(Ottawa) More than 30 Liberal, New Democrat and Green MPs call on the Prime Minister to call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in a letter that no MP from the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois has signed.
The transpartisan plea was made public Friday by the president of the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group, Liberal Salma Zahid, through a letter signed by 33 members of the House.
“Canada has long been a standard bearer of peace. The longer the conflict lasts, the more innocent victims it will cause,” we write in the missive addressed to Justin Trudeau.
“We call on Canada to join the growing number of countries calling for an immediate ceasefire. Canada must act to prevent more children from being killed,” add the MEPs.
The group of elected officials also demands that Ottawa do “everything in its power” to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.
Canada must also “recognize that generations of Palestinians have suffered from Israeli occupation” and “reaffirm its commitment to the peaceful coexistence of a free Palestinian state and a free Israeli state,” they also insist.
The letter, shared on social networks by Salma Zahid, is signed by 23 elected officials from the Liberal Party, 8 deputies from the New Democratic Party and the 2 representatives from the Green Party in the House of Commons.
This represents a little less than 10% of all 338 federal deputies.
None of the 117 Conservatives and 32 Bloc members are part of the lot.
Liberal divisions
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not deny on Friday that there were differences of opinion within his caucus.
Because the deputies are precisely in Ottawa to represent “people are afraid, people are angry, people are worried,” he argued.
The role of parliamentarians is to reflect the concerns and hopes of their community.
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
“But our responsibility is also to listen to each other, to work together, and to ensure that we remember who we are as Canadians,” noted Justin Trudeau.
Liberal deputies of Muslim and Jewish faith also exchanged their perspectives on the war Thursday evening in a room of parliament.
“Destroy Hamas”?
The Prime Minister also reiterated on Friday Ottawa’s “firm and unwavering” position in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He did not want to echo the terms used by Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, who called for the annihilation of Hamas in a speech in Ottawa on Wednesday evening.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae
Referring to the terrorist group’s “systematic and brutal cruelty”, he said that “any organization like this [devait] be destroyed,” according to a speech whose Toronto Star published extracts.
“Is this the position of your government? “, asked a journalist to Justin Trudeau on Friday.
“Hamas is a terrorist organization, and the Canadian government has considered it as such for years, even decades,” replied the Prime Minister.
And to respond to “one of the worst terrorist attacks in history against civilians”, the Hebrew State has the right “to defend itself in accordance with international law”, he also affirmed.