Paul Dewar

[Foreign Affairs, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I wish we were supportive of all the institutions in the UN, even those that need work.

The problem is that it is really unconscionable the Conservatives would play politics with our role in the UN. That is what is happening. It is not just words and insults; it is actually actions. We have seen the Conservatives engineer a steady decrease in our support for UN peacekeeping, as an example. Over 100,000 troops right now and personnel are working in 16 conflict zones, but less than 50 are Canadians. Peacekeepers disarm former combatants and have made it possible for millions of people to exercise their voting rights. That is what the UN stands for.

Why are the Conservatives standing against it?

[Foreign Affairs, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, despite their denials, it would appear that the Conservatives want to abandon the United Nations. When the United Nations points out that there is a lack of access to food for Canadians who are poor, what do the Conservatives do? They throw insults at the rapporteur. When the UN flags government responsibility to prevent torture, Conservatives make vague threats about funding. The Conservatives are in such a rush to bash the UN, they are tripping all over themselves.

Will the minister tell Canadians this? Are the Conservatives planning to pull out of the UN, or are they just playing to their base?

[Children on the Hill Daycare, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the one and only place on Parliament Hill where manners, politeness and respect for colleagues remains the norm. Where is that?

It is the Children on the Hill daycare. For 30 years, the dedicated staff at Children on the Hill have served our community on Parliament Hill. The children frequently walk the halls of power on the Hill. They share their toys and respect their nap time. Many of them have come to Centre Block today to mark this special day.

Let me congratulate the Children on the Hill daycare on their 30th anniversary, and thank the child care workers and directors for all their hard work over the years.

The children in Children on the Hill daycare do not refer to each other as “kids” but as “friends”. Let us take a lesson from them. It is an important lesson for us all. Let us look up to them.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, my colleague focused on China and Russia in her speech and mentioned Iran. We have parliamentary secretaries and ministers in the House. What does she think of the idea of having even one of the parliamentary secretaries as a special envoy to be sent to places like China or Russia to ensure the message is clear? I suggested in the House that the Minister of Foreign Affairs should go to Russia, which the foreign affairs minister for the U.K. did, and we should send envoys with that message. The government is negotiating a trade deal with Russia right now and many of us would like priority to be focused on Syria.

We have all these parliamentary secretaries. Maybe we should be sending them directly to China or Russia to deliver the clear message that we want them to be involved in supporting the UN's initiatives.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, I want to give the member for Mount Royal a chance to expand even further if he wishes to.

I have a question and maybe just a response to my friend from the government side. My statement was that we need to earn back our security council seat, because we lost it. This was simply an observation and not partisan. We would be able to do that, I am sure, if we demonstrate respect for the UN. That is a simple observation and it is a proposition for my colleague. This is in the spirit of a proposition.

However, I want to ask my colleague to expand more. One idea that has come forward is the idea of a motion from the general assembly along the lines of what my colleague has outlined, to put more pressure on both China and Russia and to show that the general assembly also has a role here. Granted it is not in a position of ultimate power, but perhaps it would be another way to put pressure on those countries that are on the security council that are vetoing what are good initiatives, as he has already laid out. Perhaps that would be another way to continue to put pressure on both China and Russia.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, most people who have studied Syria know that this is a very diverse country. There are diversities within religion and ethnic groups. We know that Assad has done a very good job of knitting together alliances with different groups. From a minority group himself, that is how he has been able to hold onto power.

Clearly what should be underlined here is the need to ensure that minorities not be targeted. We saw what happened after the fallout from the war in Iraq. The dissent into chaos was not just about a civil war so to speak. It was about ethnic groups fighting each other and targeting each other based on religion. We also saw the sad spectacle of al-Qaeda coming in to a place where it had no reach at all before. This remains a concern.

Those who would say “arm the other side”, I would ask them if they know who the other side is. Be careful because it could be extremists. There was a bombing recently where I believe 54 soldiers were killed on the Syrian government side. Some are suggesting that outside militants were involved. We do not know, but we should be cautious.

At the end of the day, we see many groups that are concerned that their ethnicity and religion are targets for those who wish to take out grievances. We need to be vigilant on this.

