Jim Karygiannis

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, with everything the government is putting forward, everything it is saying it is going to do and the aid it is going to send, if the government of Sri Lanka does not cooperate and move in a positive fashion, would my colleague ask his colleague, the parliamentary secretary who is sitting beside him, or even the minister and the caucus, to consider setting a precedent by recalling our high commissioner so that other countries can follow suit?

That would be a clear message to Sri Lanka, as it was to South Africa under a Conservative government back in 1992. The world is certainly not going to take this anymore. When we started doing this, the government of South Africa, at that time, moved. I am just wondering if the government would find it in its heart that we should also move in the same fashion, or are these just words of platitude that we are using?

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, if that is unparliamentary, I certainly apologize, but that is for you to rule.

However, the member for Nepean—Carleton, having made those comments that the south was getting less aid than the north, must have been on the verge of really being drunk.

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to address something that was said not by my colleague from the Bloc but by my colleague from Ottawa—Vanier.

He said that he visited Sri Lanka and he noticed that the Tamil area was getting more aid than the Sinhalese area. Either I was not there at the same time he was there, or he was there, probably having smoked some bad dope or probably drunk, but on January 9, 2005, after the tsunami, when I arrived at Point Pedro, the most northern part of Sri Lanka, I saw--and my colleague can visit my website--the army gathering up whatever they could of the remnants of the houses that had been broken up and they were making shacks so they could stay overnight. I have seen a part of the country that the Sinhalese government certainly did not care about.

I am not sure if we visited the same country or if my colleague was there in virtual reality having probably smoked some bad dope.

I would tell him to check his figures again.

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the minister with great interest as he rhymed off figures and facts of what the government has done and what the government has not done.

I am wondering if he would answer one simple question. What has happened in Sri Lanka is a tragedy that is shared by many people, but there is a tragedy also to a particular element of our community in Canada. Canadians of Tamil descent are sponsoring their spouses from that part of the world. In any other post it would take anywhere between six to eight months. In Sri Lanka it is taking up to three years for a spousal sponsorship. They are asked to do more interviews. They are interviewed by CSIS. There are not enough personnel on the ground to ensure these interviews are done quickly.

Could the minister, in this House today, clarify for me, my constituents and the House why the Tamil population in Sri Lanka is being singled out and why it takes up to 300 times as much time to process an immigration file for a spouse of up to three years? I am wondering if the minister could be away from his wife for three years.

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, if the rest of the world fails to act, we should look into the responsibility to protect. If Sri Lanka is not willing to listen to Canada, if it turns a blind eye to us, should we not call the High Commissioner from Sri Lanka on the carpet and tell him that Canada has spoken and it is time to listen?

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, last week I held a round table with my constituents on the issue of Sri Lanka. These are some of the actions they want the Government of Canada to undertake: condemn immediately the slaughter and genocide of innocent Tamil civilians in the northern part of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan army; break its silence about the genocide in Sri Lanka and call upon the United Nations to immediately invoke an internationally sponsored ceasefire, for the LTTE to lay down its arms, and for the Sri Lankan army to return to their barracks. The ceasefire should not be initiated by the Sri Lankan government nor the Indian government. They want an international ceasefire started.

To continue: establish the international community as the administrator of the northern part of Sri Lanka; broker a peace deal with all participants, LTTE and the Sri Lankan government at the table; guarantee access and safe passage of international humanitarian agencies, ICRC, into the northern part of Sri Lanka to administer emergency medical assistance and provide food and shelter to the civilians; guarantee access and safe passage of the international news media into the northern part of Sri Lanka to talk with people and to report accurately on what is going on there so the facts will come out; ensure that fighting stops in safe zones near hospitals, and we have seen what happened with the bombing of a hospital just the other day; and finally, lobby for an international inquiry into the deaths of 300 people in a single day.

They went on to say that we should immediately send peacekeepers to the northern part of Sri Lanka, send medical personnel to the northern part of Sri Lanka, and immediately sever aid and other ties to Sri Lanka until the genocide stops.

Time and time again, I have sent letters to the Minister of International Cooperation, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister saying that there is an international crisis happening in Sri Lanka. Please act. Time and time again I have asked the government to engage both the Tamil and Sinhalese diasporas in a dialogue so that we can find a peaceful solution to what is happening in Sri Lanka. Time and time again, it has unfortunately fallen on deaf ears.

