Deepak Obhrai

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me answer some of the questions the opposition has been asking, saying that the government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

Let me be very clear. We are speaking right, exactly, and saying that this government has taken, for the ninth consecutive year at the Union Nations, the initiative with the international community to condemn human rights violations in Iran.

Let me just say this also to my friend right across the aisle. Canada is not, and I repeat for his information, Canada is not beating the drums of war he was talking about, in typical NDP fearmongering. What we are talking about, as a matter of fact, is that we asked for restraint and diplomacy to work first before any other issue. This is what we have told our ally, Israel, about this. Let diplomacy do the work. We are working with the international community.

This government is very proud of its record as far as Iran is concerned, with its sanctions and everything else put on Iran to tell Iranians and also the international community at the United Nations, getting the international voice behind us, in condemning the human rights abuses in Iran.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Canada is home to large number of diaspora from Iran who have found their way into Iran and the Government of Canada has accepted these bi-racial refugees and we will continue to do so.

There are a lot of other areas around the Middle East where Iranian refugees can go and can file a claim as a refugee. Canada will, of course, meet its obligations. Canada is one of the leading supporters of UNHRC, the refugee determination system of the United Nations, and Canada has always opened its doors to those refugees who fall under that category. We normally take 25,000 refugees as identified by the UNHRC and many of them are Iranians.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I just informed the House about the resolution that we put forward at the General Assembly of the United Nations. This resolution highlights serious ongoing and repetitive violations of human rights by the Iranian authorities, including the ones the hon. member mentioned. In fact, it calls on Iran to address the substantial concerns highlighted in the report by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the specific call that found action in previous resolutions.

The resolution calls on Iran to abolish the use of stoning and hanging as a matter of execution and further calls on Iran to respect human rights obligations.

We share the member's concern in reference to the method of execution, death by hanging. We join with the United Nations and everybody else to call on Iran to stop it.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about human rights issues and, more important, when the member talks about the UN Security Council, Canada has not lost its voice there. I just said that at the UN General Assembly Canada sponsored the resolution on Iran and e 89 member states supported our vote with only 30 member states against. This represents the largest margin of support since 2003. Therefore, Canada has not lost its voice on this stage.

As to the visa office, tonight we are debating the issue of human rights violations in Iran. I would ask the hon. member to stick to that topic.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I stated in my remarks that we are highly concerned with the situation of human rights, specifically that of the Iranian government targeting its own citizens when political views do not match. The member just highlighted one of the groups in which the government of Iran has been abusing human rights because it does not like what the group does.

As I stated in my presentation, the political freedom in Iran under that regime is very limited and we have raised concerns. One of the reasons Canada takes such a strong stand at the United Nations is to condemn all of the human rights violations that are occurring in Iran, including the one the hon. member mentioned.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise this evening to kick off the debate on this motion regarding the horrific human rights situation in Iran.

Our government continues to have deep concerns about the situation of human rights in Iran, concerns that I know are shared by every member of the House. Iran's refusal to respect human rights obligations is a violation not just of universally recognized norms and standards but of those enshrined within its own constitution.

Let me highlight some of the human rights violations in Iran.

First, the suppression of women's rights in Iran is particularly troubling. Women face many restrictions on their freedoms. For example, they are unable to run for president or to serve as judges. They cannot have full guardianship over their children after divorce. As inheritors, they receive half as much as men, and their court testimony is worth half that of a man. A woman who refuses to cover her hair may face a jail term and up to 80 lashes. Women who belong to ethnic or religious minorities face discrimination on multiple levels.

With respect to religious minorities, Iran remains a dangerous place for members of numerous communities, including the Baha'i. For years, this peaceful community has been targeted by the Iranian authorities and subjected to discrimination and detention. Baha'i leaders have been arrested and imprisoned for practising their faith. Iranian officials have also made statements to try to link the Baha'i to the political unrest in that country. These are trumped-up accusations and a cause of concern for the safety and well-being of those unjustly detained in Iran. In fact, today, on the fourth anniversary of the arbitrary arrests and detention of several Iranian Baha'i community leaders, we are particularly reminded of the ongoing, persistent and pervasive prosecution of religious minorities.

