Paul Dewar

[Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question, because it really is about ensuring that we are going to focus our sanctions on the people responsible for the repression. To do that, the government has the ability to impose the Special Economic Measures Act—which, by the way, was brought in by Prime Minister Mulroney—to be able to take very specific sanctions and tailor them to the situation at the time.

Right now we have reports of government officials who are taking money out of the country and depositing and investing it in other parts of the world. What we are hearing is that most of that money is being invested in Europe.

We want to make sure that the message is clear that we are going to focus here in Canada to make sure we do not have these investments and that we will put sanctions on anyone trying to invest in that way here. This is why it is important to act. As they say, speeches are great but actions are better, and that is what we want to see.

[Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, absolutely we share the concern.

It is important to put forward very concrete measures that we can ask the government to adopt, which is why the targeted sanctions are important. We are saying that if one is going to have good relations with Canada, there are certain standards one has to abide by. When we see countries that are not following those standards, as was mentioned, we need to speak up, speak out, and act.

I obviously share the member's sentiment that this is about our relationship with the world, which is based on the norms that we share. When governments are offside on that, we have to be clear and declarative, which is why we have to put actions forward.

[Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

I apologize, Mr. Speaker. I should know by now it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I cannot call that a rookie mistake.

On January 21, I sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs asking him to consider action. Then I followed it up, as I mentioned earlier, with a proposal for a motion for unanimous consent.

I am laying all of this out because many say it is not our role to do anything and ask how it is the business of Canada to be telling the government of Ukraine how to conduct its affairs. We have to abide by the sovereignty of other governments, but, make no mistake, this is about what to do when there are problems and using everything we can to support, in this case, the call of the people of Ukraine to ensure they are going to have fair rules and respect for human rights.

With the government of Ukraine turning away from what were the accepted norms of the people, which is to ensure that there is freedom of speech, that there will not be oppression, and that the state will not use its police to crack down on peaceful demonstrators, we do have a role to play. That is why we speak not just with a critique of the government but about what we can do, because if we learn from history, there is one lesson we can learn when it comes to authoritarian governments. If people turn their backs on the actions of any authoritarian government, it will continue to abuse its power. It has been noted already that the president of Ukraine has already done this. He has received messages from the rest of the world and he has tried to pull back on the draconian laws. He has tried to cut a deal on power-sharing.

If we look at this from a strategic point of view, we see that when we are vigilant, when we assure the Ukrainian people that we are going to be with them and put pressure on the government, it is a sign from the international community to the government of Ukraine that it cannot abuse its power without others noting it. That is why it is important for the Conservative government to work with its allies on this.

I have mentioned before that we are hearing that many of the assets of Yanukovych and others have been spirited out into Europe. That is why diplomacy is absolutely critical. It is not just about individual sanctions that we want to put forward and that hopefully the government will accept; it is also about working with our friends in the EU and the United States. If we work together, we know that more pressure can be applied and that the Ukrainian government will not be able to continue down the path of repression. It will not be able to continue down the path of selling off the resources of the Ukrainian people. It will not be able to go down the path of abusing its power.

There is a documented case of the government claiming that it had the right to go forward with some of the initiatives that I mentioned on the deal with Russia. It claimed that it had a majority vote. On January 16, 2014, when it brought in its sweeping, draconian laws, it was claimed by the government that it had passed these laws through its parliament with a majority.

However, this is what has been documented. The speaker asked for a show of hands and then, within mere seconds, announced that these draconian laws had been passed by a vote of 235 in favour, but, as we can do here, they were actually able to freeze a frame of who was in parliament at the time, and there were only 119 Party of Regions MPs in the house who voted in favour. It is that kind of thing, the abuse of power, that we are dealing with.

Let me finish where I started. This is about the dream of the Ukrainian people. When my mother went to Ukraine in 2004 as an observer for our country in the elections there, she came back with stories of people who were finally realizing their dream. She brought me a memento that I will cherish forever--the orange scarf.

It was a time of promise, and the promise must not be forgotten that the Ukrainian people were going to be able to live their dream and have the human rights that we enjoy, the assurance that there would be the basic standards of democracy, freedom of speech, and the ability for people to protest in peace.

Today let us look at what we can do to help the people of Ukraine so that their dream is not lost and that Canada stands proud in the support of the people of Ukraine.

[Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring forward our party's position and to debate with my colleagues the situation in Ukraine. It was just recently, before the House rose for the Christmas break, that we were actually seized with this issue. At that time we had a take note debate, and now we are debating an emergency motion about the situation in Ukraine.

