Before I get into my official comments, I just want to touch upon some of the comments that my colleagues have stated. The member from Peterborough–Kawartha mentioned the no safe rooms. That really hit home with me. My oldest daughter, Nora, just moved into a new basement bedroom. She stole my office, unfortunately, but she has huge fears of being farther from her parents now. It really, really hit home that the parents in Israel don’t have that comfort and don’t have that safety net that we live with in North America.

The other thing I want to mention from the member from Peterborough–Kawartha—I don’t know if it’s because Cornwall is a little further behind the times, but I do remember hearing the air-raid sirens—I think they were testing them at the time—when I was younger. We used to live by the train station. But they’re definitely not around anymore. I remember once or twice from my childhood them being tested and it was an interesting conversation with my parents. Hearing that loud siren, you weren’t sure what it was because we don’t live with it, whereas the Israelites do. They live with it on a daily basis, as we mentioned. I just wanted to touch upon that because that’s a conversation I haven’t had to have with my children. They haven’t lost that innocence yet. They don’t know what an air-raid siren would be, whereas they do in Israel. They hear them quite frequently and regularly.

The member from Burlington mentioned the police presence yesterday. It really hit me. I looked out my office window and saw five police horses and about 50 or 60 police officers in our back parking lot. I came back in the House and I was a little rattled. So the member from Burlington is definitely not far off of my viewpoints on that one as well. I went outside afterwards and I asked the police officers why they were here. There was a protest going on at the U of T and all of downtown, all over the place. They were there just in case it escalated to a certain extent. So I thanked them. I thanked them for keeping us safe during these challenging times. They were appreciative of that.

To go to work every day not sure what’s going to erupt when there’s a protest going on and the unrest going on in the world—I can only imagine what they take home with them every day, our law enforcement. So I want to thank them here, as well, for standing out there, day in and day out, making sure that nothing gets out of hand when it comes to peaceful protests.

Mr. Speaker, I will apologize ahead of time, because I am going to get emotional with this. Most of my speech is around the people that have died. They were brothers, sisters, mothers. I am a young father. It really hits home with me, being a young father and watching the news every night, watching CBC’s The National—I can’t go to bed without watching it. To see the footage that happens on a daily basis in the last 11 days is nothing short of horrible.

My oldest brother Cam just came back from Israel. About six weeks ago, he went with his family. This summer, we were at Emo, and I was thinking about my brother there, because you never know when something can break out. My fears and my worries were not unfounded. Obviously now the fear that I had for my brother’s family when he was going over there hit home. I spoke to my brother last night, because as much as I’m up to date on the daily goings-on and the news with Gaza and with the West Bank in Israel, I’m a bit sheltered from it in my community. So I spoke to my brother, whose wife is Jewish, and his two children, Noa and Eli, are being raised in a Jewish family.

He had some interesting comments that I would like to share. He got really close with their tour guide because they were there for almost two weeks. They actually have a WhatsApp chat with the tour guide. He was speaking with the tour guide quite frequently and then, all of a sudden, the tour guide is offline; he is defending Israel. To go from being a tour guide—tourism—and having to pivot very quickly to defending his country, that’s impactful. It’s affecting my brother; it’s affecting his family.

They had armed bodyguards with them the whole time they were in Israel. My brother said, “Why do we need this?” He really just didn’t understand why they needed to pay to have multiple armed bodyguards. The response from the bodyguards was pretty simple: “You don’t need us until you need us, and at that time, it’s too late.” That really hits home because that’s something that we take for granted here. Walking down the streets to our apartments in Toronto, we have the safety of our law enforcement. To know that they had to go tour the beautiful country of Israel and have tour guides with them 24 hours a day really stands out. And at the time, my brother understood the risk and the severity of it all, but they’re just a regular Canadian family going over to Israel to tour and to see where my sister-in-law’s relatives lived.

