand, the Liberals say they are reviewing the system, but at the same time, the minister keeps promising Canadian money at the international forums.

Does this not make the Liberals' consultative process a big sham?

[Privilege, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, yes, it did look like it was an assault.

It was something in the House of Commons that never should have taken place. When touching anybody, intentionally or unintentionally, one has to be responsible for their actions. For the Prime Minister to go out there and pull the whip's hand, which we all saw on the video, it was really not very appropriate.

When he got up immediately after that yesterday, he tried to defend himself. He tried to defend himself. Not only that, members of the Liberal Party tried to defend his actions. They cannot defend what was very clearly on the video. What was even more terrible was that the Liberal members were doubting the statements of members on this side who witnessed everything. They were not respecting what was being said over here.

As a matter of fact, one member of Parliament sitting way at the other end thought she saw the whole thing. Sitting here, I could not see because there were too many people around.

Those who were there, who witnessed it, and who spoke about it, their testimony should have been respected. It was not respected.

[Privilege, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for what she said about coming to Canada. Thousands and thousands have come to Canada, including myself. This is a land of immigrants.

Yesterday started as a great day, with the apology to the South Asian community on the ills of the past. It started as a great day and it ended with the Prime Minister absolutely destroying what should have been one of the best days for Canada with his actions.

Again I agree with the member, apologizing is not going to solve the problem. There is a fundamental flaw in the government, and that is that it is not respecting the opposition. It is trying to take away the powers of the opposition. That is a fundamental issue with what the government is doing. If it does not correct that, their attitude will remain poisonous.

Therefore, as the Leader of the Opposition has appealed and we are appealing, let the Parliament do its work.

[Privilege, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, as most of my colleagues in this House know, I am one of the longest serving members in this Parliament. During that period of time, I have been in the opposition, in the government, and now back in the opposition. What is more important is that during all this period of time that I was on both sides, we had a great relationship with each other because we recognized all of us were elected as members of Parliament and, as members of Parliament we had a duty, first to our constituents and second to our country.

Taking that into account, I have extensively travelled around the world with colleagues from both sides of the House and other parties including, I must say, the current House leader when his father was the Governor General of Canada.

During all of this period of time when we were travelling around the world, everybody commented on one thing. We visited some parliaments where they were unruly, emotions were flying very high, and parliamentarians could not control their emotions. We have seen in many parliaments fist fights and all these things. There was always one comment, “You Canadians are so respectful of each other. It is amazing to see the opposition and the government working together. We wish our politicians would do that. We wish our parliament would do that”. That made all of us feel very proud.

Mr. Speaker, before I continue, I will say that I will be splitting my time with my colleague the member for Flamborough—Glanbrook.

We had a great reputation around the world for respecting each other.

What happened yesterday absolutely shocked us. The shocking incident that took place yesterday is going around the world and people are now wondering, really, what happened, “Where is this great respect that Canada had?” The respect everybody had in this institution was broken yesterday, and broken very badly.

Of course, the Prime Minister has apologized for that. I am glad he is taking full responsibility, as it is appropriate for him to take full responsibility.

Nevertheless, I want to talk from my experience in this House about what led to yesterday.

As I said here before, we have had other governments. When we were in government, we all respected what each other's government was doing and how they were doing. They had good points. Every government does. However, when the present government came into power, the first thing it did was to insult other governments, other people working in this House, other members of Parliament in this House.

The first time the Prime Minister went around the world, he said, “Canada is back”. In the last 10 years, I worked my butt off for Canada on the international scene, and here is somebody going around, insulting not only the work we have done but also that of the public service and of everybody who has been working so hard over these years.

That attitude is the attitude that is prevailing in the government: insulting what others are doing because, somehow, it thinks it has received such a terrific mandate from the Canadian public. Let us see. How much mandate is that? It is only 38%.

Coming along with that attitude, the government has done everything possible to shut out the opposition. They were in opposition, but most of the members are new on the other side. Some have been in other legislatures, but for most of them, this is the first time they are in Parliament. It is the first experience for them, and the experience for them should have been the Prime Minister, the government, and my colleague from the government who has been here for a long time, all showing respect for others because they were in the opposition.

During the time we were in the government, we never treated the opposition in the manner it has been treating us.

Motion No. 6 would take away the rights of the opposition to work, so it can be part of their agenda.

This attitude that this government has come out with, insulting the opposition, insulting members of Parliament, culminated yesterday in an action. We all saw that action. He was angry. The Prime Minister was angry because he could not get his way.

It is something that he has been showing since his government was elected, absolutely disregarding this institution, which is the seat of democracy and where, through the government and opposition, the House has tremendous experience. All this has been thrown out by the Liberal government.

It is amazing how the direction the Liberals are taking does not respect the democratic institution and that is what happened yesterday. I have received terrible tweets, insulting me racially, but they seem to forget that we were elected. Everyone here was elected to represent constituents.

A member of Parliament on the other side called the previous government “regressive”. Come on, let us be honest about this. We won an election. If we were regressive, does anyone think we would have been elected in 2011 with a majority? But governments change. The last government changed. Prime Minister Chrétien's government changed. Prime Minister Martin's government changed. Governments change, but we do not go about insulting others or talking about the opposition.

We come here with experience. Our job is to hold the government accountable. On many occasions, we agree with the government. As the international development critic, I have agreed with some of the positions the government has taken and I commend the members for this, but that is working together. Now the Liberals have come in with a new bill and they have poisoned the atmosphere here in the House where we cannot trust the government. We are supposed to be working together for the Canadian public, not against each other.

I want to tell my colleagues on the other side that they will get invitations to go to schools. In the last months, I have been to two high schools and tonight I will be going to a school in Calgary to speak to the students. They are very much interested in democracy. They are very much interested in how the House of Commons works. I explain very clearly to them how it works and I never take a partisan stand, but I say this is the way the government works, how the official opposition works, and how third parties work.

What happened yesterday was absolutely shocking, but this is the attitude. I am glad the Prime Minister has made his apology. As the Leader of the Opposition said, he made an official apology, which is the first step, but the second step is to respect every member of Parliament, respect the opposition, so that they can do the job they were elected to do. That is the key.

Now that this has happened, we have to move forward and the only way we can move forward is to show respect for each other so we can gain the same respect we have around the world when I travelled and everyone said they were very much impressed with the workings of the Canadian Parliament.

[Maternal and Child Health, May 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, this week, we mark the international maternal, newborn, and child health week.

Maternal, newborn, and child health was made Canada's top international development priority by our Conservative government. Through the MNCH initiative, we supported micronutrient programs that ensured millions of children around the world received essential vitamins, vaccines, and had access to clean water and sanitation. About 80% of the beneficiaries were women and children. When women and children benefit, the whole world benefits.

We can be proud of the difference we have made in the lives of the most vulnerable around the world, particularly mothers and newborn children. We are happy that the government is continuing with the groundbreaking development initiatives begun by our Conservative government.

I invite all members to attend a reception on Parliament Hill this evening to mark the importance of MNCH, which is organized by the Hon. Asha Seth and the Hon. Norman Doyle.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, it is very important to listen to Canadians. Committees do that. It is great when they come back. The committee is already out there doing that. The committee will come back with recommendations, and the recommendation will be to move forward with adjustments here and there.

It is a great thing that the committee is out there listening to Canadians. There could be other venues where they can also consult Canadians. However, it is not wrong for the government to say that in principle it supports the TPP. It is time for the government to say that it is ready, in principle, to support the TPP.