It was a few weeks ago now that I was sitting on my couch, enjoying my morning coffee and settling in for what I thought was going to be a quiet day of Formula One, football and family, and then my phone started to go berserk. At first, I didn’t really know what to make of it; I think, Madam Speaker, many of us have become a little numb to the violence that takes place in the Middle East.

But quickly, I began to learn about the cowardly, heinous and brutal terror attack by Hamas against innocent civilians simply going about their daily lives, doing the same things that I was doing right then and there with my family in my home: parents killed in front of their children, children killed in front of their parents, women raped, kidnappings, and the cowardly use of hostages. As I heard one Israeli official discuss on television, these were not the overzealous acts of soldiers in war—as bad as that would be on its own. This was the plan. This murderous rampage, this terror, was the plan. Hamas wanted to provoke a confrontation.

And this has happened before. When peace was in their grasp in the 1990s, during the Oslo peace process, it was Hamas that launched the first suicide bombings, derailing all efforts to find a peaceful two-state solution, a solution that would undoubtedly have benefited millions of Palestinians over the last 25 years. Now that Israel and Saudi Arabia are on the verge of a new historic agreement and recognition, Hamas strikes again with barbarism and hate. Why? Because Hamas doesn’t believe that Israel has the right to exist and does not want to see any progress or peace that would recognize Israel’s right to exist—even if that agreement benefits the people of the Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West Bank.

Now, Madam Speaker, the loss of civilian life, whether it be Israeli, Palestinian, Jew, Muslim, Christian or any other religion or ethnicity, is a tragedy. On that we can all agree. But the blame of what is happening lies with the terrorists of Hamas.

While the men and women defending Israel stand in front of schools and hospitals, fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves, to protect the democratic pluralistic society they have built, we see the terrorists of Hamas hiding behind and within schools and hospitals, placing innocent lives in front of them, into the danger, in an effort to give themselves more time and space to continue to kill and destroy.

It’s time, Madam Speaker, for Hamas to be ended. Palestine, Israel, the Middle East and the world will be a better place when Hamas is eliminated and a legitimate Palestinian group can govern Gaza and bring about the peace and partnership with Israel we all dream and hope for.

It is without hesitation that I condemn Hamas and its massacre of Israeli civilians. There is never a justification for this kind of violence.

The Hamas attack on October 7 was defined to inflict maximum suffering on Israeli civilians. It was the realization of the worst violent fantasies Hamas could imagine. The goal was to administer as much pain as possible to the victims, to the victims’ family and friends and to Israel forever after. Thirteen hundred lives were lost; 150 people were taken hostage. Families were fractured. Children will grow up without their parents; parents will now grow old without their children. Some families were wiped out entirely.

But the suffering reverberates beyond those lives. In Canada and around the world there is growing unrest. People of all faiths and backgrounds are unsettled and feeling unsafe amidst rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. My heart is with all those who are suffering, all those who have been lost and all those who continue to suffer in the wake of the carnage Hamas wrought.

But we must remember: Hamas is an illegal terrorist group who rules Gaza with an iron fist. They do not represent all Palestinians. The truth is that Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve leadership that does not plunge them into war with atrocities they knew would trigger a political response.

In the days since the Hamas massacre, Israel has asserted its right to defend itself, and we join them in calling for hostages to be released, civilian life to be preserved and peace for all mankind.