James Bezan

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Madam Chair, I want to ask my friend from the NDP from Esquimalt about the experience he has had. Russia is trying to position itself in Ukraine, in eastern Europe. Why does he believe that Vladimir Putin and the regime he has at the Kremlin have been so disruptive in supporting any semblance of democracy, of human rights, of respecting the rule of law? How does the member feel that Canada could do better in addressing those concerns, whether from the standpoint of increasing sanctions or of trying to open dialogue with the rebels themselves? Do we need to continue on this path of supporting Ukraine to ensure that Ukrainians have the ability to, one, defend their sovereignty; two, protect their citizens; and, three, ensure that their rule of law is respected as they try to reform themselves economically through democracy and through their judiciary?

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence for his comments, and I want to remind him that we have to remember first and foremost, I actually advocated for the non-lethal military equipment that we provided to the Ukrainian military. I accompanied some of those equipment deliveries in 2014 and 2015. At that point, we had just signed the second Minsk agreement. That agreement was holding. It was working. We were participating in the co-operation training agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States in training up Ukrainian forces.

However, in the last six months, the Minsk agreements are no longer holding. The violations are rising on a daily basis. Troops are killed and injured every single day. There have been 10,000 Ukrainians who have been killed because of the situation. The military in Ukraine have been trained up by Canadian, British, and American forces to provide them with the equipment to properly defend themselves, such as sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles, anti-ballistic missiles, ways of dealing with mortar attacks, and also blocking radar from Russian sources. Things like proper radio equipment and night vision goggles are needed now. Those things are always needed and are something that we should be supplying without any hesitation. However, the lethal weapons are required for Ukraine to protect their citizens, first and foremost, and to make sure that this war in Donbass does not spread to the rest of Europe.

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank our public safety critic. He knows all too well that the Budapest memorandum was signed in 1991 by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Ukraine, and Russia, five partners, who all said that they would honour the sovereign territory of Ukraine if they gave up their nuclear warheads. It was the second-largest arsenal in the world, even ahead of the United States at that time. They gave it all up. Where did most of those nuclear warheads go? They ended up back in Russia to be dismantled, to be disposed of.

How were they paid back? Just over 20 years later, they were invaded by Russia itself. Mother Russia came back to claim what they consider to be Russian territory.

We have to remember that Ukraine existed before Russia did. We have to remember that the Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea, have said no to this invasion and illegal occupation and now are being banned of their human rights. They are no longer allowed to worship in their mosques. They are no longer allowed to meet and associate together in their parliamentary assembly, the Mejlis. They are no longer allowed to produce their papers or have their radio stations or television stations. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press have been completely removed by the Russian occupier in Crimea. The Kremlin illegally annexed it, they fixed the referendum, and the world did not honour the Budapest memorandum.

What do these legal treaties and world laws mean if nobody is going to enforce them? The least that we can do, as Canada, is to continue to isolate Vladimir Putin and the regime in the Kremlin from carrying out their aspirations on the world stage, ignore them in international organizations, and work through other groups like NATO to force them back to the table and out of Ukraine.

Crimea is Ukraine, Donbass is Ukraine, and Canada will always stand with the people of Ukraine.

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague, the NDP critic for defence, for the great work that he does on the defence committee.

I share his view that there is definitely a concern in Washington, as there is here, that Russia is no longer a trusted partner in the geopolitics not only of eastern Europe and Ukraine but also with respect to the aggression it is showing around the world, and its complete dismissive attitude toward other world leaders and the rule of law from an international standpoint. What it did in Crimea is a case in point on how it is prepared to redraw international boundaries without any respect or apprehension at all for how the world may react. We do have to continue isolating Vladimir Putin on the world stage. We have to continue the sanctions until Russia and the people of Russia realize that the path they are on is not acceptable to the world as a whole.

There is a concern from the lessons learned on how Vladimir Putin thinks. The member is correct in pointing out that Vladimir Putin will test President Trump. He tested President Obama early on in his presidency when President Obama made the decision that he was going to draw a red line on whether or not he was going to bring military action against Syria for the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing. That was the signal for Vladimir Putin to actually invade Ukraine. When he sees someone waffling, he takes it as a weakness and an opportunity to advance his own imperialistic aspirations to expand the Russian Federation. Although Vladimir Putin is KGB trained, has been the President of Russia for a very long time, and is probably the richest man in the world, we have to also realize that this individual has an imperialistic view of a return of the old days, not of the Soviet Union but of the Russian empire itself.

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Chair, it is indeed an honour to speak about Operation Unifier. I want to thank the minister for her comments, and I want to thank the Liberal government for extending the Conservative Party's original Operation Unifier. It is the same in size and scope, and has the same ideal, which is to provide the training that so many military in Ukraine need.

