Garnett Genuis

[Petitions, October 7th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the human rights abuses in Eritrea and calls for a stronger response from the government and the House.

The petitioners note that Eritrea has been ruled by a brutal authoritarian dictator under a totalitarian system for 30 years, with no constitution, no elections, no parliament, no freedom of the press, and no freedom of movement and association. They highlight that Eritreans flee indefinite military conscription, religious persecution and political repression, seeking asylum in other parts of the world. The petitioners also note that the government of Eritrea continues to try to perpetrate human rights abuses against people of Eritrean origin living outside the country and that Eritrean embassies have been sources of foreign interference. They highlight a number of instances of foreign interference being perpetrated by the Government of Eritrea. Finally, in terms of human rights abuses and international peace and security, the petitioners want to draw the attention of the House to the Eritrean dictator's alignment with Vladimir Putin and how that creates security challenges for the wider region by facilitating Russian interference in African states.

The petitioners want to see the government engage Eritrean political and human rights activists and pro-democracy groups and take a leadership role among western allies to challenge the malicious conspiracy between the Eritrean dictator and Vladimir Putin, which is contributing to Russian efforts to expand influence in Africa. They want to see an investigation of foreign interference by Eritrea in Canada and the enforcement of Canada's asylum laws to ensure that those affiliated with the regime are not able to come to Canada. They also want to see Canada take action to support imprisoned journalists and parliamentarians. I have read the names before; I will not do so again, but the petitioners highlight 11 imprisoned Eritrean parliamentarians, as well as Swedish Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, who I believe is the journalist to be held in prison the longest anywhere in the world. The petitioners also want to see strength in sanctions against human rights abusers in Eritrea.

[Petitions, October 7th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with the issue of euthanasia. I have tabled petitions on this topic before, but this is a different petition that highlights, in particular, concerns about recommendation 21 from the 2023 report by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying.

Recommendation 21 deals with the issue of so-called advance requests. The petitioners note that persons who have made an advance request might no longer be able to confirm their wishes at the time of their death, especially if those wishes have changed. The petitioners express concern that advance requests rely on written documents describing a person's future suffering condition. Doctors and families might interpret the request differently from what the patient wanted. The petitioners also note concern that advance requests could lead to coercion or undue pressure for older adults living with disabilities, and they highlight ethical concerns about how an old request would be handled. They note that it is difficult for a person to predict their experience in a situation that they have not yet experienced or do not have the context to predict. As well, the petitioners say that Canada should increase funding for palliative care, hospice care and suicide prevention. They say that offering euthanasia rather than providing support services devalues those living with chronic conditions.

Therefore, the petitioners ask the government not to support any legislation related to the expansion of euthanasia, particularly along the lines of recommendation 21, the inclusion of advance requests. They want to see the House support an increase in government focus on advancing compassionate, life-affirming palliative and hospice care.

[Petitions, October 7th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights a private member's bill that I tabled in the last Parliament. It is Bill C-257 from the previous Parliament. This petition is in support of that bill, a bill that would add political belief or activity as prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act. The petitioners note that being free from political discrimination is a fundamental right here in Canada but that people do face political discrimination in certain situations.

The petitioners want to see the House support the previous bill, Bill C-257, which would ban discrimination on the basis of political belief or activity. They also want to see Parliament act to defend the rights of Canadians to peacefully express their political perspectives.

[Petitions, October 7th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to have this opportunity to present a number of petitions to the House today.

The first petition is on a subject that is very important to my constituents, on the issue of pipelines. The petitioners are no doubt sick of the incessant teasing but failure to deliver from the members opposite. They say that the government continues to import foreign oil even though oil and gas companies are struggling in Canada, that Canada extracts and refines the most ethically sourced oil in the world and that the importation of foreign oil is worse for the environment and undermines our economy and our strategic interests.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to put in place a plan for an east-west corridor to replace foreign oil so that Canada's source of oil and gas remains Canadian and helps to stimulate our economy, provide for greater environmental protection and advance our strategic interests.

These are pro-pipeline petitioners, and I am pleased to table this on their behalf.

