Linda Duncan

[Petitions, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition from Calgarians calls upon Canada to take steps, finally, toward nuclear disarmament.

The petitioners are concerned that over 16,000 nuclear weapons are in existence, 2,000 on alert. Canada joined 190 states almost 40 years ago saying that it would pursue an arms treaty.

The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to urgently request the U.S. and Russia to reduce the alert status of their nuclear weapons and publicly affirm its willingness to engage in negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention or an equivalent framework of agreements.

[Petitions, May 13th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions today from Calgarians.

The first petition calls upon Canada to ratify the arms trade treaty. The petitioners advise us that half a million people die a year in arms conflict, that the trade in arms traps civilians in crime, conflict, poverty, and disrupts the delivery of humanitarian aid. They are concerned that the Government of Canada continues to approve exports of weapons to places such as Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and so forth.

The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada, which voted for the text of the arms trade treaty in 2013, to sign, ratify and implement the arms trade treaty.

[Alberta Election, May 6th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, to quote Alberta's premier-elect, “This is what change looks like”.

I think we made a bit of history last night. An early spring blizzard hit Alberta, but it did not dampen our spirits because we also experienced an orange chinook.

Albertans looked in the mirror and decided it was time for change, a monumental change. Albertans embraced Notley's message that they did not need to repeat history, instead they could make history, and make it they did, electing the first strong majority NDP government for Alberta.

The NDP ran on a platform of hope, putting families first and ensuring a genuinely sustainable resource development for Alberta.

I look forward to working with my constituent, Rachel Notley, premier-elect of Alberta.

As the media have said about Rachel Notley, “This is what a political phenomena looks like”. Indeed.

[Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, April 30th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, this debate is about the decision of the government to reduce the debate on this important bill. I listened to the House leader talk about the great consultation that the government conducted with Canadians.

I took the time to meet with members of one of the mosques in my riding last week and asked them if they had been approached by or met with any of the Conservative members to discuss their concerns with Bill C-51, and they said not once. The members had actually done a survey in their mosque on the deep concerns about the ramifications of this bill. They are also concerned that no one has reached out to them to work with their members to try to prevent anybody from being lured by terrorists.

I take severe objection to the suggestion that there has been adequate consultation with Canadians about this bill and that the bill would not impact the rights and opportunities of Canadians. There are many in my riding who are deeply afraid of the implications of the bill on their rights and privileges in our country.

[Ongoing Situation in Ukraine, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, this is the moment in time when the world is meeting at the UN moving toward nuclear disarmament. That is where we could be putting a lot more effort. I know the current government is not a particular fan of the UN, but we have to remember that there are two major mechanisms we work through, one is the UN and one is NATO.

I note that this military mission, even in training, is not endorsed by NATO. I remain a little puzzled on how exactly we are rationalizing the sending of troops and not seeking the support of Parliament.

Frankly, from my standpoint, I can remember hearing the voices of the Ukrainians on the eastern border with Russia, saying that they did not want Ukrainian or Russian troops in their community because they would be at risk.

Our responsibility is to try to reduce that risk and to try to keep front and centre those families that are being put at risk. Therefore, we need to be exercising every conceivable diplomatic measure we can so it does not move toward a larger scale war.

It is our obligation to stand with other nations and ensure that Minsk II is actually obeyed.

[Ongoing Situation in Ukraine, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I know the hon. member has a strong military background and that is the area in which he is most interested. From my perspective, I have worked many years in foreign aid and that is where my expertise lies. These questions probably belong more to our defence critics.

However, that is the kind of aid that we would like to provide to a lot of countries, but that is not the question before us. The question is: What is the framework for providing that aid, what are the safeguards and so forth? I do not think that it is us who have raised those questions. Others have put those questions to us and we simply put them forward to the government.

One of the things we could do, in the same way that we stepped forward to call for the freedom of Yulia Tymoshenko, is for the government to be upfront and centre to defend Nadiya Savchenko. She is a current hero of Ukraine, and I would like to hear more talk about her and what our strategy will be to try free Nadiya.

[Ongoing Situation in Ukraine, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I find it rather peculiar in this debate that the Minister of National Defence is now interjecting and asking why the NDP is not simply focusing its discussion on military aid, yet his colleagues, including the Minister of International Trade, stood and gave a lengthy speech about the need for Canada's support in trade with Ukraine. There has been discussion about sanctions.

The entire western world understands that in the situation Ukraine faces, it is important that we use every measure at our disposal to help Ukraine to move forward, to fight back against the aggression that it faces from its neighbour Russia, and to fight against the perils in its economy right now. Its democracy has flailed under previous administrations. There are so many pressures that Ukraine faces, and I understand that since this debate began, we have actually had a very convivial dialogue about this.

I have a very strong Ukrainian Canadian constituency in Alberta with which I commune. First and foremost, I thank the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora. The Ukrainian Canadian community in my riding has stepped forward and raised tens of thousands of dollars in support of Ukrainians, after the turmoil, deaths and injuries in the Maidan, to support medical aid and the building of democracy.