We have to remember that when this battle broke out, when Russia invaded and illegally occupied and illegally annexed Crimea, Ukraine's military had been somewhat decimated under the leadership of President Yanukovych. Yanukovych had taken away their ability to train and their ability to fight. He had sold the Ukraine military equipment and machine behind it.

To hear the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands talk about a coup, she is completely discrediting the students, the citizens of Kiev, the citizens of Lviv, the citizens right across Ukraine who took to the streets to protest against the corrupt government of Viktor Yanukovych and everything that he stood for.

He turned his back, after negotiating a comprehensive economic free trade agreement and co-operation agreement with Europe that actually was the catalyst for the people of Ukraine, especially the youth, tired of being lied to by Viktor Yanukovych and his regime. He was there, propped up by Vladimir Putin, propped up by illegal money coming in from the Russian mafia, funnelled through Donbass, especially through Donetsk. That individual robbed the treasury of the people of Ukraine. He took all of the gold reserves, all of the cash reserves, and fled to Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

That was not a coup. It was not orchestrated by anyone in the west. This was a citizens' revolution of dignity on the Euromaidan that took place in Kiev and across Ukraine. We must never, ever forget that. For anyone to come in here with fake news from RT television, Russia Today television, I can say upsets me, as members can tell, to no extent of my better judgment.

I have to say that as Conservatives, although we are happy that the government has extended Operation Unifier, we did present the government a couple of weeks ago with our own Ukrainian defence and aid package, because there is so much to be done. There is so much that Ukraine has asked for. There is so much that the Ukrainian community has called upon the Government of Canada to continue to do. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress sent out a great briefing to all members of Parliament for tonight's debate talking about what needs to happen, what the background is for those members who are not familiar with everything that has taken place in Ukraine, of the interference that is coming from Vladimir Putin and the regime in the Kremlin.

I have to share my sentiments with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I know she is sincere. She is as passionate as I am about Ukraine and everything that Ukraine stands for. As prairie farm kids of Ukrainian heritage, she and I share that ideal and connection to the homeland of our baba and gido and want to make sure that our families' roots of the old country, as we always called it out in the Prairies, are never forgotten, and that we stand with the people of Ukraine.

As is being demonstrated tonight in the debate here, we are in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We stand with them in their support of democracy. We stand with them as they want to have reform of their judicial system, of their economy. As the minister alluded to, the negotiation of the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement started under the previous Conservative government of Stephen Harper and was finalized by the minister herself. I thank her for carrying the ball over the goal line and making sure that this deal happened to ensure that Ukraine has that opportunity for economic prosperity. That will be the telling tale at the end of the day, that Ukraine has succeeded.

On top of expanding and continuing Operation Unifier, I have to thank the brave men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces. Even though the government just announced a week and a half ago that it was extending the mission for another two years, fresh troops, fresh trainers out of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry stationed in Edmonton were deployed more than three weeks ago. They are on the ground doing the training. They have taken over from the troops that are returning to Canada. I thank all members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are over there helping Ukraine.

As a former parliamentary secretary to the minister of defence I had the opportunity to accompany our delivery of non-kinetic defensive equipment for the military of Ukraine. I am talking 70,000 pairs of boots, winter coats, jackets, night vision goggles, and also the supply of RADARSAT imagery which is so important. Unfortunately, last year the government cancelled that program. I still call upon the Liberals to reinstate RADARSAT 2 imagery. It was saving lives. When he visited here two years ago, President Poroshenko said in the House that RADARSAT 2 imagery was saving lives. We shared that data so Ukraine knew what the Russian-backed rebels were doing in Donbass. When it could see the movement of troops and heavy artillery across the Russian border into Ukraine, Ukraine's troops were able to reposition themselves accordingly. Without those radar images from RADARSAT 2, we are putting those troops in danger.

As we have witnessed since the end of 2016, the Minsk agreements are not at all being enforced. They are not being respected by Russia. They are definitely not being respected by the Russian-backed rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk, and Ukraine is paying the price.

It is contingent upon us, especially the Government of Canada, to resupply Ukraine's military with RADARSAT images so it knows what the Russians are up to and what equipment they are providing and it does not just rely on intel.

We called on the government to add Ukraine to the automatic firearms country control list so that officials could come to Canada and buy Canadian-made weapons. They have to be able to defend themselves. If we could supply them with sniper rifles, Javelin missiles, anti-tank missiles, if we could provide them with the equipment to take out any short-range mortar attacks and defend their sovereignty, defend their troops, defend civilians in Ukraine, they would be better off. Canada would be better off and all of NATO would be better off if Ukraine was better able to defend itself. If the Ukrainian military had the equipment it needs to stop the advancement of Russia and its imperialistic advancement into eastern Ukraine, and who knows how far it is willing to go, Ukraine would be able to slow down the progress and prevent us some point down the line from having to put our troops in harm's way to stop this war in Ukraine. We definitely do not want to see it spread to other NATO members.