It was not until the government and the Prime Minister were pushed to the nth degree. It was not until over the weekend, when literally thousands of emails, phone calls, faxes and letters went to the minister of external affairs as well as to the Prime Minister. It was not until this side of the House started pushing and pushing hard that the government decided to act. What do we have today? We have a statement that says it is too bad what is happening over there and we trust that the Sri Lankan government will certainly look after things. I still have not heard that we have called the high commissioner of Sri Lanka to the carpet to ask him or her to justify what is going on. I have not heard that should things not change, should this genocide that my constituents refer to not stop in Sri Lanka, we are going to recall our own high commissioner from Sri Lanka. I still have not heard how we would be able to make sure that humanitarian aid reaches the people it should reach.

I say this because of an experience that I had. Four years ago, right after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka, I went to Sri Lanka. I went to Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, the Elephant Pass, as they call it, and I walked the grounds and played with the kids. I spoke to mothers who had lost their relatives. I spoke to the children and played cricket with them. They are the same children we are seeing in photographs today who have been maimed, butchered and possibly killed.

Part of me is still back there with those kids on that cricket field and I have the minister of international aid standing up in this House and saying that we can do things better and that we will deliver the aid. How can the government deliver the aid if the government of Sri Lanka does not adhere to the wishes of the international community? I still have not heard from either minister or parliamentary secretary what they are going to do to guarantee that the $3 million aid we have will reach the people it must go to. I have heard platitudes and that we have a lot of experience. It is the same people who delivered the aid yesterday. It is the same people who delivered the aid before. And it is the same people who are going to be delivering the aid tomorrow.

However, it is those people who are saying to this House, and through you, Mr. Speaker, they are loudly speaking and saying that they cannot go because the government of Sri Lanka is not allowing them. When is the government going to go to the United Nations and push the United Nations for a debate? When is the government going to rise and say that if Sri Lanka does not change its ways, it is going to be kicked out of the Commonwealth? When is the government going to take the responsibility to meet with the Tamil diaspora in Canada and meet with them face to face? The Prime Minister has to sit down with them and say that he wants to speak to them. The government has failed so far.

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member with interest because he is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Cooperation.

When the minister spoke, she alluded to the fact that the present government had better partners on the ground than previous governments. The parliamentary secretary mentioned CARE, World Vision and the Red Cross. I sat here and wondered what had changed and what was different than when the Liberal government was in office and the tsunami struck. They are the same names, the same people.

Could the member clarify for me the comments by the minister? Was the minister aware of what she was saying, or was this a speech that was written? Have CARE, the Red Cross, World Vision become better and they misled previous governments, or were the previous governments stupid when they did business with the same people? Are the same people on the ground delivering stuff now? I am either totally confused or these people are not the same.

Have these people changed or are you just blowing smoke?

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from the Bloc for so eloquently and passionately explaining what is happening in Sri Lanka.

A couple of months ago, we saw what happened in Burma. There was a cyclone that devastated the whole country and the generals were not allowing international aid to go in. Canadian teams were stuck in Bangkok and while they were trying to get visas to get into Myanmar, they were told no. The international community, including this government, condemned that. Canadians of Burmese origin were saying R2P, responsibility to protect. Certainly, this was something that was moved in the United Nations and after a lot of pressure the generals opened their borders and teams were able to go in and help the innocent people who were devastated by the hurricane.

This is the same situation. We have a country, Sri Lanka, and a government not allowing international aid, reporters or international monitors to go in. Governments throughout the world have sort of taken a back seat, especially our government, whose members are presenting deaf ears to the problem. I think they have wax in between their ears. That is fine.

My question to my learned friend is this. Is this not something similar that would require the R2P, responsibility to protect, and especially of the Tamil nation? In Sri Lanka, there are two diasporas, two nations: the Tamil and Sinhalese. In Canada, we have a large Tamil diaspora as well as a sizable Sinhalese diaspora. Should our Prime Minister not go to the United Nations, or send our Minister of Foreign of Foreign Affairs and say he has to go and introduce this, stand up on two feet, provoke and say to them, “responsibility to protect”?

Furthermore, if they are not willing to do it and are not moving, should we not do what we did with Pakistan when Pakistan exploded the nuclear bomb? We got it completely out of the Commonwealth. Should we not also exercise those means and any means possible to make sure that the government of Sri Lanka is responsible for its people?

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I take exception to what the minister said. He said that members opposite went to fundraising events for the tigers. I was one of those members who did go to a fundraising event for FACT, the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils, an organization in my riding. The minister said that there was extortion. I did contact 42 division in my riding and there was no such thing.

I challenge the minister to say that outside or to table exactly what he has that Canadian Tamils were extorted.

[Situation in Sri Lanka, February 4th, 2009]

You are making allegations. Table the proof.