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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/6/24 10:01:30 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-350

Madam Speaker, I think the member just gave an excellent and powerful speech about the importance of listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization. I know from talking to community members across Canada that there is wide support for the proposal. There are many different communities that see the negative impacts of IRGC violence: the Iranian community, the Jewish community, the Iraqi community, the Lebanese community and the Yemeni community. Communities in South America are also talking about how the Iranian regime is spreading its violence and collaborating with authoritarian regimes in South America. We are going to vote on the motion on Wednesday. I think it is going to pass, based on what the opposition parties have said. We will see what the government does. At the end of the day, what we need is executive action or the passage of my bill, Bill C-350. It is not good enough to just pass a motion. After the motion is voted on, and if it passes, what should we expect the government to actually do? A motion like this one passed before, six years ago, and the government has done absolutely nothing in six years. We will pass the motion, I hope, on Wednesday, but we need to hold the government's feet to the fire because what really matters is whether something actually gets done.

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Mr. Ziad Aboultaif

May/6/24 10:02:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for the excellent question and his work on these issues and many other issues of human rights and security for all communities in Canada. Based on the record of the government, I will not hold my breath. I cannot be optimistic about what it is going to do, because it has not been respecting the will of the House in terms of what it should act on. The other motion has been here for almost two years, and it still has not acted on it. There is hope and a call for the government to act, to hear the will of Canadians through the House on what we know of the suffering and the complaints, as well as the will of the communities in Canada that are calling on the government to act on this issue to list IRGC as a terrorist organization and to make sure it follows the talk. That way, we will not end up with the same situation we have right now.

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Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)

May/6/24 10:03:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would simply like my colleague to tell us what the next steps will be, what we can expect. More importantly, what action will the government take on this issue?

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Mr. Ziad Aboultaif

May/6/24 10:04:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the real expectation of the government is to do what governments do. Therefore, the government is going to have to put forward and implement the proper mechanism to make sure the will of the House and the will of Canadians are followed and listened to. It is only in the government's hands, because it is the government; it should be able to use the proper tools to make sure that things fall into place so Canadians are protected and the IRGC is listed as a terrorist organization. Then the rest of the work can be done.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis

May/6/24 10:04:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on the subject of the violence being caused by the regime in Tehran, I also want to use this opportunity to highlight the case of Toomaj Salehi. He is a rapper who has been given a death sentence in Iran because of his participation in protesting. It is really horrific to see the number of people who have been killed who had simply wanted to raise their voice and express their ideas and hopes for a different political future for their country. They are people of all ages, including many young people, who are being killed or facing death sentences. In this case, it is a very well-known rapper. I want to add my voice to the many who have called for his release. Cases such as this underline how utterly barbaric and inhuman this regime is and how critical it is that the regime has to go. The first victims of the Iranian regime are the Iranian people, brave young people such as Toomaj, who have spoken out and are now facing this horrific state reprisal. Our thoughts are with him and his family, and we continue to call for his release. Does my colleague have a comment on that?

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Mr. Ziad Aboultaif

May/6/24 10:06:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have had experience here with Montrealer Zahra Kazemi, the execution of wrestler Navid Afkari and the example of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. There are so many examples of how far this regime is willing to go in order to punish the people who say no, those who are looking for freedom, for a better life for their own peers, inside and outside Iran. We know about the suffering and the fear; many do not even want to go back to visit with their parents or their families back home, and they fear that the regime has agents on Canadian soil and other international grounds to go after their own citizens who speak of freedom. The regime has no limits whatsoever regarding who they want to reach and how far they are willing to go. That is why the problem is at our doorstep right now; we must, for once, protect Canadians on Canadian soil. We need to protect our own people, our own house, because that is the minimum the government and all of us can do.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis

May/6/24 10:07:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member has spoken a lot about this tonight already. I know one of the key issues the Iranian community in Canada has been highlighting is foreign state-backed interference. The most pressing security threat to our country right now is foreign states interfering in Canadian affairs. Of course, the Iranian regime is a major player, and there are many other players we have discussed over recent months and years in the House. We have seen interference in our democracy through foreign state interference. What is much more pernicious are the threats of violence toward Canadians, especially targeted at members of diaspora communities. A few years ago, the Iranian regime was responsible for shooting down a flight, PS752, with many Canadians on it. Many in our region of Edmonton were impacted by this in particular. One young man, whose wife was killed, spoke out about what happened, and he faced threats here in Canada. Imagine someone speaking out about their wife being murdered by this regime and then facing threats here in Canada. This underlines how critical it is that more action be taken on foreign state-backed interference to protect the Iranian community and many different communities facing attacks from beyond our shores.

