Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, as Conservatives host Iran Accountability Week on the Hill, we recognize that Iran is widely considered the world's pre-eminent sponsor of state terrorism through its support of groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas. The Iranian regime has been correctly listed by Canada as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs told the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development that Canada was taking the necessary steps to engage with Iran and to eventually open an embassy in Tehran. Will the Minister commit today to consult with Iranian Canadians before a final decision is made and to be transparent and provide the opposition critics the risk assessment for a Canadian delegation in Tehran?

Iran  Mr. Speaker, today is the beginning of Iran Accountability Week here on Parliament Hill, which I am proud to co-host alongside Senator Linda Frum. The objectives of this week are to bring more awareness to the Iranian regime's transgressions, including being the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism, its nuclear ambitions, aggressively jailing political opponents, and an egregious track record on human rights.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, back to the question of genocide, the Parliament of the U.K., the U.S. Congress, and Secretary of State Kerry have all condemned the ISIS killings of Yazidis, Muslims, and Christian minorities as genocide. Your government had the chance to do the same thing in this House yesterday.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the current government had a chance to do the same thing in this House yesterday. It refused and hid behind weasel words. My question for the government is this. Why did the government shamefully put Canada outside the consensus view of our allies and turn a blind eye to reality?

Consular Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I understand a Canadian delegation met in recent days with the Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, who remains in prison, forced to a life sentence of hard labour in North Korea. That is just outrageous. Reports indicate that his condition is deteriorating and that time is growing short for him.

Questions on the Order Paper  With regard to the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ stated intentions in the Ottawa Citizen on November 11, 2015, that the government needs to engage with Iran much more than before: (a) has the government been in contact with any officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to re-opening diplomatic relations with that country; (b) if the answer to (a) is affirmative, what has been the response; (c) has the government indicated an intention to re-open a Canadian mission or office in Tehran; (d) has the government done an analysis of the need to protect Canadian officials and assets in the event of a Canadian mission being re-opened in Tehran; (e) has the government decided to lift any of Canada’s current sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran; and (f) has the government taken any measures to impose sanctions on certain Iranian individuals and companies due to recent ballistic missile tests in Iran, as did the Obama Administration?

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, I am also a lawyer and I can say that it is important to have provisions to protect citizens in our charters of rights. That is also part of our bill. It is the responsibility of this Parliament to come up with a decision to better protect Canadians. Our first priority is to protect our citizenry within the framework of reasonable laws, and this does answer that reasonable framework.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, the hon. member has alluded to this very well. This is a policy choice that is counter to other provisions that revoke citizenship or have done so historically, including for things that are similar to or even less important than this. Therefore, let us make sure the law is on all four squares and on the best ground.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, all of these would be done on a case-by-case basis. No one wants to increase the possibility of terrorism by a particular act. I am sure that would be challenged in our courts if it were to be the case. In my time as president of Treasury Board, we dealt with many cases where citizenship was revoked.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, who has spent a great deal of time on this debate already. I welcome his words as well. I will start off with my 10 minutes to talk a little about my background. Hearing the remarks of the hon. member for Surrey Centre and the hon. member for Brampton West, with her intervention, they are seeming to make the bill about a general immigration bill, which is of course absolutely incorrect.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian air force pilot and member of the Ukrainian parliament, has been held illegally in a Russian prison for 21 long months. Many thousands of people in Ukraine and around the world are demanding her release as she continues her hunger strike, yet all the efforts by the international community to advocate for her release have been brushed aside by Moscow.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, it is being reported that 40 state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new bounty for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The renewed call for his death comes on the anniversary of the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Make no mistake. This regime in Tehran is putting on a false front.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, not long after the sanctions against Iran were lifted, Russia tried to sell fighter jets and missile systems to the regime in Tehran. Our allies have clearly said that this sale violates a UN arms embargo, but the Liberal government is naively cozying up to Iran and Vladimir Putin.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has a good point. There seems to be, on the other side of this chamber in the Liberal government, a reluctance to use terms like “genocide”, like “terrorism”, and like “Islamic extremism”. The fact of the matter is each of these terms applies to the Islamic State.