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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/7/21 4:22:51 p.m.
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The hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.

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Dec/7/21 4:22:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one thing haunts me the most, and still does every single day: How many of those names I gave belong to people who are no longer alive? I do not know. I am not in the government and I was not in the government. All I can do is pass those names on to the minister and his staff. I acknowledge that they were well received, but I just do not know. The challenge right now in Afghanistan is making sure that we get visas for the people. It is even difficult for Afghan nationals to get passports at this point because they are being pegged. They are being identified by the Taliban as wanting to leave the country. Then we have our partners in Pakistan and elsewhere who on some days keep the borders closed so that Afghan nationals cannot get into the country. The bottom line is that unless Afghan nationals are out of the country, they cannot come to Canada. There is no easy pathway for them. The committee could study how to make things easier to make that happen.

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Mr. Rob Morrison (Kootenay—Columbia, CPC)

Dec/7/21 4:24:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for his emotional speech. I have been in Kabul many times and have sent members of the RCMP into the area to rebuild, build on law enforcement and build schools for children. I have seen young girls laughing and having fun. Does the member really see a sense of urgency here, knowing how brutal the Taliban is? Why are we not acting on this right now?

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Mr. John Brassard

Dec/7/21 4:24:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, do members know where I get the sense of urgency the member speaks about? It is from those who previously escaped Taliban rule. They know how difficult this is going to be for young girls. They know how difficult this is going to be for vulnerable communities and ethnic minorities. They know their lives are at risk. That is what makes this urgent, and that is what makes this committee so relevant to the situation.

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Mr. Greg Fergus (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board, Lib.)

Dec/7/21 4:25:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I just want to mention that I will share my time with the member for Scarborough Centre, a colleague I respect deeply, like very much and have had the pleasure of knowing for six years now. Before I begin my speech, I would like to congratulate you, Madam Speaker, on your appointment to the position of Assistant Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. I appreciate the dignity and wisdom you bring to the role of House of Commons referee. I rise in the House today to discuss the opposition's proposals with respect to the situation in Afghanistan. Their goal is to determine how we can help Afghan refugees. This is a very serious matter. Where to begin? First of all, this is a life and death issue. As several members have already mentioned, it is a real shame the Conservatives are making political hay out of this situation. It is outrageous. I think that all members of the House want us to reach out to the Afghans who are at risk in Afghanistan because of the Taliban government, and I would venture to say that the vast majority of Canadians want that as well. We want to help those Afghans, especially the men and women who helped us and our allies’ troops, who have been trying to bring stability to that country, which unfortunately has been torn apart by civil war and Taliban forces. No one is going to tell me that the Taliban can improve the well-being of the Afghan people. It is unfortunately a government run by radical Islamist forces that completely distort the tenets of this major religion. As a politician, I have had the pleasure of learning more about this religion, as I have gotten to know my Muslim constituents. The government, the Canadian Armed Forces and Global Affairs Canada have been working very hard to ensure that we can welcome those who helped us in Afghanistan. That is remarkable. As a government, we made a solemn commitment to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. We have made a lot of progress despite some very difficult situations. Almost 4,000 people have regained their freedom here in Canada. We are working very hard on this. Tomorrow, another 500 Afghan refugees will arrive safely in Canada on two chartered flights. As part of a commitment we made, we are also working with the various governments to bring another 9,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. Some progress has been made, although the situation is far from ideal. Very few credible individuals really understood how quickly the Afghan government collapsed over the summer. In spite of that, we have made a serious commitment to put in our share of the effort and bring these people home. I cannot begin to describe how harmful the Taliban is to women's rights in Afghanistan. The situation that Afghans, especially women and girls, are facing is absolutely terrible. When I was younger, I studied international relations in university and I remember that we looked at what was happening in Afghanistan. It was horrifying. I think Canada had the right to intervene and to be part of the coalition forces that went into Afghanistan to stabilize the country and form a democratic government accountable to Afghans. Unfortunately, that was not enough. The Canadian Armed Forces has been out of Afghanistan for a long time now. Several governments have had the opportunity to carry on the work and do their part to welcome Afghan refugees. Everyone tried, but no government's commitment was as firm and ambitious as the one we made last summer. We made that promise to Afghans and to Canadians, and we will keep it. We are keeping up our efforts in Afghanistan to bring these refugees here. We will be there for vulnerable Afghans. We will be there to repay the Afghans for their service in support of the Canadian Armed Forces stationed there. We will be there for our translators, our interpreters and the people who forged connections between our military personnel and the Afghan people. We really want to help those who need it most, and we will be there for them. It is important to look beyond the creation of another committee, that is, a special committee that would look at these matters. I think we are all very aware of the workload that we have. We do not need a new committee. There are already committees where these issues can be addressed. We have the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and the Standing Committee on National Defence. Let us use the tools already available to us instead of just empty rhetoric.

