After seven and a half months of heartbreak, of horror and tragedy for Palestinian and Israeli communities, I’m going to ask a question, Speaker: Does anybody in this House or in our country or around the world feel safer? I certainly don’t feel safer. I didn’t feel safer when I woke up this morning to learn that 45 people were killed in a refugee camp: people living in tents, women and children.

Do I think a new generation of orphans is going to lead to peace? No, I don’t.

Do I think shooting up a Jewish elementary school in the middle of the night in this city of Toronto is going to lead to peace? No, I don’t.

Do I believe the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Dr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, who recently said that concerted global action is needed right now to stop the government of Israel in pursuing its relentless bombing campaign, a bombing campaign which is continuing despite the International Court of Justice telling Israel that we need an immediate ceasefire?

I want to tip my hat to the students across this country. The students and faculty and staff have been our moral conscience, and I want to call upon the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa—all of the campuses—to work with those people of conscience so Canada speaks for peace and tell every single person in the Middle East that Canada wants a Good Friday Agreement in Israel. That happened 35 years ago for the Irish, and it can happen for Palestinians and Israelis if we’re prepared to fight for it.