Bosnia  We are very concerned about their safety, because of the concentration of Muslim forces. This is the reason I strongly registered our objection with the Bosnian Serb authorities in a meeting this week with the chargé d'affaires of the Yugoslav government.

Criminal Code  When a rock comes crashing through someone's house in the middle of the night with a bomb threat simply because that person is a Muslim, other Muslims in the neighbourhood are terrorized. That is the goal of the hate monger, to terrorize whole communities. When survivors of the Holocaust see a swastika painted on a synagogue, and they thought they were safe in their Canadian community, suddenly those community members are fearful.

Criminal Code  I will talk a bit about them and about my indirect personal experience with this terrible subject matter. These people were secular Muslims. They were persecuted by a fundamentalist regime for expressing their more moderate views and for associating with persons who shared those moderate views. I am straining here not to invade their privacy and I am of necessity therefore being vague about details of their professions, nationalities and other identifying features.

Sergeant Thomas Joachim Hoppe  Sergeant Thomas Joachim Hoppe from Vancouver was awarded the meritorious service cross in the military division for displaying outstanding leadership and ensuring the safety of his patrol and his mission while commanding a key observation post located between Serb and Muslim forces in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Sergeant Hoppe was also awarded the medal of bravery for rescuing three Muslim children who were under direct fire near Visoko in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Sergeant Hoppe is the first soldier since World War II to receive two of Canada's top military awards for exceptional bravery.

Human Rights  One and a half million people have died and over five million have been displaced. Those suffering include Christians, Muslims and Animists. Will the Canada government increase its efforts to support all initiatives to bring an end to these abominable practices?

Foreign Affairs  I was quite impressed by the people. I had met the Muslim people in Bosnia and I had high hopes that such a bridge would be built between the two different cultures and religions. I experienced hope as well in Croatia as they started up their new government and in many ways I helped them.

Peacekeeping  Not for a minute should we delude ourselves that the Croats will not to start to fight with the Krajina-Serbs. Let us not delude ourselves that the Bosnian Muslims and the Bosnian Serbs will not attack each other. Let us not delude ourselves that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would not get involved with the Krajina-Serbs or that Bosnia would not start to attack other people.

Tobacco Act  This is a bill befitting fundamentalists. All this time, we thought the rise of fundamentalism was centred in the Muslim world; we must recognize that we need not look any further than this place to find fundamental fundamentalism. The minister who introduced this bill that may well kill cultural events like the Montreal Jazz Festival and sports events like the Montreal Grand Prix car race is the same minister who, a little over one year ago, had the brilliant idea of legislating to prevent us from eating and producing raw milk cheese in Canada.

Foreign Affairs  I doubt if there is anyone in North America with whom I have larger degrees of political differences and I heartily concur with this. Let the Bosnian Muslims have a chance to defend themselves. First and foremost save the people of Gorazde. Stop making idle threats. Stop giving ultimatums. Make the air strikes and make them before it is too late.

Foreign Affairs  The consequence is that it would give a certain signal to the Bosnian Serbs. It would put at risk thousands of civilian lives, most of them Muslims. It would put at risk other Muslim populations in the eastern part of Bosnia that we would be concerned about. It would also give a signal to other aggressors that may want to do the same thing.

Foreign Affairs  He felt very strongly and spoke very eloquently that because of the disparity in the weapons capability between the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims that there was no way a reconciliation could be reached. He advocated very strongly that we drop this embargo and allow the Muslims to be armed adequately. In response to my question would this involve an increase in hostilities, he admitted that at the outset this could very well be the case but he was convinced that for a long term resolution of the conflict in Bosnia this was the only option that would give a real hope of that happening.

Foreign Affairs  In fact, they are yielding no positive results because the Serbs refuse to join the Croats and the Muslims of Bosnia in their will for peace. We know that Croats and Muslims have signed an agreement but the Serbs refused to be part of it. In fact, we should be talking about Serb duplicity.

Administrative Tribunals (Remedial And Disciplinary Measures) Act  I would also like to mention the fact that this month is a holy month for Canadians of the Muslim faith. It is called Ramadan. This is also my first intervention as a Liberal candidate for the new riding of Brampton Centre. I wish people in Brampton Centre, my new riding, all the best.

United Nations Universal Declaration Of Human Rights  Another is the endless war in the Sudan, now in its tenth year, that is no longer even mentioned in the press, where the government is systematically fighting people in the south, who practice a different religion. There is the former Yugoslavia, of course, where Muslims have undoubtedly been persecuted by Croats and Serbs in equal measure. There is Rwanda, where close to a million people have died in ethnic wars. The worst thing in the case of Rwanda is that the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development led a mission there in 1992.

United Nations Universal Declaration Of Human Rights  I read into the record last week a statement from the official Canadian facilitating committee report. It specifically advised Canadians to criticize the opinions of Muslims, Catholics, pro-life groups and REAL Women. This kind of intolerance, which is condemned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, appears to have become standard policy among Canadian delegations to UN conferences over the past few years.