We are focused tonight not only on what is happening on the ground, and I will talk about that, but also on what we can do. I said, when I rose in December and spoke to the issue during the take note debate, that we had to ensure that the dream of the Ukrainian people would not be stolen. I was referring to the dream they had in 2004—when those historic elections happened, when many Canadians were on the ground ensuring there were fair elections—would not be taken away. That is what we are talking about and debating tonight. That is what the people of Ukraine are doing in frigid temperatures, with a fairly aggressive response. They are peacefully demonstrating to ensure that their dream is not taken away, that no one is going to extinguish the dream that we take for granted here. That is the right to assemble, to have fairness and a democratic system that would actually be represented in its legislative affairs.

That is not what is happening now. As we were debating in the House of Commons in December, there were demonstrations happening in real time. The response from the government was to crack down and use the force of the police against peaceful demonstrators. We have seen this descent into chaos because of a repugnant response by the Ukrainian government.

December 10, as we were debating this, was exactly when the Ukrainian officials were using force to dismantle the peaceful demonstrations by everyday Ukrainians. Five days later the EU commissioner stated that the Ukrainian government would not sign the EU agreement that President Yanukovych had said he would sign. In fact, we hoped we would see the Ukrainian government embrace and re-engage with the EU to sign an economic agreement with it, which is what the promise was. It turned its back not just on the agreement but on the Ukrainian people. What we saw directly after that was President Yanukovych and Putin signing a $15 billion loan package and gas deal that sells out several of the strategic sectors of Ukraine's economy and contains provisions regarding the Black Sea fleet and policing. In other words, Ukraine went from going to engage with the EU, which is what people wanted to see and the people of Ukraine were asking for, and it pivoted over to sign a deal with Mr. Putin and sell out many of the assets and oversight of the Ukrainian people to an exclusive couple.

This is why we believe targeted sanctions are necessary. Make no mistake; we are talking about the theft of many of the riches and resources out of Ukraine being spirited over the border, mostly in places like Europe, we hear. Clearly we can send a signal here to say, “If you are responsible for the heinous crackdown we have seen on innocent protestors then your finances are not welcome here”. We will bring in sanctions. We will bring in travel bans here because Canada has to be strong and resolute with the Ukrainian people. That is exactly what we are talking about here today.

That is why last week I wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and asked him to consider sanctions, to be very clear and declarative about our abhorrence of the use of violence against everyday protestors and about the draconian laws that were just passed on the 16th.

Further to that, on Friday I engaged with the government about passing a unanimous consent motion, which we put forward. We negotiated with the government, and we did pass the motion today. I had put forward the language from our party, which we did not pass, but we negotiated with the government to pass the motion.

Our motion actually said that this House condemns the killing and injuring of peaceful protestors and other alarming violations of freedom of speech and association in Ukraine and requests that the Government of Canada take strong action in consultation with our international partners, including individual sanctions against those responsible for human rights abuses, repressive measures and violent crackdowns. What we had in our motion, which the Conservatives decided not to embrace yet and we will continue to try to convince them, is that we should have individual sanctions.

Just as an aside, it is important to note that we do not have to pass a law to bring in individual sanctions. Through the Special Economic Measures Act, the government can do it on its own. So this could have happened in December if the government chose. This is not something that is difficult to do; it is whether the Conservatives want to do it, and I strongly encourage them to do so.

However, we also have to look at what other actions we can add to the toolkit. Not only would I like to look at visa bans and of course the sanctions, but we need to work with our colleagues. By the way, the U.S. has already brought in visa bans. That should be of note. However, we need to work with our friends in the EU, and we hope that negotiations with the EU, which we hear are going to take place tomorrow, are successful. However, we have seen this before. As members know, the member for Churchill went to Kiev and tried to convince the government to change its ways. There was a promise by the government at that time that it would engage with the EU, but we saw that it went back on that promise. We need to work in concert with our allies.

I give credit to the Ukrainian Canadian community for organizing and for being resolute and putting forward ideas that we can look to embrace. In particular, all of us were sent a brief by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. It put forward some ideas we should look at, and we have already discussed some of them.

The brief recommends that our Prime Minister directly call President Yanukovych, demanding that he bring an end to the state-sanctioned killings, violence, reprisals and intimidation. He could offer for Canada to serve as a mediator to bring a peaceful resolution to this conflict. Canada is widely respected in Ukraine. I have already mentioned our past in terms of the 2004 election. We have been there, so we should offer that.

It is calling for sanctions: the imposition of visa restrictions and travel bans for those who are responsible for these horrific crackdowns.

It says that the Canadian embassy could be there to assist, if need be, with medical treatment of those who have been hurt or injured.

It suggests we expedite visas and asylum for those who are needing to flee.

It recommends that we also look at ensuring that—though it is not always possible, but we put the ideas forward—if Canada can, it send independent observers to document what is going on, as was mentioned earlier by one of my colleagues.

