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moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. He said: Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise here to speak to Bill S-210. If passed, this bill will designate September as Ukrainian heritage month in Canada. As the sponsor of this bill in the House, I will give brief remarks today. I will not be using all of my time. The government side will not be putting up any other speakers, and the majority of the parties in the House have agreed not to have MPs speak to this bill today, to ensure that we can have debate collapse today on this bill so debate ends before the time allocated for it comes to a close. Why is this happening? All parties support the passage of this bill. We know that because it has been unanimously supported at second reading and unanimously supported at the heritage committee, and it has come back from the committee to the House without amendments. There is no doubt about that. If the bill continues on a normal schedule, it will likely pass sometime in the fall. Normally, this would be just fine, but former senator Stan Kutcher, who is the Senate sponsor of this bill, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress have made the request that we expedite the passage of this bill so a final vote on this bill can be held next week. They have done so because the former senator is in poor health. In fact, that is why the former senator resigned his seat in the Senate several weeks ago, because his health did not allow him to continue his work. As the House sponsor, I have spoken with many colleagues about this, on all sides of the House. I want to be clear that I have no personal political interest in seeing this happen. I know that the bill will pass soon. I know it will probably pass in the fall. However, I do have an interest in this on a personal level, as I think all of us in the House do as well. Because the senator is in poor health, I believe it is the compassionate and humane thing to do to set aside the various political considerations we all have all the time and pass this bill while the senator’s health allows him to be here to watch it happen. The senator, members of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, who are watching this debate, and I have reached out to all parties over the past few months to ask for help in expediting the passage of this bill for this reason. From my end, I want members to know that I have done what I can as the House sponsor. I have traded up with other MPs so the bill gets debated sooner than it would have been otherwise. Normally, we would be at this stage in the fall. I have spoken with members of the heritage committee to ask for their help in this, and they have helped with this. I thank the heritage committee members for that. I have reached out to all parties in advance of this debate, as has the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, to ask for their help in allowing debate to collapse today. The reason this is important, for those who are not familiar with parliamentary procedure, is that if debate collapses today, the bill can go to a final vote next week and pass. If debate does not collapse today, the bill would probably not get to a final vote until at least the fall. My request to all MPs of all parties is that we allow the debate to collapse today. The majority of the parties have agreed to do what they can to make this happen. I appeal to members of all parties to allow debate to end before the allotted time is complete today so this bill can go to a final vote next week and so that former senator Kutcher can be here to watch it pass. For the benefit of those watching at home who have not followed the debate, I just want to say a few words about the bill. The first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada arrived on September 7, 1891. Since then, generation upon generation of Ukrainians have come to Canada, many of them fleeing oppression and seeking a better life. They found that life here in Canada. Ukrainian Canadians have helped to make Canada the great country it is today, and their contributions span our political, economic and social life, and much more. That is why, for example, in 2011, the Ontario legislature passed a law, unanimously supported by all parties at that time, to declare September 7 Ukrainian Heritage Day in Ontario. At the time, I was president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Ontario Provincial Council, and I was proud to have been one of the people who wrote that bill and helped to get it passed. That is also why I am proud to have introduced my own Ukrainian heritage month legislation in each of the last three Parliaments to do the same thing this bill would do, designate September as Ukrainian heritage month in Canada. Some have asked me why the three bills I introduced have not passed. The reason is that after every election, as all members know, MPs are put into a lottery to determine the order in which their bills come up for debate here in the House. Usually, in a four-year term, I believe about 60 to 80 MPs can have their bills debated and voted on. After each election, I have not been lucky enough to be in the top 80 in that lottery. I have been too far down. This time around, I think I am 218 or so. I have not been able to have a bill I have introduced here come to a vote. I want to be clear that this is not for lack of effort on my part. I have done everything I can to pass it, but it has simply not been possible. In fact, we can all think of examples of this on all sides. We have members here who have been elected for decades and have never had a bill pass. We recently had a member on our side who, after over 20 years in elected office, finally had a bill pass for the first time. That is how hard it is to pass a bill, because of the procedure. The fact that the bill we are debating today was introduced by a senator who was high enough in the order in the Senate, and given that it was passed in the Senate, it was given priority here in the House, is what gives us the opportunity to pass it. I just want folks to understand those dynamics. The reasons to support this bill, I think, are pretty clear. We have debated them before. First, it is an opportunity to celebrate Ukrainian heritage, which we see in our communities and every one of our ridings from coast to coast to coast. Second, it is a national acknowledgement of the people whose contributions have shaped Canada for about 135 years. Third, since 1891, Ukrainian Canadians have come to Canada seeking a better life, and since 1891, Canada has supported them. That is why Canada was the first country in the world to recognize Ukraine’s independence in 1991. That is why Canada was among the first countries in the world to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide. That is why our government has been a global leader in supporting the people of Ukraine as they bravely defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion. I would argue that there has never been a more important time to pass this bill than now. For the past four years, Ukrainians have been defending themselves against that invasion, and Canada has been a global leader in supporting them. I believe there are two key reasons we support the people of Ukraine. The first is that it is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. The second reason is that it is the right thing for Canada. This is because I believe Ukraine’s victory is vital to Canada’s security. If Russia wins, we know it will not stop at Ukraine. We know this because Vladimir Putin has told us so. He is leading a hybrid war against European countries right now. He has sent drones over military bases in NATO. He has claimed, in the past, parts of the Canadian Arctic as Russian territory. European, French and German military and political leaders are publicly saying that their people have to be ready for a land war with Russia in the next five years. Therefore, Russia’s invasion is not just about Ukraine. Ukraine is just the first step in Putin’s expansionist ambitions. If Russia succeeds in Ukraine, make no mistake that NATO will be next. That means we will be next. We will be fighting to defend ourselves against Russian aggression, whether in Europe, the Canadian Arctic or somewhere else, so either we pay a small price now to help Ukraine win, or we pay a much bigger price later, in Canadian dollars and in Canadian lives. That is why I believe we have to stand with the Ukrainian people until they win. That is why Canada has been a global leader in supporting Ukraine, with over $25 billion in support since 2022: military, humanitarian, financial and more. Ukraine is fighting on the front lines of the global struggle between democracy and tyranny. Its struggle is our struggle. That is why there has never been a more important time to adopt this bill. This bill honours the past, strengthens the present and inspires the future. Ukrainian heritage month would offer a special opportunity for us to celebrate Ukrainian heritage, the role that Canada has played in supporting Ukrainian Canadians, and the contributions that Ukrainian Canadians have made to Canada. I hope all members of this House will not only support this bill, because I know all members of this House do support it, but join us in allowing debate to collapse today so we can pass it next week, with the former senator watching, and designate each September, including this coming September, as Ukrainian heritage month across Canada.