Equally troubling is that almost three years after the 2009 elections, the efforts by the Iranian government to suppress the voices of those who seek to exercise their basic political rights continue. Leaders of the pro-democracy movement remain either in jail or under house arrest.

The Iranian government continues to take steps to curb Internet freedom and prevent an exchange of ideas on governance and human rights. Those seeking to speak out in favour of reform are facing even greater obstacles to free expression.

Canada, along with its allies, leads the international community in putting pressure on the government of Iran to be accountable for its actions. As part of our ongoing efforts to promote respect for human rights in Iran, Canada once again led the resolution on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 2011 fall session at the United Nations General Assembly. This was the ninth consecutive year that Canada led this initiative. In December 2011, the General Assembly adopted this resolution, with 89 member states supporting the vote and only 30 member states voting against it. This represented the largest margin of support since 2003.

The promotion and protection of human rights has been and continues to be an integral part of our government's foreign policy. Canada stands up for human rights and takes principled positions on important issues to promote freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Canada calls on Iran to address the substantive concerns highlighted in the report of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the specific calls for action found in previous resolutions. The resolution calls on Iran to abolish the use of stoning and hanging as methods of execution and further calls on Iran to respect its human rights obligations in law and in practice. Canada believes that the adoption of this resolution provides comfort to human rights defenders in Iran as it reminds them that they are not alone in their struggle to attain their basic human rights.

In addition to our efforts at the United Nations, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs continue to issue frequent statements urging Iran to respect its domestic and international human rights obligations, and our head of mission in Tehran conveys these messages to the Iranian authorities.

Canada remains highly concerned with the routine news of Iran's failure to comply with its international obligations, including nuclear energy support for terrorist country entities.

Canada continues to work to ensure that the human rights situation remains on the agenda and is not overshadowed by other important issues. Human rights is only one of four areas where we engage Iranian officials under the controlled engagement policy that Canada put into place in 1996 and tightened following the death while in Iranian custody of Canadian Iranian journalist, Zahra Kazemi, in 2003. The other areas of engagement include consular cases, nuclear issues and international security.

It is important for all those participating and listening this evening to know that we will never waver in our commitment to support the people of Iran in their aspirations for universal human rights. They are entitled to the same rights and freedoms as Canadians and, above all, they are entitled to live their lives with dignity.

Tonight in this debate my colleagues will highlight many other abuses that are going on in Iran. We call upon the Iranian government to respect its human rights obligations.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 8th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I can tell him in no uncertain terms that we are not going to be attacking seasonal workers. We know there are four seasons in Canada, and we understand the need for seasonal workers. Therefore, seasonal workers play a very critical, important part of the economy. To ignore seasonal workers would derail our vision of long-term prosperity in this budget completely.

It was a great pleasure travelling with my hon. friend and his father, the late hon. Governor General of Canada, but I want to say that eastern Canadians should be thankful for working in the Alberta oil sands and making our country better. We are looking forward to more people from eastern Canada going to Alberta because we live in one country, Canada, while the leader of the NDP talks only about his region. Therefore, yes, we will look after seasonal workers, but we welcome workers from eastern Canada working in the oil sands, contributing to the wealth not only of Alberta but all of Canada.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 8th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I am extremely amazed at the question the gentleman asked. Since 2008, a tremendous amount of money in stimulus packages was given to the manufacturing industries in Ontario and Quebec. He can see that. There were stimulus packages that kept us out of the recession. As a matter of fact, for his information, we created 700,000 jobs. It was not for only one portion of the country; it was for the whole country. His leader just talked about the oil sands resource sector in Alberta as if it will not benefit Canada. We work for all of Canada, not just one area of Canada.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 8th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, it is a great honour and a privilege for me to speak to this very important budget bill.

I listened to the speech of the member of the Liberal Party. One of the reasons I did not ask him a question was I thought he completely missed the intent is of the budget.

Let me just state what is most important about the budget. The budget has certain key points. One of them is to balance the budget. This is the promise we made to the electorate. We have fulfilled this promise by ensuring that our budget will be balanced by the year 2014-15.

How do we balance the budget? It is very simple. We are cutting inefficiencies in the government. That is why the government tasked the committees for the departments to come out with efficiencies so we could operate efficiently, with a reduction of 10% in their expenditures. At the same time, we are ensuring that the regime of doing business and ensuring our core services are maintained. It is very important that we have a sound, economical management of our economy.