These are very straightforward propositions put forward by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. However, Ukrainian Canadians have been very focused on the fact that we have to be vigilant about what Yanukovych is putting forward. I say this with all respect to another government. When we have a president like President Yanukovych who has said he would embrace and engage with the EU and then does not and has said he will negotiate openly and then does not, we have to be very careful and cautious in how we respond when he says he is going to pull back the draconian laws. That is what we are just hearing as of half an hour ago. We have to ensure that actually happens. Also, when he says he would have power-sharing and share the office of the prime minister with the opposition leader, we have to remind Mr. Yanukovych what the protestors and the people are saying. It is not for him to decide who the prime minister is. It is not for him to decide whether laws that are retrograde should go forward. It is what the people of the Ukraine demand. That is why there are elections.

In the elections before Christmas, there were many reports of abuse. The 2004 elections were about finally allowing the Ukrainian people to have their voices heard, with the international community there.

Make no mistake about what the Ukrainian Canadians and the Ukrainians are saying. They are saying, "Do not just do deals, President Yanukovych. Actually act and open the door to the people of Ukraine and their demands". That is what this is about. It is not about cutting deals or about power-sharing. The opposition has been very careful not to fall into that trap.

We believe, on this side of the House, that when it comes to Canada's position and what we are projecting to the world, it is important that we are clear and definitive. I say with pride that, when we had our study on Ukraine, we as a party joined with other members of Parliament to bring forward a report on Ukraine. One of the things we put forward that was a bit different from the other parties—and we were the only party to put this forward—was a supplementary report. As the House knows, that is when members of Parliament from other parties decide they will add something to a report.

We were in concert with the recommendations of the report at the time, but we said the NDP believed we need to wait for any proposed trade deal, which the government was looking at with Ukraine, until such time as we can determine that there were free, fair and transparent elections that were accepted by international standards. Additionally, the release of all political prisoners would have to happen, because this is something we value highly.

We cannot enter into trade agreements with governments that are abusing their power. It is important to be clear about that. We are not saying we do not want to trade; we are saying that if one is going to trade with our country, one has to abide by certain basic democratic principles and human rights. This is something we were clear about when we reported to Parliament about Ukraine prior to our recent debates.

There is another thing I would like to mention. In November, after we saw the government of Ukraine's abuse of power, we issued a statement on November 25, calling on the government to restrain itself and release its political prisoners. We followed that up on December 10 with the debate we had here and we put out a statement asking for the same thing. On January 17, we condemned the repressive use of violence by the government of Ukraine. I sent a letter to Minister Baird on January 21, as I mentioned, asking him to consider some of the actions I have just mentioned.

Mr. Speaker, I see you are giving me the nod for time—

[Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before to previous speakers, this is something we want to work together on. We want to see action.

One of the things I talked about earlier was targeted sanctions. We had hoped to have that in the unanimous consent motion that we passed today. However, we will talk about that further.

It is not only that we should have targeted sanctions, for obvious reasons, but we want to make sure the government uses the tools it has to get at the problem. The problem right now is that we have certain actors within the Ukraine government who are abusing their power and the monopoly of violence they have at their behest.

There is one other thing, and I want to put it to my friend. We have been asked by others for travel bans. That is something we called for when we had egregious laws passed by the Duma in Russia, to have targeted and focused visa bans on those legislators who were responsible for those laws.

I wonder if the member would be in favour of visa and travel bans. Would the government be in favour of working with the Red Cross and using our embassy to help people who have been injured? We know some of the medical facilities have been shut down. Protestors have been hurt; some have been killed. Would the government be willing to look at that as something we could do?

[Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his intervention. He gave a good overview of recent events in Ukraine. He talked passionately about his own point of view.

What we are grappling with now, and will be during this debate, is how to respond. Things are changing on the ground. Things are fluid, as was noted, and will continue to change.

We hope that tomorrow will bring some sort of resolution from the diplomatic efforts we have see by Baroness Ashton and others.

Last week, I wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and put forward a unanimous consent motion on Friday, which we eventually negotiated and saw the House pass today.

However, we wanted to see targeted sanctions. I think it is very clear, and I think my colleague will understand, that we really should have targeted sanctions on the leadership or people involved with what we have seen, the draconian laws and human rights abuses.

I would like to hear his point of view on that. Is it something he could agree to with us, that we have these targeted sanctions put in place?

