I was going to rise to thank the Arthritis Society Canada, who is here today, on behalf of the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. We enjoyed their breakfast this morning. I wanted to thank particularly Trish Barbato, president and CEO; Sian Bevan, chief science officer; Andrew Branion, vice-chair, national board of directors; Vas Rao, board of directors; Kelly Gorman, senior director; Joanne Di Nardo; and Ilene as well for educating us all about the tools for arthritis.

My apologies for rising a second time, but I did not know—and now do—that my sister-in-law, Meredith Martin, is in the gallery. So I want to preserve family—

Like others have said today, I rise with a heavy heart. It’s a very difficult and serious issue that we are debating today. I want to start just by putting down some basic facts.

Hamas has been recognized as a terrorist entity by the government of Canada, and Hamas’ charter clearly declares that its aim, the reason for its existence, is to commit a war crime, basically. It is to eliminate the state of Israel and every Jew who stands in the way. And they’re not above eliminating others as well, like Arab Israelis, for example.

Now, on October 7—we’ve said many times, but I have to go there again—appalling news came out of Israel: Innocent civilians, men, women, children, even babies and the elderly, some of whom themselves were Holocaust survivors, were kidnapped, raped, murdered, burned and mutilated. And Hamas terrorists gleefully paraded their war crimes on social media, showing a total absence of respect for human life. By treating these innocent victims as though they were less than human, by dehumanizing these innocent Israelis, these terrorists displayed their own inhumanity for all the world to see, and all the world saw that. It was the purest manifestation of moral evil in recent history. Every bit of news of these atrocities committed by Hamas hits us viscerally in the gut, leaving us gutted, really, as the descriptions also echo pogroms and the history of the Holocaust, and we all feel that very much.

As my friend has just said, at least on Monday of this week, by then, 1,400 Israelis had been killed, including 260 who were massacred at the Supernova Sukkot gathering. Attendees there began fleeing in panic as Hamas terrorists arrived and began shooting, and the few who managed to reach their vehicles were met with gunfire and blocked roads. Those that hid were hunted down, raped and then they were taken hostage or murdered. The attack, and all of the other attacks perpetrated by Hamas, deserve nothing less than unequivocal condemnation.

Now, in light of that, what was the response of the NDP MPP for Hamilton Centre? There was a post posted on October 10. Let’s remember that October 10 was just a few days after October 7. We were still just figuring out what had happened. There were two parts to the post: There was the statement itself, and the post on X, formerly called Twitter, which attached the statement.

Let’s examine how the MPP for Hamilton Centre responded to the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. What were her first words in the face of this unspeakable horror? The Hamilton Centre MPP posted a two-paragraph statement, and this is what she said: first of all, some irrelevant nonsense stating that the MPP for Hamilton Centre was reflecting on her role as a politician in this “settler colonial” system—I guess that was just a side smear on the Legislature. Then, she followed that with a “#FreePalestine.” Then, her statement called for an immediate ceasefire. This was on October 10, just a few days after this unspeakable terrorist attack on Israel when Israel was still reeling from the attack. If we all reflect—if something traumatic happens to you, you can’t think, especially something this traumatic.

On October 10, she posted this when Israel was still reeling from the attack, had had barely a chance to regroup and to start to defend itself, even while Hamas was holding hostages, perhaps as many as 200 hostages taken from Israel, which itself is a war crime, which they are still doing—this is when the MPP for Hamilton Centre was asking for an immediate ceasefire, even while Hamas continued bombing Israel, its rescue forces and those who were trying to give the people who had been murdered so viciously a decent burial.

Her statement also smeared Israel, this very recent victim of a horrific terrorist attack, as an apartheid state. It states—her statement—that the solution is the end of the State of Israel. She specifically rues the ongoing violence on October 10, but she doesn’t say a word against the terrorist attack against Israel or its innocent citizens. Not a word for those innocent human beings who were slaughtered in Israel. Not even a word for the 40 innocent Arab Israelis—at least 40 that I know of at this point—who were killed in the terrorist attack on Israel, nor the six Canadians who were killed in the terrorist attack on Israel, nor the people from other countries who were killed in the terrorist attack on Israel—not a word for any of them.

CIJA, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said this in response to the statement by the MPP for Hamilton Centre: “Israeli babies beheaded, Israeli young women raped, more than 100 Israeli men, women & children kidnapped, and 900 & counting murdered at the hands of #Hamas terrorists and this is what the Ontario MPP ... has to say.

