Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, Liberals will be voting in favour of the motion and it is my hope that this will no longer be a partisan issue given the gravity of the situation. It is my hope that the House will vote unanimously in favour of bringing Yazidis to Canada. We are looking into all of the options.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, nothing makes me prouder than the fact that we brought, in 2016, three or four times more refugees than the Conservatives did. In four short months, we brought in 25,000 Syrian refugees. I, as a Canadian, am very proud of that accomplishment. In addition, we will work to bring in Yazidis and others who have been oppressed by Daesh in the years going forward.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, far from ignoring them, we are acutely conscious of the tragic situation facing the Yazidis. It was to that end that we had discussions throughout the day with the Conservative Party with the view to finding a motion that all of us could support, because in my view, this issue is such that it should go beyond partisan issues and we should be able to agree.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, far from not living up to our obligations, a group of officials from my department just returned yesterday from a visit to Iraq to the region, and it was there that they interviewed Syrian refugees. In addition, they consulted with UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration to determine the best way to bring over Yazidis and others who have been hurt by ISIL.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, as I said before, we made strong attempts to find an agreement with the opposition members. In the end, they would not agree to our position. My position is that we will do everything we can to work in this area, but to guarantee a certain number by a certain date is not possible when we consider the war—

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  What I am saying, Mr. Speaker, is that one cannot guarantee a precise date when a war—

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question, and I assure him there is no distinction between my position and that of my parliamentary secretary. I am proud of the fact that from the beginning of our becoming the government and the Syrian refugee project, we have stated consistently and repeatedly that our position is to accept the most vulnerable people.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her question. I used to be the defence minister. I do not agree that a military solution is never needed. For example, during the Second World War, a military solution was needed. I could give many other examples. We held direct consultations on the ground in Iraq.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to rise and speak on this subject. I think that crimes, even genocide, of which we are speaking, are so horrendous that this is an issue that should go beyond partisanship and on which we should be able to find agreement among all parties in the House.

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her question. We take the challenges facing francophones outside Quebec very seriously. We have already announced the francophone significant benefit program. We will probably add other measures for francophones outside Quebec to help them in many ways.

Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely true that the Auditor General recently identified examples of citizen fraud under the previous government's watch. We have responded by saying we would attack this fraud assiduously, diligently, and with great seriousness. Citizenship is an extraordinary privilege, and those who seek to obtain it improperly will be gone after.

Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member seems not to understand that the two things are compatible. On the one hand, we are going after, with great vigour, those who would cheat the system and obtain their citizenship fraudulently. The RCMP uncovered a ring of people doing that, and we are going after them.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, we do not know how many Yazidi refugees have come to Canada, because when refugees come to Canada, we do not ask them their ethnicity or their religion. We do not discriminate by religion or ethnicity. What I do know is that we have admitted more than 30,000 Syrian refugees and we are taking concrete steps to pursue options in terms of the Yazidi refugees.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I am certainly proud of what our government has achieved in admitting more than 30,000 Syrian refugees in the space of less than a year. In terms of the Yazidis, my department will be conducting a mission to northern Iraq, where officials will interview potential Syrian refugees, and they will scope out the situation involving the Yazidis.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, with respect to real action on refugees, in general, we on this side of the House have taken three to four times the action they did a year ago. On the specifics of Yazidis, we recognize the exceptionally serious nature of this issue and the difficulties involved, so my department is sending an expedition, a group, over to investigate the situation in Iraq.