Finally, we need to support both Jordan and Turkey which are receiving many of the refugees fleeing this violence.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, that brings up the question of a coordinated effort. We do have a lot of business interests, but we obviously cannot do this alone. If we look at the confluence of contacts within the business community, ensuring that those who have done truck and trade in the past with the regime or truck and trade with countries that are continuing to do business with Syria, then that could be something we push.

I should take a moment to underline that we need to push the issue of an investigation on Houla. There is an opportunity here. We could push Russia to get an outside independent investigation of what happened this past weekend in Houla to ensure that there would be an independent investigation. We have the regime saying that it wants to ensure that there is an investigation. We could ask Russia, which is trusted by this regime, to push for this as well. It could be something that allows for some action to take place.

Finally, we need to strengthen the Annan initiative. It is something that everyone was hoping would have done more. Clearly it needs to be strengthened and we need to convince our two Security Council representatives, China and Russia, to accept that process.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, first, priorities should be focused on Syria right now with Russia, saying the trade deal and those negotiations are not the priority, and to set that aside until we see some action from Russia, but also getting our allies involved here. It is clearly not going to be just because of Canada that Russia will act. It is important that we act with our allies in the region. A contact group would be the way to go in terms of structure, of getting those who can gain the ear of Russia to work together in a coordinated fashion.

As members know, the flow of arms in the trade that continues with Syria comes from Russia and if we get Russia, I believe we can get China which is the other veto on the Security Council.

Finally, as I said before, it is also important that Canada support and respect the UN and that we show we are responsible when it comes to the UN and we earn back the trust of members of the UN so we will also one day have our seat back on the Security Council which, of course, would give us more influence.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, that is fine. We also know the government just announced that it is ramping up trade negotiations with Russia. I hope the Conservatives take the opportunity to focus on this issue right now because the priority now for most Canadians, when it comes to Syria, is ensuring that Russia acts. The priority is not trade with Russia right now, it is about action when it comes to Syria and I hope that is the focus of the government.

I should also underline that this is a wider issue around how the government behaves on corporate social responsibility. I know the Minister of Foreign Affairs often says we will not go just go along to get along. When it was Suncor and it was a matter of saying that this was an action that we should be taking, pulling it out, it seemed like we were going along to get along and it was not until the EU sanctions forced Suncor out.

The government also needs to be consistent in supporting the UN and that means being more respectful of those who represent the UN, ensuring we see the UN as not being perfect, and we all know that. However, when we look at situations like Syria right now, the UN is the institution we have to work in to get something done.

I urge the government not only to focus on Russia with regard to Syria, but also to focus on the UN and support the institution of the UN respectfully. As a good model, I would suggest how Norway has done with the UN and it has been very effective.

[Situation in Syria, June 5th, 2012]

Madam Chair, tonight it is with a heavy heart and a troubled conscience, frankly, that I get up to speak on the issue of Syria. The troubled part is because of what we have heard from the government side already and what we will hear throughout the night of the troubles within Syria, the massacre at Houla and the mass atrocities that are happening in real time. The troubled conscience is the fact that we have seen this kind of event before.

In 1993, when President Clinton at the time was opening the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, well-respected Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace prize winner Elie Wiesel said to the president after speeches were made, “Mr. President, what have we learned?” He then went on to say “Mr. President, I cannot not tell you something. I have been in the former Yugoslavia last fall. I cannot sleep since for what I have seen. ...I am saying that we must do something to stop the bloodshed in that country.”

Of course, we know what happened in the former Yugoslavia after that. That was 1993. It was just the next year that Rwanda happened. It is interesting that just this past April, Mr. Wiesel was in Washington again, at the museum, and this time it was President Obama he was speaking to. He posed the question yet again: “What have we learned”?

This is a question we need to examine. What have we learned when it comes to preventing mass atrocities? What have we learned in terms of stopping mass atrocities?

It has already been noted that these atrocities have been happening. We think of April 6, 1994. That was the date of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. We think of what happened on July 12, 1995, in Srebrenica. The world witnessed that. Now the date that will be known along with these other dates will be May 2012, and it will be Houla, Syria.