“This statement is filled with lies that will do nothing to create peace and will only serve to foment hatred against Canada’s Jewish community.

“We call for the immediate removal of”—the MPP from Hamilton Centre. That was the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs when she posted her statement.

This is fundamentally where the problem is. In the face of horror, the MPP from Hamilton Centre could not spare a first thought for the victims of this terrorist attack and their families—not one thought, not one moment. That is fundamentally racist. It is anti-Semitic. It is overlooking the humanity of the people who were attacked. It is conduct unbecoming a member of this Legislature. We all say every day that there should be no hate, no racism of any kind, and anti-Semitism is a type of racism, perhaps the oldest.

We have all said this in this House, but it’s much worse when an individual member of the Legislature does not live up to this standard and says something which is fundamentally anti-Semitic and racist in the face of the most horrific tragedy. This is a member sworn to represent all constituents, and we’ve heard that she has Jewish constituents. All the member had to do was to apologize and retract her statement and issue a statement condemning Hamas’ terrorist attacks, as she should have done originally. This is the position of the New Democratic Party, which she belongs to. Although unfortunately, today, they did not vote in line with that position, that is their stated public position on the issue at the time of the post anyway.

The statement by the NDP leader, the member for Davenport, on October 11, condemned the statement from the member for Hamilton Centre. The leader of the New Democratic Party released a statement saying the MPP’s message was not approved by her caucus. She asked her to retract it and instead asked her to clearly state “that she decries any violence against both Israeli and Palestinian people.” The NDP leader said, “This statement does not reflect our party’s position, which is articulated in our federal party’s statement ... The terrorist attacks by Hamas on thousands of innocent Israeli civilians are unjustifiable and must be condemned unequivocally.” But the member has not done that, not to this day.

Our Premier called on the member from Hamilton Centre to step down. He said, “As Premier, I’m doing what”—the Leader of the Opposition won’t do, calling on her—“to resign immediately” as the member for Hamilton Centre. Then the member for Hamilton Centre offered what could best be described as a very tepid apology, a simple post buried in the comments section of her X post, just two words really: “I apologize.” That was the whole sentence. That was it. She did not even bother to say exactly what she was apologizing for.

As Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, noted, “The MPP from Hamilton Centre has never properly apologized to the Jewish community for her prior offensive statements. Now, as our community faces an onslaught of barbaric terrorism, your comments are devoid of even one word of condemnation against Hamas. You do not deserve to sit in the opposition’s caucus in Ontario.” He went on to call on the NDP leader to immediately remove the MPP from caucus.

But there was never any retraction of that statement, even though her leader asked for a retraction. Indeed, the MPP from Hamilton Centre doubled down on it by pinning it on the top of her X feed, highlighting it. Leaving the post up is contributing to inflaming the situation. She is continuing to foment hatred.

A recent op-ed by David Matas, senior legal council of B’nai Brith, and Sarah Teich, a member of the B’nai Brith Canada’s Matas Law Society, stated, “In Canada, the Jewish population, according to Statistics Canada, is the most vulnerable identity group by far on a per capita basis.... This disproportionate victimization is directly linked to past anti-Zionist rallies and the propaganda which incites them.” These rallies are “straight bigotry, endorsing these killings and kidnappings.”

Now, as the government House said, it’s expected that members are going to have comments, sometimes unpopular opinions, but we cannot allow them to compromise the sanctity, the value of this institution and respect for this institution. And that’s why Parliaments over the course of history have acted swiftly to condemn members and censure members when there has been a problem. And that’s why we’re arguing this motion today.

There is unanimity amongst the members of this Legislature, by the way, on this issue, despite how people vote sometimes, despite what the member for Ottawa Centre said, the leader of the independent Liberals. Previously, he had said, “This is about innocent lives. And that tweet left the impression that those innocent lives, that somehow they had it coming. Somehow, what did you expect? It didn’t recognize the utter inhumanity of what happened.” That was the member for Ottawa Centre.

CIJA said just yesterday on X, “By pinning her statement to her profile, after specifically being asked to retract it,” the member for Hamilton Centre “demonstrates that her ‘apology’ was nothing but empty words. No minority community would tolerate this.

“We once again reiterate our call for her immediate removal from the NDP caucus.”

We must hold the members—all of us, ourselves, each other—to the highest possible standard. And even the Leader of the Opposition said the member from Hamilton Centre should apologize and retract the statement. Yet, the member has not. That’s all three parties in this Legislature, and we haven’t heard from the Green member. But otherwise, everybody.