I do appreciate that Canadian troops are going to Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, that our CF-18s are going to be redeployed in NATO, as the Conservative government did, to do Baltic air policing and air policing in Romania, Iceland, and other countries. I also appreciate that our frigate from the Royal Canadian Navy is always in the Mediterranean, in the Black Sea and in the Baltic Sea.

In the past, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has called for Magnitsky-style legislation. I tabled a bill in the House. Our colleague Conservative senator Raynell Andreychuk has Bill S-226 in the Senate, which is at third reading stage. I call upon the government to support that bill when it comes to the House of Commons so that we can have Magnitsky-style legislation to put in place the proper sanctions for corrupt foreign officials and stop the abuse that is happening at the hands of the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia and other countries around the world.

I just wish the minister would put in place the sanctions that she herself had called for. When she was in the opposition as a member of the third party, she used to call repeatedly for the government to sanction Igor Sechin and Vladimir Yakunin and still they are not sanctioned. The minister will have to explain that one herself.

As a Conservative government, we did provide a pile of support. The minister talked about $700 million of support for Ukraine. Some $600 million of that was provided by the Conservative government.

Again, we stand united for Ukraine in this House of Commons, and I just have to say, Slava Ukraini.

[National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, it is a sad day. Here we are again, debating important legislation and the Liberals have moved closure on it, not allowing us to have a full debate and denying members the ability to speak to the bill.

The member talks about how great the bill is, but we know that the proposed changes by the opposition in committee were not accepted by the Liberals. We know the Liberals are trying to withhold information from this new security and intelligence committee to do its job. There is censorship. The PMO has oversight over the ability of the non-partisan, all-party committee to get down to the heart of whether our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and privacy are being protected, whether our national security agencies, such as CSIS, CSEC, the RCMP, the National Security Agency or an investigation agency within national defence, are performing their duties and responsibilities in a way that not only protects Canadians, but also protects our privacy rights and our Charter rights.

Does the member agree that the government is doing the right thing by censoring the ability of the committee to call for papers, to call for people, to call for reports, and publish those reports on a public matter without having them edited and censored by the PMO?

[Foreign Affairs, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, violent intentions in Ukraine are on the rise with an increase in violations of the Minsk peace agreements. Unfortunately, the Liberal support for Ukraine is on the decline.

Extending our Conservative military mission in Ukraine is welcome, but there is more that Canada can offer. The Liberals have already cancelled supplies of radar satellite images, they refuse to sign the defence co-operation agreement, and they have backed down from their campaign promise to implement Magnitsky-style sanctions on corrupt foreign officials.

Will the Liberals stop disappointing our Ukrainian allies and respect the request for providing lethal defensive weapons?

[National Defence, March 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are clearly feeling the pressure to increase defence spending. Reports this week noted that the Liberals are actually going to spend less on defence, but they are planning on cooking the books in hopes of fooling our NATO allies. Instead of including the Coast Guard's budget in defence spending, which is nothing more than just a shell game, the Liberals should pay our troops what they deserve when they are out there fighting ISIS.

Will the minister stop playing shell games with our defence spending and retroactively pay back all the danger pay? I mean retroactively pay it all back to all our troops who are stationed in Kuwait.

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill for her service to Canada when she was in the air force, as well as her husband's. I appreciate her comments about Operation Unifier and Operation Reassurance as deterrence measures against the Russian aggression not only in eastern Europe but particularly in Ukraine. She is married to a good Canadian-Ukrainian boy.

As she was going through all the different missions that were deployed, it was interesting to hear that the Liberals would continue on with our NATO air policing rotations in Iceland and Romania as part of Operation Reassurance measures. It is unfortunate that they did not keep the CF-18s in the fight against ISIS through Operation Impact, which originally were stationed in Kuwait.

As a former serving member, does she believe it was fair that the minister did not use his ministerial authority to stop the clawback of hardship pay and benefits for recognition of the risk the troops were facing and in recognition of the hardship their families were going through as they were deployed overseas? Does she believe the minister should have used that immediately on September 1, as he said he did back in February? Also, does she believe the payment to those troops that are stationed at Camp Arifjan must be retroactive so they receive the same benefits as all of the other troops that were deployed as part of Operation Impact?

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his intervention today and for supporting the motion. One thing I really want to know from the Liberals is whether they are going to support retroactive pay for those who lost the tax benefit of $1,500 to $1,800 a month on September 1, 2016. How soon can we expect this to be fixed so that the remaining 200 troops in Kuwait do not lose those benefits in June?