I want to tip to my hat to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for its continued relentless efforts to seek the support of Canadians and the Canadian government to build the nation. I also want to thank the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for the establishment of the Canada Ukraine Foundation, through which all of us can contribute to the building of Ukraine.

I want to commend the Canadian government, not simply for stepping forward and providing military training aid. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration was in Kiev, though I have not heard the Minister of National Defence mention that or thank him. He travelled to Kiev and promised additional aid. This additional aid is exactly in the direction that one of my colleagues mentioned tonight, which is building civil society and its ability to hold its government accountable. That is very important. I am also delighted to hear that the FCM will help to deliver that. It has a lot of experience working with civil society.

Many of us have spoken tonight about the clear strategy on sanctioning. I am grateful that the government has been imposing sanctions. Clearly, there are some important people who have been left out, and we are simply asking questions about why those people, in particula, are being left out.

Obviously, we can play a major, ongoing role in diplomacy. We have a long history of diplomacy. Something that was brought to my attention tonight was very interesting. The Elders, which was established by Nelson Mandela in 2007, is travelling to Russia to meet with Putin to try to get him to move more toward peace. This includes Kofi Annan, Lakhdar Brahimi, the former foreign minister of Algeria, Jimmy Carter, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico. Many nations around the world are stepping up to the plate and concentrating efforts to support Ukraine.

One area that I have not heard the government mention, and that actually came forward in the natural resources committee in a full day review, is how we help Ukraine as it is suffering with its problems with energy? Some of the conditions imposed by the IMF are telling it that it has to stop the subsidies on energy. I have been conversing, through one of my former interns, with the officials in Ukraine who are looking for expertise on energy efficiency. That is an area where Canada has a lot of expertise, and I hope the government will move forward, turn to our experts and send them over.

The million dollar question is what happens when the troops move toward Kharkiv or Mariupol? Let us hope that it does not happen. Let us hope that all of the efforts on the front by many nations supporting Ukraine will prevent that from happening.

[Ongoing Situation in Ukraine, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I had the privilege of participating in the foreign affairs delegation that travelled to Ukraine in 2012 to look into ongoing issues with the erosion of the rule of law and democracy. While we were there, we met with many panels of people. One of the panels was very interesting and goes toward the minister's portfolio.

We met with the American Chamber of Commerce, the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Business Association. Those business advisers said to us at that time that unless we had deep pockets, we should be very careful of investing in Ukraine. Since that time, there has been, essentially, a revolution in Ukraine. The people are grateful. They feel that they now have a better chance of having control over their government, but they remain very concerned about continuing corruption and the lack of a flow of benefits to the people of Ukraine as opposed to their flow to the oligarchs

In a meeting just this week that Canada participated in with the donors, the Europeans and Americans again expressed concern that the reforms on the rule of law and anti-corruption are not moving as rapidly as they had hoped.

In my experience in work with Canadian aid in both Indonesia and Bangladesh, Canada provided experts on an ongoing basis and did not have them just parachute in for a week. Is the minister's department giving consideration to actually offering up some financial and anti-corruption experts to help Ukraine over the long term develop these mechanisms to protect both the people and investors?

[Ongoing Situation in Ukraine, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, based on my colleague's extensive experience in foreign affairs and working in many countries, I know she knows all of the pieces that need to be put together to assist a country in distress, such as Ukraine is, and I really appreciate her guidance.

There is one thing I would like to share. The response that my colleague gave to a question put by a Conservative member was to the credit of the Ukranian Canadian Congress, which has established a Canada Ukraine Foundation. I am hearing from Canadians. They are listening to this debate. They are concerned, and I encourage them to donate. That may be one place they can channel their donations through.

I very much appreciate the fact that my colleague has raised this issue about working with civil society, because it is ultimately the one that will work with the government to become less corrupt, to establish democratic foundations and to establish the rule of law. It is the one that must hold its government accountable. It is our job to give that civil society those skills. I am pleased to hear that just this week, Canada finally committed some dollars for civil society, apparently through the FCM, which is interesting.

Could my colleague speak to that, about experiences overseas and aid being given to help civil society to become a better monitor and watchdog over governments?

[Ongoing Situation in Ukraine, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for his very cogent remarks. I thank those who suggested this debate tonight. Those who have people of Ukrainian-Canadian heritage in their community know that this is an important matter, front of mind.

One cannot grow up in our community without either having Ukrainian-Canadians in one's family or having those as close friends, so this is obviously near and dear to the hearts of many of us here tonight who are taking our time to try to bring this forward. As the colleague across the way said, this is a collegial debate. We all want to support Ukraine.

I notice that our country has just come out of a donor conference which started as a donor conference and became, as I understand, an international support for Ukraine conference. It just ended yesterday in Ukraine. The Europeans and the Americans are being very clear. They want to continue to support Ukraine, including the military assistance and training, but on condition that the country generally starts moving toward rule of law, democratic governance and more equitable sharing of the resources.

I am wondering if my colleague could speak to what additionally Canada could do. We have tended to focus on military assistance, but can I suggest we go back to the report that came out of our mission that I joined in Ukraine in 2012, where our recommendations included ensuring that Ukraine moves to a more democratic, rule of law nation. What can we do additionally to ensure it moves in that direction and that we not abandon it?