I have many facts from economists who state that this budget looks to the future of Canada by ensuring it is on a path to prosperity.

As Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, this gives me the very rare privilege to travel overseas on behalf of Canada at international conferences. What did I learn from that? A lot of people were asking this one very simple question. During the turmoil taking place in international markets, in the U.S.A., in Europe, everywhere, the question everybody asked was how we managed not to fall into that severe recession. They were very impressed with what was happening with Canada. Our economy is tied to the U.S.A., which is one of the largest economies going through recession. Europe is going through a recession. Yet Canada did not feel the severe effects of the recession. Why? Because the government took proactive steps to ensure that we were insulated from all the aftershocks that took place around the world.

The credit goes to both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance for steering the economy during this critical time since 2008 and for creating over 700,000 jobs. In comparison with all the others, we are sitting in a position where we are not feeling the tremors of the international markets that are taking place.

If we leave that to the anti-trade NDP party, we would feel those tremors. If we leave that to the Liberal Party, we do not know where it is going. We had a debate in the House about giving pensions to self-employed. Guess what? The Liberal Party opposed that.

Clearly we need sound financial management, and this government has provided that.

Let us see what happened this weekend in Europe. The elections in Europe will have a tremendous effect because people have voted for more expenditures. The situation Greece faces today will have a national impact. In case my colleagues on the other side did not bother to watch the report on their favourite television channel, the CBC, because Greece's economy has collapsed, its great Olympic athletes will be unable to attend the Olympics.

That is why it is very important to ensure we never get into that situation taking place in Europe or in Greece. In fact, we are quite concerned with what is going on in France. Hopefully, it will address that issue.

In the Daily Telegraph, the finance minister said quite clearly, in talking about the crisis in Europe, that Canada was taking care and looking after its own house. This budget is about that. He said that there should not be an IMF bailout for the Europeans. The Europeans have the same ability as Canada to look after their house. They should be doing that and not asking for money from the International Monetary Fund, or from other countries, to bail them out because they do not have their house in order.

We should take lessons from what has gone on in Europe to ensure that those conditions do not exist in Canada. This budget is about that.

Everyone will be debating the budget. We have heard the opposition. Since we have been in government, we always expect the NDP to oppose us. I am quite happy when it does because it means we have done something right.

As for the Liberal Party, when it tried to balance the budget, it dumped all of its expenditures onto the provinces, creating a severe problem. Then it suddenly said that it had balanced the budget. This government is not going in that direction.

Our government is taking one of the strongest steps by cutting expenditures by 10%. That impacts everyone. That is the way it should go, cutting expenditures and getting our house in order so we live within our means. That is the most important thing. Then when we live within our means, we are able to fund core policies, policies that are very dear to Canadians, such as health care and the Canada pension plan. All of the policies require sound investments. That is what we will do once we move on this path.

By the year 2014-15, we will balance our budget. We will be living within our means without cutting core principal programs. Sure there have been some job losses. Everyone in the world feels a little pain with cuts. However, the economy will remain strong and everyone will be able to readjust and get those jobs back. That is the key element.

As recently as two weeks ago, when I was with my colleague in Trinidad, I talked to its finance minister. He was quite surprised that we had cut government expenditures by 10%. He told his colleagues that a G8 country was cutting expenditures so it could balance its budget and that was something they should learn. That is what Canada is doing. With sound economic management, we are sending the message to other countries around the world to bring their houses in order so the world economic situation can come back to normal and they will not feel threatened with both the uncertainty in Europe as well as the U.S.A.

It is critically important to understand what the budget will do in the long term. The readjustment is fine. At least inefficiencies are being removed. Does the opposition not think we should bring our house in order? Should we not balance the budget? Should we not live within our means and ensure we maintain that? That is the aim of this budget. I hope the opposition will wake up and see that this is the right budget for our country.

[Treaties, May 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the treaties entitled, “Amendment to the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund on the Reform of the Executive Board”, adopted by the Board of Governors on 15 December, 2010 and “Protocol Amending the Agreement on Government Procurement”, adopted at Geneva on March 30 by the parties to the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement.

An explanatory memorandum is included with each treaty.