We are just starting to understand what happened in Syria. The numbers are 108 civilians killed, 34 of them women. The part that has grabbed us all is how many were children. There were 49 children. I heard the witness, an 11-year-old boy, Ali, talk about what happened in Houla that night. He said:

They came in armoured vehicles and there were some tanks. They shot five bullets through the door of our house. They said they wanted Araf and Shwaki, my father and my brother. Then they asked about my uncle, Abu Haidar. They also knew his name.

Shivering with fear, the boy stood toward the back of his family home as gunmen then shot dead every family member in front of him. It was an 11-year-old boy who witnessed this. He said:

My mum yelled at them. She asked: 'What do you want from my husband and son?' A bald man with a beard shot her with a machine gun from the neck down. Then they killed my sister...with the same gun. She was five years old. They then shot my brother...in the head and in the back. I saw his soul leave his body in front of me.

They shot at me, but the bullet passed me and I wasn't hit. I was shaking so much I thought they would notice me. I put blood on my face to make them think I'm dead.

Apparently the gunmen were convinced their work was finished. They moved on to other areas of the house from which they proceeded to loot the family's possessions. The boy said they stole three televisions and a computer and then they got ready to leave. On the way out of the house the boy said they found the three men they had been looking for. They killed them all.

The boy said:

They shot my father and uncle. And then they found my oldest brother...near the door. They shot him dead too.

Many have seen the images. This is a description. This is from an 11-year-old boy.

I have two sons of my own. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have one of my sons witness not just the murder but the targeting and the wanton destruction of human life.

We have to ask ourselves, “How is it the world can watch? What have we learned?”

We have learned a couple of things. I have already posed a question to the government that there comes a time to act, and the action of dismissing the ambassadors is one.

I believe we should have acted earlier when it comes to Canadian companies that were still functioning in Syria. In fact, we called on the government to ask that Suncor leave Syria. The government said that it was providing electricity. Suncor did get the message and left, but it was due to the sanctions from the EU, not the sanctions from Canada. What have we learned? We need to act.

I believe it is important to acknowledge that this is not a case in which we can have military intervention. I think the government understands that. I think most people in the House understand it. Because of the situation in Syria, we are deeply concerned and worried about the fallout from any kind of military intervention.

There are those who say that there should be support for the other side, for the rebels. I know that in Washington right now Senator McCain has called for that. Presidential candidate Romney has said that there should be a focus on cutting off the arms supply from Russia on the one hand, but we should supply arms to the other side. Clearly, it is dangerous to add more fuel to the fire.

A military option in that sense is not an option, yet we see these horrific crimes happening.

The crimes that I just described are most likely done with the support of the regime through the shabiha, which in Arabic is “ghosts”. These paramilitary groups are supported by the government and go and do the bidding of the regime.

Where do they get their support from? They get it from the government, but they have also been armed very well. We have to acknowledge that the ramping of arms in the region has created very dangerous circumstances, so we need to put pressure on governments such as Russia's to stop the arms flow.

That is where I think we need to focus. We need to put pressure on those who are continuing to support this regime. Most people understand that.

In terms of dealing with this situation right now, we of course support the Annan peace plan, but frankly, it is not enough. We need to see more UN observers on the ground. We need to see the regime adhering to the conditions of that plan. We also need to put pressure on Russia. In fact, all roads lead to Moscow when it comes to trying to deal with this situation.

It is also important to note that the media need to continue to be seized with this issue. The media has a responsibility, as has been identified when people have looked at mass atrocities and prevention.

Finally, we have more to do here. Canada needs to focus on the UN. Frankly, we need to earn our seat back on the Security Council. Alas, we do not have it, but we should earn our seat back. We should invest in conflict resolution. We should particularly support women and those who are fleeing violence.

We need to, in the end, answer the question that I posed at the beginning—“What have we learned?—and not cease until we have answered that question.

We have a moment that we can resolve this in a way that is multilateral and diplomatic and that is what we need to focus on until the killing stops, until we see that 11-year-old boys in Syria are not going to tell stories of massacre but stories we all have our kids enjoy, normal stories of play, school and everyday life.