Short post today as the House has just come back from break! Most interesting thing that’s happened so far is an NDP motion regarding the conflict in Gaza.
Motions
Peace in the Middle East – Heather McPherson (NDP, Alberta, Edmonton Strathcona)
Heather proposed a Motion to push for a ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. This is a bit of a long one but I’m going to directly quote it here as there’s an amendment to it and I want to make it easier to see what changes there. The Motion says, given that:
- The situation in the Middle East is devastating to many Canadians, particularly those with friends and family members in the region
- The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 30,000, with 70% of the victims women and children
- The Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, killed nearly 1,200 people and over 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity
- Millions of residents of Gaza are displaced and at risk of starvation, death, and disease, and Gaza is currently the most dangerous place in the world to be a child
- The United Nations reports over 70 per cent of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including homes, hospitals, schools, water and sanitation facilities, have been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli military attacks
- On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered six provisional measures, including for Israel to refrain from acts under the Genocide convention, prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide, and take immediate and effective measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza
- Israelis are still at risk of attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups including Hamas and Hezbollah
- The forcible transfer and violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have significantly increased in recent months
- The casualties of the war on Gaza and the Hamas terrorist attack include Canadian citizens
- Canadian citizens remain trapped in Gaza, blocked from leaving
- Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Canadians have reported an increase in hate-motivated attacks and racism since October
- Palestinians and Israelis both deserve to live in peace, with full enjoyment of their human rights and democratic freedoms
The House call on the government to:
- Demand an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages
- Suspend all trade in military goods and technology with Israel and increase efforts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas
- Immediately reinstate funding and ensure long-term continued funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and support the independent investigation
- Support the prosecution of all crimes and violations of international law committed in the region, and support the work of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court
- Demand unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza
- Ensure Canadians trapped in Gaza can reach safety in Canada and lift the arbitrary cap of 1,000 temporary resident visa applications
- Ban extremist settlers from Canada, impose sanctions on Israeli officials who incite genocide, and maintain sanctions on Hamas leaders
- Advocate for an end to the decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories and work toward a two-state solution
- Officially recognize the State of Palestine and maintain Canada’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist and to live in peace with its neighbours.
So yeah, fair bit there but the general idea is that the conflict’s been horrible for civilians on both sides and we should work to break from anything that’s supporting bad actors and helping the violence while working towards peace and aid for the innocent civilians.
Amendment – Steven MacKinnon (Liberal, Quebec, Gatineau)
Steven has a number of changes he wants to make to the Motion. A few are just making the wording a little better (such as changing “70% of victims women and children” to “70% of victims being women and children”) so I’ll be skipping those and focusing on the changes that are a bit more substantial. The changes are:
- Clarifying in Item 3 that Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization in Canada
- Clarifying that “millions of” Gazans in Item 4 is 1.7 million Gazans
- After Item 6 adding “All states, including Israel, have a right to defend themselves and in defending itself Israel must repsect international humanitarian law and the price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians”
- Item 8 is changed to “The increase in extremist settler violence against Palestinians and reports of Palestinian communities being forcibly removed from their lands in the West Bank”
- Adding a call for Hamas to lay down arms to Item A
- Item B is strengthened, calling for an immediate cease to arms transfer instead of just a suspension and calling out that we ensure compliance with our arms export regime
- Item C is changed to also demand long-term governance reforms and accountability measures be put in place with the UNRWA
- Item F will no longer remove the cap on temporary resident visas and will instead just expand access
- Item G is completely replaced with sanctioning extremist settlers and maintain sanctions on Hamas leaders
- Item H is replaced with reaffirming that the Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and that they’re a serious obstacle to negotiating a two-state solution, as well as advocating for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Item I is changed to no longer recognize the State of Palestine but to work with international partners to build a lasting peace in the Middle East, including establishing the State of Palestine as part of a two-state solution
The amendment then went up for a vote and passed with 204 voting in favour and 118 voting against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 146 | 3 | 1 |
| Conservative | 0 | 114 | 0 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 1 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Worth noting here that Ben Carr (Liberal, Manitoba, Winnipeg South Centre), Anthony Housefather (Liberal, Quebec, Mount Royal), and Marco Mendicino (Liberal, Ontario, Eglinton—Lawrence) are the three Liberal MPs that voted against this amendment.
The amended Motion then passed with everyone voting the same way as they did on the amendment, including the three Liberal MPs voting against it.
Bill Updates
C-35 – Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act
C-35 has been given Royal Assent.