Their daughter, Noa, my niece, she’s 11. She’s on the Internet, like my kids are. The day it happened it was Thanksgiving weekend, as my colleague mentioned, and online it was very clear that one of children that was kidnapped was named Noa. It hit home with my niece. She’s also seen photos of children being pulled away from their parents. To understand what my niece is going through, even though we’re in the very safe country of Canada, it really hits home that we’re all affected by this. I just needed to share that a little bit before I get into my official statements, but my children are extremely lucky to live where they are.

Since this has started, I’ve been extremely emotional, and again I will apologize ahead of time. I don’t know if it’s the—

Interjection.

Interjections.

We are very safe in this country. It’s something that we take for granted, but ultimately—I’ve been very emotional, and as I was implying before I got rudely cut off, I don’t know if it’s my 10 or 12 concussions that make me emotional at these times or if it’s me being a young parent that wants the best for my children. As the member from Kitchener–Conestoga mentioned, we get into this to leave a better world for our children, for our grandchildren, and ultimately that is my hope. But I’m unsure sometimes when we see all the unravelling of society and the rhetoric that’s online and some of these angry comments that you see online with regard to the terrorism that happened in Israel to the innocent people that were sleeping, the ones that were at the music concert—I’ve been to music concerts.

As my colleague mentioned, Taylor Swift is touring all over North America right now, filling stadiums. The concert was named after peace, ultimately. Of all times for the terrorism to hit, it really—that is what they wanted to do. They had the most impact and the most fear for Israelites by doing that. It’s scary. It’s hard to walk around and think everything is okay here in Canada and Ontario when it’s not in the Middle East. It’s consuming me, to be brutally honest.

I’ll start on my prepared comments so that I don’t get too off-topic.

Many around the world, including Israel’s leaders, have compared the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas terrorists to the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. I remember 2001; I’m sure we all do—where we were when that happened. I was in grade 13. My mother woke me up, because I was on a spare, sleeping in, and she brought me down to the TV and showed me the World Trade Center and the first couple of planes that went in. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I ran to the school. We were all in the library, watching the horror of September 11 take place, as students at the time. I will never forget that. It’s something that really is impactful. Me and my mother speak about that to this day—not only due to the scale and savage nature of the attacks, but also because the terrorists sought to destroy the tranquility of daily life. They killed the young and the old, the strong and the weak, civilians and soldiers; they took hostages, including children, and raped women—all to send the message that no Israeli was safe.

Saturday, October 7 is an extremely important day for the Jewish community—a day that was supposed to be a happy and joyous occasion. Instead, Jewish Israelis were forced to run and hide or risk being kidnapped, tortured or killed by Hamas terrorists. Some of the victims of the Hamas terrorists were actually survivors of the Holocaust. October 7 has become one of the darkest days for the Jewish community since the days of the Holocaust.

The attacks perpetuated by the Hamas terrorists are atrocious, barbaric and heinous acts of violence that have no place in our world. Over 1,400 people were killed by the Hamas terrorists, and about 200 people were taken hostage, that we know of today. To make matters worse, these terrorists targeted civilians, including women and children. They targeted innocent civilians—women, babies and the elderly. Innocent people were kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered, some were even set on fire and dismembered. Parents and children, as well as other friends and family, were forced to watch each other be beaten and killed. These terrorists found enjoyment in torturing and killing innocent people, and as other members have already stated, they livestreamed it—sick and heinous. They took videos of themselves committing these acts of violence, all while cheering and laughing as if it were a game. They even used children as human shields. It’s very despicable. The hostages consist of soldiers and civilians—but also people with disabilities, young children, elderly, and even a nine-month-old baby. This horrific behaviour brings forth memories of the barbaric attacks perpetrated by Islamic extremist groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda. What the Hamas terrorists are doing to the people in Israel is pure evil.

We recognize that Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens. The Israeli army acknowledges their obligation to not target civilians for military purposes and to avoid any action that could inflict disproportionate harm on civilians.

I’d like to speak about the six Canadians who have been killed as a result of the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorists.