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Mr. Ziad Aboultaif

May/6/24 10:09:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it has been long overdue for the government to act on some serious issues such as this one. There is enough indication by CSIS, by Finance Canada and by our security forces that this is very serious, and it must be dealt with at the highest level of responsibility by the government. We will be waiting, after the vote, for the government to tell us the plan for how it can do this, how it will list the IRGC as a terrorist organization and what the mechanism is to be able to free up Canadians and to protect Canadians on this soil.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

May/6/24 10:09:53 p.m.
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It being 10:10 p.m., it is my duty to interrupt the proceedings at this time and put forthwith every question necessary to dispose of the motion now before the House. The question is on the motion. If a member participating in person wishes that the motion be carried or carried on division, or if a member of a recognized party participating in person wishes to request a recorded division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis

May/6/24 10:10:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to request a recorded division on this motion.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

May/6/24 10:10:29 p.m.
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Pursuant to Standing Order 66, the recorded division stands deferred until Wednesday, May 8, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.

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Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)

May/6/24 10:11:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have the opportunity to question the Minister of Sport again and I am grateful. It is a disappointing and undeniable conclusion: The government failed in its mission to protect athletes over the past decade. Since the revelations of alleged sexual assault committed by members of Canada's national junior hockey team in London in June 2018, the inaction of government authorities has been glaring and disappointing.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

May/6/24 10:11:28 p.m.
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I must interrupt the member for a few seconds to ask that there be less noise in the lobbies. Suddenly there is a lot of noise. The hon. member for Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

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Mr. Sébastien Lemire

May/6/24 10:11:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, despite the promises made by the previous minister of sport in May 2023—a year ago almost to the day—about establishing an independent public inquiry as everyone has been demanding, months have passed without any significant progress being made. Worse still, with the change of minister, the hope those promises created is fading. The measures put in place so far, while laudable in their intent, are proving insufficient. The code of silence still reigns supreme in sport, and the entire ecosystem forces many athletes to remain silent, depriving them of the opportunity to speak freely about the abuses they have suffered. Independent third parties, so-called ITPs, represent a deterrent to disclosing any wrongdoing against people in the world of sport. One of the root causes is the frenzied rush to perform well, which is dictated by the funding and pressure of marketing bodies like the Canadian Olympic Committee or the International Olympic Committee, which interfere shamelessly in our sport system in Canada. Sports federations, under increasing financial pressure, exert intense pressure on coaches, who in turn pass this pressure on to the athletes. This excessive pressure compromises the mental and physical well-being of athletes, compromising their passion for their chosen sport. The Canadian sport system, which is mainly run by dedicated volunteers, deserves careful attention from governments. It is vital that they be given the means to prevent abuse and protect current and future athletes. The many scandals involving abusive coaches, including Bob Birarda, Bertrand Charest, Dave Brubaker and many others, underscore the urgent need to act. Their predatory behaviour has caused irreparable harm to young athletes and has tarnished the reputation of Canadian sport. The Liberals, the leaders of the current government, have failed in their duty to be vigilant and to protect our athletes. It is time to recognize the flaws in the system and undertake serious reforms to ensure that every athlete can grow in a sport environment free from pressure and abuse. Our athletes deserve better. It is our collective responsibility to make that happen. When will there be a public inquiry into abuse and mistreatment in sport? I will add that the current Minister of Sport committed, last December, to striking a voluntary commission. Although imperfect, such a commission would have allowed the matter to come before the public again. Victims could have testified about the harm and suffering they endured and they could have denounced the abuse. It has been six months. This commission was supposed to be launched a month later. We are still waiting, just as we are still waiting for the previous minister's commitment regarding a public and independent inquiry. When will the government take action on the public inquiry into sport?

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity, Lib.)