[Military Justice System Modernization Act, October 6th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, those statistics are alarming, for example, that we continue to see a very low conviction rate. That is discouraging, no doubt, to those who have been victims and might be considering coming forward or in instances in which we have perpetrators who are repeatedly released on bail, even though they are repeat violent offenders.

We had an opportunity today to try to take some action on that, when the Conservatives put forward a constructive proposal through our opposition day motion to move forward the jail-not-bail private member's bill. The government is trying to create anticipation around a bill that has yet to come forward whereas we, as Conservatives, have already prepared a bill and put forward a solution. The Liberals voted against even advancing that to committee. Victims cannot wait any longer.

I wonder if the member would like to reflect on the results of that vote today and what message the Liberals' opposition to our constructive proposal sends to victims of crime.

[Military Justice System Modernization Act, October 6th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent work. It is almost 10 years that we have been together in Parliament, and I think she has been involved in the work of the status of women committee for all or most of that time.

One observation I would have about this debate is that the Liberals are speaking a lot about the changes they are making to military justice, in particular, bringing this into a civilian context. However, this is also about a context in which we have a dramatic increase in violent crime across the board in this country. We are seeing more burden placed on our police officers and courts. This follows the application of a failed Liberal ideology to the justice system. One needs only to consult violent crime data to see that violent crime was going down prior to 2015 and started going up after 2015. It is not hard to identify what might have been a significant contributing factor to that change in trajectory.

Would the member have any thoughts on how the bill fits into the larger trajectory of events around violent crime in this country?

[Military Justice System Modernization Act, October 6th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her excellent speech and for her important work in Parliament.

A former member of the House, who was, as it happens, from the same province, former defence minister Sajjan, was given an opportunity to receive some information about very serious issues of this nature from the ombudsman and tragically chose not to deal with that information at the time. I do not think we have heard anything from the Liberals thus far in today's debate about how that unfolded or contributed to where we are today on these issues.

I wonder if the hon. member has comments on what happened then and why action was not taken when information was initially available.

[Military Justice System Modernization Act, October 6th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the member spoke about many things related to international peace and security that were different from the bill, so my question will focus on those issues as opposed to the substance of Bill C-11.

The member spoke about the threat to international peace and security associated with Russia's genocidal invasion of Ukraine, and about the Canadian response. I am very concerned that the government chose to create waivers to titanium sanctions. It has a pattern of talking about sanctions and then creating big holes in those sanctions. We still have waivers to titanium sanctions in place that allow the import and use of Russian titanium, and we continue to have barriers to the export of oil and gas that could play a key role in displacing Russian gas exports.

I would like to know what the member's position is on these issues. Why, in particular, has the government put in place titanium sanction waivers to allow the Russian titanium industry to continue to benefit from trade with Canada?

[Petitions, October 3rd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from Winnipeg North points out, this is a long petition. These are important issues, and I appreciate the opportunity to bring them to the House.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to table regular reports in Parliament on the situation of human rights in North Korea, as well as their response to it, including the state of political prison camps, Kwan-li-so and Kyo-hwa-so.

The petitioners want Canada to take action to support North Korean defectors, including calling on the Government of China to allow safe passage for North Korean refugees to South Korea, where they are recognized as citizens; to monitor ongoing human rights issues; to support international efforts to defend the rights of the people of North Korea from crimes against humanity; and to do more to promote political freedom in North Korea and political change there.

[Petitions, October 3rd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, finally, following an event that I had the honour of speaking at earlier this week here in Ottawa, I am tabling a petition drawing attention to the horrific human rights situation in North Korea, highlighting the human rights record of the Government of North Korea and calling for action.

The petitioners note that North Korea prioritizes food distribution to those considered useful to the survival of the current political regime, and this leads to extreme starvation in so many cases. There is a vast state apparatus that is associated with the suppression of dissent, public executions, forced imprisonment of citizens in political prison camps and the terrorization of the population. State-sponsored abductions of citizens of other nations also occur.

The petitioners are also highlighting concerns about how defectors from North Korea who have gone to the People's Republic of China have been sent back. They are calling for action in response to this. The petitioners are raising concerns about how the Government of China deals with the situation of North Korean defectors.

The petitioners call on the government—