So what is the problem here? Never acknowledging the terror attack that started this. We’ve often said this: You have to name these things. You have to call them out: a tepid apology, a statement that has still not been retracted, doubling down on that statement and sticking it in the face of everybody for all to see, and she did all of this with the coat of arms of the Legislature beside her name. In doing so, she tainted the reputation of this great institution, our democratic ideals and all of the institutions that uphold them. Her conduct, I would say, is disreputable, and it brings shame on this institution and all of us by association with it.

Even long-time members of the NDP think that the MPP for Hamilton Centre should resign. Hershl D. Berman, who ran in the last provincial election for the NDP and in the last three federal elections and has been a member of the party since 1984, said this this week about the member from Hamilton Centre. He said this “caused great harm to the Jewish community in Ontario. While Hamas was attacking our friends and family she posted remarks on her ‘X’ page that were inappropriate and deeply hurtful. She was asked to withdraw them but she did not, and her subsequent statements were inadequate and unacceptable.

“This is the latest incident in a pattern of anti-Semitic behaviour that predates her election to the Ontario NDP caucus. Her actions demonstrate that she is neither fit to speak for the New Democratic Party nor to hold elected office.

“I therefore respectfully ask our leader ... to expel her from the ONDP caucus, and I call” on the MPP from Hamilton Centre “to resign as a member of provincial Parliament.” And that is from a long-time member of the NDP, a former candidate.

I guess what I would ask is, if the member for Hamilton Centre thinks she’s participating in a somewhat distasteful Legislature, a distasteful place, then she could step down quite easily. She doesn’t seem to have respect for this institution. As Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada said in a recent Toronto Sun article, all of us “must start asking ourselves who we are, and how much more of this evil incitement we are willing to condone” or just ignore because, as I said before, I think it will infect everything.

He went on: “Think about this: A Hamas terrorist called for a holy war on all Jewish people, and there are Canadians celebrating it.” They’re handing out cake here in our multicultural society. He concluded, “You cannot support the actions of Hamas while also claiming to believe in a multicultural and diverse Canada.”

We have a place here called a Parliament—speak, “parler,” “Parlement.” Words matter. That’s what this place is about and these are her words.

And I just want to mention that a representative of the National Council of Canadian Muslims held a press conference yesterday, and I read a transcript of everything that was said. One of the points he made repeatedly was that words matter, that words have consequences, and they absolutely impact people—even the words that we’re talking about here today and the words in the tweet.

Well, I think we all agree, and that is why we brought this motion. But that representative, despite confirming that words matter, could not understand the relevance of this motion. He said the National Council for Canadian Muslims “do not see it as a problem,” but many others do, I can assure you, including my colleagues and myself.

Let me try to explain quickly why it’s important because I think it’s important that everybody understand. We all want peace. Nobody wants anyone to be hurt. No civilians anywhere should be hurt, especially not innocent civilians going about their business. But our shared humanity requires that we value every human life. Human rights are attributed to all of us—Jew, Muslim, Israeli, Gazan and, yes, Canadian—because we are human beings. Every life is sacred—every Jewish life, every Muslim life, every Israeli life, every Gazan life. If we do not accept that as the foundation and let each other live according to your own religion and beliefs, or lack thereof, here in Canada, then we will not ever be able to have peace and live together. Our society will be torn apart. This is fundamental.

Now, any statement that I and my colleagues and this government have made about this issue have been statements condemning a recognized terrorist group, not Gazans generally—or Palestinians or Muslims. The innocent people of Gaza should be able to have safe passage. The innocent Israeli citizens should not have been so brutally murdered in a terrorist attack, but calling for an immediate ceasefire without letting Israel recover its hostages, secure its borders and eliminate the ongoing threat of further attacks coming from Hamas is just not tenable. It is strategically intolerable.

“Legitimate defense can be only a right but also a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm.” Furthermore, as “it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm, sometimes involves taking his life.” That is a quote from Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas argued that it was only in the pursuit of justice that the good intention of a moral act could justify negative consequences, including the killing of an innocent during war. Our United Nations charter says at article 51, “Nothing in the present charter shall impair the inherent right of an individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the security council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.” Israel does have a right to defend itself. It can’t have a ceasefire before it has secured its own safety and the safety of its citizens, especially in light of what has happened.

That’s all we need to understand. We don’t have any problem with Muslims. We love everybody. We want everybody to get along. We don’t want anyone to die, especially not innocent civilians. But we’re here today to say if only the MPP for Hamilton Centre could agree, condemn the attack first and then talk about the rest of this.