The latest Canadian killed was Tiferet Lapidot. Even though she was not a Canadian citizen—her parents are, and she would have been eligible for Canadian citizenship. She was 22 years old and was set to turn 23 last week. Her family celebrated her birthday by baking cakes and lighting candles in her memory. She was one of many people who were believed to be taken hostage after the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival. Her mother was the last of her family to hear her daughter’s voice, when she spoke with her over the phone. During this phone call, she informed her mother that the Hamas terrorists were shooting at people, and she sought advice from her mother regarding whether or not she should stay and hide with the larger group or if she should separate. That is honestly a parent’s worst nightmare. To be on the phone with your children and to not know whether they’re going to survive or live—I couldn’t imagine. Her family did not hear anything else after this until they were informed of her death.

Twenty-one-year-old Netta Epstein was the fifth Canadian who was killed due to the Hamas attacks. Epstein was killed by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attacks after he bravely jumped on a live hand grenade in order to save his girlfriend’s life. Both he and his girlfriend, Irene Shavit, were seeking refuge in a safe room in their apartment in Kfar Aza kibbutz when a grenade was thrown into the room. Due to Epstein’s heroic actions, Shavit was later rescued.

Twenty-two-year-old Shir Georgy was the fourth Canadian killed due to the Hamas terrorist attacks. Georgy was another victim of the Hamas terrorist attack on the Supernova music festival. Georgy went missing after the Hamas attack, but she was found safe in a safe room with security and police protection. Soon after, a video emerged on social media where she could be found sitting on the floor with numerous others, some of them visibly injured and bleeding. Soon after, it was announced that she had died.

Twenty-two-year-old Ben Mizrachi was also at the Supernova music festival when it was attacked by Hamas terrorists. Mizrachi will be remembered as a “bright, joyful and compassionate young person whose life tragically ended far too soon.” Soon after the Hamas terrorists descended on the music festival, panic and chaos ensued. However, instead of fleeing, Mizrachi decided to use his training as a medic in the Israeli Defense Forces to provide medical aid to those who were wounded before becoming a victim himself, which reminds me of, I believe it was a children’s show and I can’t think of it right now, but whenever there is conflict or there is something going on that’s serious—I think it was Mister Rogers or Mr. Dressup—look for the emergency personnel, the ones who are running into the situation, and that was his message to children because it’s hard for children to understand when something of a serious nature happens. I wish I knew which one it was, but he stated, “Look for the helpers.” The helpers are always there, like Mr. Mizrachi, who stayed and saved others for his own life.

Thirty-three-year-old Alexandre Look: Alex was also killed during the Hamas terrorist attack on the Supernova music festival. According to his family and survivors of the attack, Alex died a hero. Alex and 30 others took shelter in a bunker; however, the bunker had no door. When Hamas terrorists arrived at the bunker, Alex used his own body to barricade the door, forming a human shield that protected the others in the bunker. How brave of Alex to be able to do that. Alex was on the phone with his mother—again another parent’s worst nightmare—Raquel Look, during this attack. She instructed her son to listen to the Israeli authorities and to hide. She recalls hearing her son say, “They’re coming back.” Shortly after, she heard gunshots and people chanting in Arabic. “I knew,” Raquel Look recalled. “I said, ‘They’re killing my son as we speak.’”

Think of the horror that parents have to endure to hear your child being killed as you’re speaking with them. It’s a travesty, Speaker, and it’s terrorism.

Thirty-three-year-old Adi Vital-Kaploun was yet another Canadian who died a hero after the Hamas terrorist attacks. Vital-Kaploun was killed near the Israeli-Gaza border. She has dual citizenship and a large extended family that live in the Ottawa area. That’s my area of the province.

Her cousin-in-law Aaron Smith stated, “Adi was a beautiful woman that brought love and lightness to the people around her, but also she was very focused and determined to make a beautiful life for her family”—a life cut short, Speaker, which can clearly be seen in her actions prior to her death. After warning her husband and father to stay hidden, she was able to convince the Hamas terrorists to spare her two young children before being shot in front of them. The terrorists then took her children to their neighbour and used them as human shields in order to convince other friends and family to come out of hiding. The neighbour and children were soon released and later rescued, but those children have to live with what they’ve seen for the rest of their lives. I pray for all the innocents—the stolen, the injured and the dead—and their families who have to remain and deal with the aftermath.