May/6/24 10:15:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to address the House of Commons on this very important matter. I thank my colleague for his work on this very relevant issue. Our government firmly believes that Canadians deserve a sport system that reflects and celebrates the values of equity and inclusiveness. Over the past few years, we have made significant progress. Credit is owed to the athlete survivors who courageously shared their stories with the media and with House of Commons and government committees. Although it should not have been necessary, their advocacy turned this conversation into a national priority. We very clearly heard the call for systemic change in sport. Sport systems in Canada and around the world are going through a period of upheaval. Trust in our sports organizations and leaders has crumbled. Since June 2022, two parliamentary committees have studied maltreatment in Canada's sport system. We announced the launch of an independent and impartial commission on the future of sport in Canada. The commission will provide a forum to shed some light on the experiences of survivors, to support healing and to explore how to improve the sport system in Canada. The commission will be trauma-informed. It will be centred on survivors and based on human rights. The commission will consist of three individuals and will be headed by an independent legal expert, who will be appointed commissioner. This person will be independent of both the government and the sports system. The commissioner will be supported by two special advisers, one with lived experience or expertise in victims' rights, child protection or trauma-informed processes. The other advisor will have expertise and experience in sports. The commission will report publicly on its findings and make recommendations in two specific areas. The first will outline action that can be taken to improve the safety of sport in Canada, including trauma-informed approaches, to help athletes heal from maltreatment in sport. The second area will include action that can be taken to improve the sport system in Canada as a whole, including issues related to policy, funding, structures, governance, reporting, accountability, conflicts of interest, system alignment, culture and legal considerations. Following public engagement and a preliminary public report, the commission will hold a national summit where participants can deliberate on the commission's preliminary findings and recommendations to inform its final recommendations.

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Mr. Sébastien Lemire

May/6/24 10:18:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Milton. I think that was a genuine response that I got here in the House of Commons, which is quite rare. That being said, it is not the step towards an independent public inquiry that I had hoped for. We believe that an inquiry is a necessary step towards structural reform. An independent public inquiry would identify the shortcomings in the current system and propose concrete solutions for guaranteeing a safe and healthy sporting environment. It is shocking that, two years after the Hockey Canada scandal, the minister has not supported survivors' and advocates' calls for a national inquiry that meets judicial standards, with the power to compel documents and subpoena testimony from organizations, including the current Minister of Sport and Physical Activity for her role over the decades at all levels of this ecosystem. In that context, I would like the minister to explain how she intends to handle this conflict, given that she is, after all, judge and jury of her voluntary commission. These questions remain unanswered.

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden

May/6/24 10:19:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to once again thank my colleague for his interest in this file, which is very timely and very important to me. It is possible for us to want the same positive results while disagreeing somewhat on how to implement the change. The member and I will have to have some conversations during the process. I think that the mechanism that we have chosen is more suitable for what we are trying to accomplish. The commission will adopt a forward-looking approach that is carefully designed so as not to retraumatize victims and survivors. This approach will also offer more flexibility than a public inquiry, while demonstrating the government's support and the importance of this issue. This approach will also enable the provinces and territories to participate in a flexible, asymmetrical way, given the nature of the sport system, which encompasses many different organizations.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

May/6/24 10:21:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as we speak tonight, Israel is launching its long-threatened ground invasion of densely populated Rafah in southern Gaza, and 1.4 million civilians are braced for what the United Nations warned could lead to a bloodbath. Meanwhile, Netanyahu's government has rejected the terms of a ceasefire agreement, 132 hostages remain held by Hamas, and the UN World Food Programme says that northern Gaza has entered full-blown famine. Even before tonight, over 35,000 Palestinians had already been killed in Gaza over the past seven months, including more than 15,000 children. This is all happening two months after the International Court of Justice called on the State of Israel to take six immediate steps to prevent genocide. The Canadian government must press Israel and the Netanyahu government to follow the ICJ ruling and avoid further civilian loss of life. I should not have to call for this. We already did it. In mid-March, Parliament passed a motion that called on the Government of Canada to take 10 actions. The terms of the motion are the will of Canadians as represented by a large majority of MPs in the House, and the parliamentary secretary and all but three of his Liberal colleagues supported the motion. We have now given the government plenty of time to demonstrate that it deserves the trust of Canadians in following through on the critical terms of the motion One of the actions, restoring funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, was followed. Disappointingly, however, many actions seem to have been ignored, including ending arms exports to Israel and placing sanctions on extremist settlers. Another action that seems to have been ignored was supporting the work of the International Court of Justice, and to support the ICJ, the Government of Canada must press the State of Israel to follow its ruling. One of the ICJ's six provisional measures issued in late January called for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza, yet just over a month after the ruling, on February 29, we learned of the Flour Massacre, in which 118 Palestinians were killed and 760 were injured after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians seeking food from aid trucks in Gaza City. At the time, I had risen to press the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the ICJ measures to be followed, yet it got worse. Just over a month later, Israel said it mistakenly struck a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven aid workers, including dual Canada-U.S. citizen Jacob Flickinger. Two weeks later, a Canadian humanitarian aid organization, the International Development and Relief Foundation, IDRF, had its water truck bombed. The water truck was paid for entirely by Canadian donors, and thousands of people have been without water as a result of the bombing. No humanitarian aid worker should be killed in a conflict zone, yet according to the UN, more than 200 workers have died since October 7, 2023, in Gaza. Ensuring that humanitarian aid flows in Gaza is just one of six measures. As Greens, we continue to call for the government to press for all six measures to be followed by the State of Israel to prevent acts of genocide; for a ceasefire, as we have called for since October 8, 2023; for all hostages to be released by Hamas; for a two-way embargo on military equipment to Israel; and for sanctions on extremist settlers. The government should be doing everything possible to protect innocent civilians, including aid workers and the hostages, yet with the ground invasion of Rafah now under way, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has become all the more dire. Urgent action is needed from the Canadian government. Therefore, my question to the parliamentary secretary is this: What is his government doing in response to the invasion of Rafah, and what specifically is the government doing to call on the State of Israel to follow the ICJ ruling to prevent acts of genocide?

