Mr. Speaker, I stand in the House saying that we stand with Ukraine, an important friend and ally of Canada, important not just to the 1.4 million Canadians with Ukrainian ancestry but important to every single Canadian in this country, because Ukraine is our friend, our trading partner and our ally.
This is a debate not about hashtags or holding a sign up on Twitter, as the minister and the Liberal government have done; this is a debate about who Canadians are as a friend on the world stage. This is a debate about our values as a nation and the dependability of Canada as an ally. From Vimy Ridge to Kandahar to all points in between, to the Donbass today, is Canada that friend and ally that the world knows? Is Canada living up to its reputation as a founding member of NATO? Is Canada living up to the fact that NATO would not have been formed but for the role that Canada played in bridging the Atlantic nations in World War II, and as Winston Churchill described us, as the linchpin between the free peoples of Europe and of North America?
Ukrainian Canadians are demanding more from this government than hashtags. Canadians, and indeed our allies and friends around the world, are asking Canada for more than hollow words and empty gestures. We can send as many ministers to Kiev as we wish, but if they come with nothing but hollow words as we evacuate our people, that is letting our friends down. It is also letting our country down for its values.
An important principle of Canadian foreign policy should be that we must never turn our backs on our friends and allies. We should not hesitate to help them when they ask for it, as we have always done in Canada's history.
From Vimy Ridge to today, Canada has been known to be there for our friends, for our allies, but also for our values of liberty, freedom and dignity of person. These are values we have fought and died for.
Ukrainian Canadians have built this great country, and there are members on both sides of the House. There was the first Ukrainian-Canadian Governor General, the great Ray Hnatyshyn, former Conservative member of Parliament. I think of the first cabinet minister of Ukrainian extraction, whom I met because he is from my area, Michael Starr, the former MP from Oshawa. My first event as an aspiring politician was at the Lviv Hall with my Ukrainian-Canadian friends in Oshawa. My friend from Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, my wingman of late, introduced the Holodomor commemoration in the House, one of the first western parliaments to talk about the horrific famine brought on the Ukrainian people by the Russian overlords at the time, by the Soviet Union, a neighbour that has always impinged on the freedoms of Ukrainians, and it is up to us as Canadians to be there now for them.
In fact, I had the honour in 2014 to be in this chamber for a speech from President Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, who was invited to speak about that friendship between our two countries, and he said this:
Today thousands of brave Ukrainian men and women are sacrificing their lives for the right to live the way they choose, on their land, under the blue and gold colours of the Ukrainian flag, colours that are so dear to many Canadian Ukrainians. In these dark days, we feel your strong support. Thank you very much for that.
He went on to say:
It is in our time of need that we see our friends, and there is no other way to put it: Canada is a friend indeed.
Prime Minister Diefenbaker challenged Russia to allow free elections for Ukrainians. It was the Mulroney Conservative government that was the first ally to recognize the independence of Ukraine. It was Prime Minister Harper who famously, after the invasion of Crimea, said to Vladimir Putin, “Get out of Ukraine.” What do we have from the current Prime Minister? We have hashtags. We have ministers embarrassingly holding up a sign on Twitter. That is what Canada is known for now: Twitter diplomacy, but not standing with our NATO allies.
In fact, everything that has been done in the last decade for our allies and friends in Ukraine was initiated by Conservative governments: Operation Reassurance; Operation Unifier; the use of RADARSAT images, which the Liberals removed a few years ago; and military equipment. It was all of those measures. In fact, we had to push to get the government to extend Operation Unifier. Liberals waited until the very last minute.
The Ukrainian government, including its former ambassador just this weekend, has been asking for lethal defensive weapons. Why? Here is what they are facing. There are citizens in Ukraine today being trained on how to use a rifle, being trained on hand-to-hand combat. We are so fortunate as Canadians that this is something we do not have to worry about. There are 130,000 troops lining up. There are 60 battalions, tactical groups, that the Russians are lining up on the border. Russia outnumbers Ukraine four to one in military personnel, 22 to one in fighter planes, 15 to one in attack helicopters and five to one in battle tanks. They are asking for our help in their hour of need, and other allies have responded: the U.S., the U.K., Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic. Where is Canada? When our friend and ally is in need, where is Canada?
The Liberals will be all over the Internet and social media talking about how they support Ukraine, but they will not give Ukraine what it needs to stop those who threaten its sovereignty.
The time for half-measures is past. Ukraine needs our help and support now, but all the Liberal Prime Minister does is post hashtags on Twitter. That is not good enough for our allies and friends, and it does not reflect our country's values.
The world is watching. This is not a time for Twitter. This is not a time for hollow words and rhetoric. There is a real chance that there could be an invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Mr. Putin has shown his callous disregard for sovereign territory, as we have seen in Crimea, the phony war in the Donbass, the influence, the cyber-attacks, the shutting down of the hydro grid. The bad actor of the world needs to be called out, and NATO is doing that, but one of the founding countries of NATO, Canada, is missing in action.
On this issue, I am sure many in the Liberal government wish they were doing more than just brief trips over there to say hello. I am sure many are wishing they were responding to the request of our ally in its hour of need.
Canada may be a smaller nation. Having served in uniform myself, I know we do not have the standing armies and we do not have the fleets of fighter jets, but we have a passion in our glowing hearts. We were always there for our friends and values from the earliest days, before our American friends.
As Lester B. Pearson, a Liberal Prime Minister, once said, if a rifle is fired on the Korean Peninsula or in Europe, it is just as important to defend Canada as if it was done here on our own soil.
The government has a choice while there is time left. Step up and help our friends in Ukraine. Step up with the equipment they say they need to fight against overwhelming odds. Show the world Canada remains a friend and ally who is there through thick and thin.