[Situation in Ukraine, December 10th, 2013]

Mr. Chair, I want to read into the record, in a question to my colleague, something we just received about what is happening right now in Ukraine, in Kiev. This is a letter from the president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. It states:

Dear Members of Canada's Parliament:

As President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, I address you with complete shock and outrage that as you all express support for the people of Ukraine during the take note debate in the House of Commons, Ukraine's “Berkut” special police forces are attacking the peaceful protesters on Kyiv's Independence Square and taking down the Maidan by force. I am watching several live online feeds as the people in the crowd and on stage are praying and calling on the police to show restraint and to stand on the protester's side. Despite these calls the police continue to clear the Square. I ask you all to pray for the peaceful protesters. We as Canadians cannot stand idle. Immediate action is required by the international community. Thank you for standing with the people of Ukraine!

I think that is shared with all of us.

I said “now” because when we debate these issues, often it is about things that have happened. This is happening in real time, right now.

When we hear of something like this and we know that there is an abuse of power, we know, as my colleague said earlier, there is a constitution that protects the rights of people for peaceful protest. Then when all of a sudden there is a conversion by the president saying that he now wants to go Brussels, what more should we do? We should obviously condemn, but what else can we do to show that we are with the people of Ukraine and that we will not stand idly by?

[Situation in Ukraine, December 10th, 2013]

Mr. Chair, to be clear, it is more than a trade agreement; it is a political agreement as well. The strategic partnership agreement framework that the EU has, which we have not signed on to yet, I might note, is an important model. Actually, the agreement with Ukraine is even bigger than the strategic partnership agreements that they normally negotiate along with their trade agreements.

We need to see this happen because we know what is happening right now. We have a president who is pulling Ukraine away from Europe towards Russia. We know the people do not want that. We have to show that we are interested in Ukraine having full and open access to the west through the European Union. We support this political economic agreement that the president walked away from and is playing games with, as members know. There is no question about it.

We believe it is important for the opposition to unite around a similar position. That is where we can help. As we speak, I note that Ms. Ashton is there from the EU, engaging diplomatically. Hopefully, we will see a change of mind.

I would also note, just off the BBC wire, that we now have the president saying he might go to Brussels next week. Well, would that not be interesting?

We cannot turn our backs. We have to turn the pressure up. On this side, we believe in that political economic arrangement. We believe we should be pushing for it and that we should see a united opposition. We believe we should be doing everything we can with our diplomatic muscle to encourage that engagement with the EU, absolutely one hundred per cent.

[Situation in Ukraine, December 10th, 2013]

Mr. Chair, that is a superb question. That is why these take note debates are really important. We can discuss ideas, put proposals forward, and have a good discussion when we have more than 35 seconds.

It is really important that we focus on the media. These elections were not fair because the ability of everyday people to get their message out was being controlled by the media. It was the same with the incarceration of political opposition leaders. There cannot be a full debate if people are restricted because they are incarcerated, obviously.

However, what my colleague from Edmonton said that is equally important is that Canada can help with democratic development here by supporting civic development through exchanges. We have seen young bright people here in the internship program, for instance. We should be doing more of that. We should be opening our doors to all those young people who believe in that dream I was talking about. That way, the dream cannot be stolen, because they are going to be equipped with the right skill sets to go back and build up their communities at the civic level and the municipal level as well as at the state level.

However, we need to see the media question put on the front burner, because we have seen a restriction of freedom of speech and a clampdown on media that are not in line with the government's party line. These are very important initiatives, and we can help by funding those projects in Ukraine and inviting those young, bright, talented Ukrainians to come here to learn how we do things. Then they can bring that back home.

[Situation in Ukraine, December 10th, 2013]

Mr. Chair, let me give some very concrete suggestions that we have had put before us. They are actually from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. I will just enumerate them quickly.

Very smart things that we can do, and some of the things that our party has already called for, include engagement. We are hearing that this is absolutely critical. I was glad to see the foreign affairs minister go to Ukraine recently, and we have to keep that up. First is engagement with our allies by the government so that we do not see Ukraine slip back into the pocket of Russia.

Second, we can call upon Ukraine's president to respect the freedom of its citizens to assemble peacefully. We can call upon Ukraine's authorities to respect this right and to apply restraint in interaction with peaceful protestors.

Third, we can demand that the governing authorities of Ukraine respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Ukrainians, release from jail all peaceful protestors, and refrain from the use of force, as I had mentioned.

I will quickly enumerate the other points that the UCC has mentioned.

One is to reiterate the firm commitment of Canada to Ukraine's European integration and the signing of the EU-Ukraine association agreement on the basis of the clear, united, and undeniable call of the people of Ukraine as manifested by the people of Ukraine as they are speaking right now in Independence Square.

Another is to develop a sound policy and plan to address Russia's violations of its international commitments, particularly the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This is very important.

Another, in concert with the U.S. and European authorities, is to play a leadership role in the G8 and the G20. This point gets back to the question I was posed.

I cannot see that there is anything controversial in what the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is asking. This is a good road map for Canada to embrace, to get behind, and to lead on. I would encourage the government to do just that.