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity, Lib.)

May/6/24 10:25:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it goes without saying that this is an extremely difficult topic to discuss in the House of Commons. The member opposite and I have spent some time together discussing this, and our personal views are very well aligned. I would actually say that we are not members opposite, particularly on this issue, but on many issues, we see eye to eye. Together, I know that we share an immense grief, and our hearts break for the loss of civilian life that the world has witnessed over the last more than six months now. Those impacted are at the front of our minds, including all families and communities affected by this violence, but children in particular have been disproportionately affected by the ongoing hostilities, and that is not right. The horrific attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians still shock us all. Hamas is a terrorist organization, and we are unequivocal in our condemnation of Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel, the appalling loss of life and the heinous acts of violence perpetrated in those attacks. Canada condemns Hamas' unacceptable treatment of hostages and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining hostages. What has been happening in Gaza since October 7 is absolutely catastrophic. The humanitarian situation in Gaza was already dire. The impacts of an expanded military operation in Rafah would be devastating for Palestinian civilians as well as for foreign nationals who are seeking refuge. They simply have nowhere else to go. As the minister has said, asking them to move again is unacceptable. I have been to Rafah. I have visited UNRWA schools in Palestine. I have been to Gaza, and I have done humanitarian aid work in those communities. When I visited eight years ago, that was the toughest part of the world that I have ever seen. I am fortunate enough to have travelled with multiple NGOs. I have seen some of the toughest, most war-affected, poorest places in the world. Gaza, eight years ago, was the toughest place I have ever seen, that I have ever witnessed. It is way worse today. Canada has been calling for an immediate, sustainable ceasefire for months now. The violence must stop. This cannot be one-sided. Hamas must release all hostages and lay down its arms. Humanitarian aid must be urgently increased and sustained. The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza has never been greater. Rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian relief must be provided to civilians. Canada was the first G7 country to act. We led the way, and we will continue to work with partners toward ensuring the sustained access of humanitarian assistance for civilians, including food, water, medical care, fuel, shelter and access for humanitarian workers. The member from the Green Party, my colleague from Kitchener Centre, referenced the IDRF water truck that was bombed. The CEO, the chief executive officer, of IDRF, lives in my riding. We speak frequently, and I want to thank Mahmood for his ongoing hard work, advocacy and extremely challenging efforts over his entire career. To date, Canada has announced $100 million in humanitarian assistance to address the urgent needs of vulnerable civilians in this crisis. More aid must get into Gaza. We must continue to support trusted UN agencies and humanitarian actors to provide this assistance. When it comes to UNRWA, we understand the vital role it plays in delivering aid to Palestinian civilians. UNRWA needed to undertake some reform efforts, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations has taken steps to enhance oversight and accountability within UNRWA, alongside the ongoing investigation and review. I have more to say, and I will do so after my colleague's rebuttal.

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Mr. Mike Morrice

May/6/24 10:29:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to start by agreeing with my friend from Milton. Yes, we condemn Hamas. Yes, Hamas must release all hostages. Yes, from his own personal experience, he knows better than most, having seen from his time in Gaza, that things have only gotten worse there in the time since. It is also true that it has been six weeks now since this Parliament passed a motion calling on the government that he is a part of to take further action. It has been three months since the International Court of Justice called on the State of Israel to take six immediate steps to prevent acts of genocide. It is critical that the Liberal government call on Israel to follow through on that ICJ ruling. Can the member speak, particularly on this night, as we know the invasion of Rafah has begun, to what can and will be done by the current government to call for the ICJ ruling to be followed?

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