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Mr. Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, CPC)

Dec/7/21 4:35:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberal member said that the government will be there for the Afghan people. The problem is not that it is there now; the problem is that it was not there for Afghans. He said this is a matter of life and death, which is true. I know people in this situation who were killed. I helped one couple, that last ones to get on a flight out of that airport to come to Canada, but someone else lost their daughter. I would also like to point out that the government announced that 40,000 people could come to Canada while it simultaneously closed its embassy. It therefore could not help those people. Was the government so concerned about and preoccupied by the election that it could not help and save lives?

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Mr. Greg Fergus

Dec/7/21 4:36:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to acknowledge my friend from the opposition, with whom I had the opportunity to work on a private member’s bill. He asked a very simple question, but life is rarely so simple, and simplistic solutions rarely work in complex situations. We saw a very unusual situation with the fall of the Afghan government and the return of the Taliban, which very few serious people saw coming. We made a firm commitment. Our National Defence staff, security forces, and diplomats are working very hard and are moving heaven and earth to make sure that we honour our commitment to those who helped us when the Canadian Forces were there.

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Mr. Luc Desilets (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, BQ)

Dec/7/21 4:37:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my Liberal colleague whether, despite the comments he made about the Taliban, which we all share, his government is prepared to talk, discuss and negotiate with the Taliban in order to facilitate, or even speed up, the process. It is urgent—there are 35,000 people that we want to bring to the country. I am waiting for his response.

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Mr. Greg Fergus

Dec/7/21 4:38:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, I want to thank and commend my friend from the Bloc Québécois. I can easily answer his question: The answer is yes. The government is already doing that. We are working with the Taliban government to ensure that we can safely repatriate these Afghans who want to leave and settle in Canada. These discussions are currently under way.

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Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Dec/7/21 4:38:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my question for the parliamentary secretary is this. Would the government be willing to waive the refugee determination requirement for Afghan refugees, as it has done under the Syrian refugee initiative?

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Mr. Greg Fergus

Dec/7/21 4:39:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Vancouver is asking an important question. I do not have an answer for her at this time, but I can assure her that I will raise her question to get that answer. We all want the same thing: to provide help to the Afghans swiftly and effectively.

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Milton, Lib.)

Dec/7/21 4:39:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comments and his commitment to this very important file. I agree that the work that needs to be done does not require a whole new committee. I would like his thoughts on what the next steps should be. How do we achieve this in a non-partisan way?

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Mr. Greg Fergus

Dec/7/21 4:40:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Milton and commend him on the quality of his French. He has worked very hard these past two years, and I congratulate him for the progress he has made. As members of Parliament, we have an obligation to deal with this issue in a non-partisan way, especially when discussing matters of life and death. The best way to achieve this objective is to work with the existing House committees, such as the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, the Standing Committee on National Defence, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/7/21 4:41:01 p.m.
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Before resuming debate, it is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Kenora, Canada-U.S. Relations; the hon. member for Vancouver East, Housing; the hon. member for Kelowna—Lake Country, Employment.

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Mrs. Salma Zahid (Scarborough Centre, Lib.)

Dec/7/21 4:41:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate you on your role; it is good to see you sitting in the chair. As this is my first speech in the 44th Parliament, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Scarborough Centre for placing their trust in me once again to be their strong voice in Ottawa. I will work hard every day to be worthy of their trust and to bring the issues they care about to the government and to the House of Commons. I would also like to thank all my campaign team and volunteers. While the COVID environment did present some challenges, their hard work and dedication never ceases to amaze me and their energy keeps me going on the longest days. I thank them. I thank my family, my husband Salman and my sons Umaid and Usman, for their continued support in my political journey. I would like to focus my remarks today on the immigration aspects of the crisis in Afghanistan and what we can do to ensure as many people as possible who are in need are brought safely to Canada and to ensure they are able to settle safely here with their families and build a new life in peace and prosperity. I am a firm believer in learning lessons, so what we do in the future can be improved. A post-mortem of the entirety of Canada’s mission to Afghanistan, not just a few select years, would be a valuable exercise to the benefit of Canada’s foreign policy and international aid and development programs. I would point out that, especially from an immigration perspective, what is happening in Afghanistan is an ongoing crisis. People need help right now. Our focus should be on how we can finish the job and get those who need our help to safety. Let us first acknowledge the progress that has been made to date. More than 4,000 Afghans have already arrived in Canada and are being resettled, and some 415 individuals have already arrived through Canada’s humanitarian program, which targets the resettlement of particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals, including women leaders, human rights advocates, LGBTI individuals, persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, and journalists. Officials at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are working day and night to process Afghan refugee applications and issue visas. More than 9,000 applications, under the special immigration measures to resettle Afghan nationals who assisted the Government of Canada, along with their family members, have been processed. Officials are doing all they can to stay in contact with and support those who remain in Afghanistan and wish to resettle to Canada. The biggest issue remains the Taliban’s control of the region, which makes it very difficult to get people safely out of the country. We call on the Taliban to allow safe passage for those who wish to leave. The people-to-people ties between Canada and Afghanistan are strong, built over the length of our long-term deployment there, as we did our best to help secure the country and provide development and opportunity for all people of Afghanistan. My community of Scarborough Centre has strong ties to Afghanistan, from business to cultural to personal, and they have watched the events of this past year with deep interest and keen worry. I hear every day from my constituents on this issue. Many are separated from their families, with siblings or parents in Afghanistan. They worry for their safety and for their future, especially the women and girls, for whom, as we all know, life is very challenging and very dangerous under Taliban rule. Canada and our allies must continue to be clear with the Taliban that they must show respect for basic rights, especially for women and girls. We must find ways to support women and girls in the region who need our help. With winter approaching, it is critical the international community works collectively to meet the needs of vulnerable Afghans My constituents want to know how their family members can be brought to safety. They want to know what Canada is doing to help them. Canada has committed to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. Given the challenges I have outlined, that will be a challenging goal. I certainly welcome all suggestions and ideas for how meeting this goal can be accelerated so the families in my riding and across Canada can be reunited and their loved ones brought to safety. Already many Afghan refugees have been resettled in the greater Toronto area, and I want to thank local organizations such as the Afghan Women’s Organization and Agincourt Community Services Association that have been working to support and welcome them. A few weeks ago, I met with a group of recently arrived Afghan refugees. As members can imagine, they are excited and relieved to be here, but they also worry about extended family left behind and what the future holds for them in Canada. We need to ensure they are supported and get answers to their questions and we need to ensure lessons learned from the Syrian refugee resettlement are applied in this program. I should note that at the heart of both of these programs is the government-assisted refugees program. A lot of attention is paid to privately sponsored refugees, and this is a great Canadian innovation that sees community groups come together to sponsor and support refugee families for their first year in Canada. It is an important part of our immigration and refugee system, but it cannot be our entire refugee program, which is what the Conservatives proposed just a few months ago in their election platform when they promised to do away with government-assisted refugees. A look at refugee data shows that government-assisted refugees tend to be the more vulnerable, the more at risk, the more in need of Canada’s help. To turn our backs on them is to turn our backs on those that most need Canada's help, and that is not what Canada should be about. The refugees we are helping in Afghanistan are government-assisted refugees and they need Canada’s help. Therefore, my focus is on how we can help make the Afghan refugee program a success and bring these people who need our help here as quickly as we can. I do not oppose the idea of a special committee, but I think these are certainly issues the immigration and refugee committee could take up and bring its expertise to bear by bringing in witnesses from those familiar with the situation on the ground to organizations focused on resettlement to provide actionable recommendations to the government. What gives me pause is what seems like a very broad request for documents, many of which are likely to contain information that could compromise national security, military tactics, intelligence sources and methods, and the identity and location of Canadian citizens in Afghanistan or interpreters or contractors who assisted Canada and our allies. I do not see how this would help Canada bring more Afghan refugees to Canada. My constituents are not asking me for documents; they are asking me to help their families, and this request could potentially put their families in danger. If we truly want to help the refugees, let us get the politics out of the motion and focus on what really matters here: helping those who need Canada’s help.

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Mr. Larry Maguire (Brandon—Souris, CPC)

Dec/7/21 4:50:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the issue is that the government has said it will bring 40,000 Afghans who supported us in our armed forces and helped our efforts in Afghanistan, but only 10% of them are here. We do not even know where that number of 40,000 comes from or whether it covers the number of people who have to get out of the country. It could be more than that. However, it is a number that the government picked and there has been no debate about it, so that could be the kind of question that would be asked at a committee like this. Earlier today, one of my colleagues from the Liberal Party said that we should be talking about what was happening today or what may happen in the future, not the past. One of the reasons we study history is so we do not make the mistakes of the past, which is very important in this discussion. Sure, we want to do things in the future, but the government has had a lot of time to do those things for the future. We waited and waited until the House resumed, because it was our first opportunity to have a debate like this and to have a committee set up—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Dec/7/21 4:51:56 p.m.
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The hon. member for Scarborough Centre.

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Mrs. Salma Zahid

Dec/7/21 4:51:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hon. member for all the work we did together on the immigration committee in the last Parliament. I agree with the member that it has been slow. We need to do better, and better is always possible, but I want to remind him that the department and the officials continue to process applications for Afghan refugees day in and day out. They have mobilized the entire global network to process the visas and issue them on an urgent basis. There are 4,000 Afghan refugees here. Another 500 will be coming this year.

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Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)

Dec/7/21 4:52:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as a result of this debate, my thoughts are also with our veterans and our troops who served in Afghanistan. Several years later, I find that the message being sent gives them the impression that their mission was futile. What message should we be sending these military members who, in many cases, sacrificed their lives or put their mental health at risk? How can we help them and ensure that they have support so their sacrifices are not forgotten?

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Mrs. Salma Zahid

Dec/7/21 4:53:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, yes, we need to thank the people who helped the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. Canada and Afghanistan have had a long-lasting relationship, with the long deployment, and many Afghan people have been there for our Canadian troops. It is very important that we continue our work and ensure that we bring the vulnerable people here, the people who have helped, as well as those people, especially Afghan women and girls, whose situation is really terrible. We should all figure out ways in which we can do better to bring more people here as soon as possible, so they can start a new life in Canada.

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