But we’re going to be staying on Parliament Hill now and MPS spent part of to today debating an NDP motion that calls on Canada to do more to address the crisis in Gaza among other things it says the government should officially recognize Palestinian statehood the cbc’s Karina Roman has been watching the
Proceedings and she joins us now from Ottawa so Karina first of all if you can take us through this motion and what it says so it has a a a list of measures calling on Canada to do certain things the government to do things such as call
For a ceasefire uh calling on uh advocating for the release of all hostages uh you know making sure that Canadians trapped in Gaza can get home um Banning extremist settlers from Canada uh it even talks about reinstating funding to unra which has already been done by Canada but the two
Most contentious ones are the suspension of all trade in military goods and techn ology with Israel and as you mentioned officially recognizing the state of Palestine um so you know other G7 uh Nations have mused uh and speculated about uh declaring the state recognition of the State of Palestine uh
In advance of any NE negotiations with Israel uh in terms of a two-state solution negotiation um we would Canada would be the first if they actually went ahead and did it but you have heard music from the UK from the US uh from France you have more than 130 countries
Who have recognized the state of Palestine and Heather mcferson who is the NDP mp uh champion this motion she’s the Foreign Affairs critic for the party uh says that you can’t really wait for Israel uh to uh do these negotiations on a two-state solution since you have a
Government right now in power in Israel that doesn’t believe in a two-state solution um and she really made uh quite an emotional plea uh during debate about why uh this uh should be something that all parties Vote for This motion uh talking about the human toll talking about particular stories about
Individual children uh stories uh of uh death and starvation and hardship uh and that led her to make this statement have a listen none of us can say that we didn’t know we do know Canadians failure to face this horror is shameful and it’s not political inaction it’s complicity
And it doesn’t have to continue the NDP motion today asks this house to recommend nine steps that candada could take today today Mr Speaker to help end this war and save the lives of children this is not complicated of course Hillary uh many people do feel like it is complicated and certainly very
Contentious well what what kind of reaction then are you seeing at this point Karina well we are hearing uh that the block is going to uh support this motion uh on the other hand the conservatives very unlikely to support uh this motion um and that was seen in a
Question by Melissa lansman uh to mcferson during debate have a listen Kamas murdered raped and tortured thousands they murdered thousands of people in Israel this motion holds does not hold Hamas accountable in any way it does not call for the surrender of Hamas or for the putting down of its
Arms or even for the return of those hostages in any meaningful way why is the member rewarding Hamas terrorists for their October 7th Massacre In This House of Commons she should be ashamed of herself now mcferson responded saying that clearly lanman hadn’t read the motion nor listened to her speech but
Really all eyes are on the governing Li this is the party that has been most divided by this issue since the Hamas attacks of October 7th um has had the most riffs within it uh to deal with this um and so people want to see how
They’re going to vote because this is a non-binding motion uh so even if it were to pass which is not super likely but even if it were it doesn’t Force the government to do anything uh but it’s really more about putting them on the record and in this case you have liberal
Cabinet ministers uh who everyone’s looking to to see you know how they will vote because that would indicate where the government stands on it uh and to that end of course the foreign affairs minister also participated in debate with a speech uh here’s some of what she
Had to say this crisis has Expos cracks and deepen the wounds of society on both sides it is fueled by dehumanization and when we don’t see the humanity of others Injustice Falls onto the shoulders of Innocence now when pressed uh by both uh the NDP and the conservatives to answer
Whether or not she would support the motion Jolie said while she supports elements of the motion you know the call for hostages to be released call for a ceasefire uh access to humanitarian Aid she does have issues with the motion and that it would basically change foreign
Policy based on a uh opposition parties uh motion uh and so that sounded very much like a no even if it doesn’t sound definitive to most uh and we also of course you’re hearing from other uh liberal MPS backbencher MPS some saying that they may support the motion some
Saying that they will support the motion but others who are saying there’s no way they will support the motion have a listen I’m voting no because I S see this motion as rewarding Kamas for its atrocious act on Israel this motion changes Decades of Canadian foreign policy um and and and recognizes a
Palestinian state for example which we previously said would have to be up to negotiations by the parties now we would unilaterally recognize that what has changed aamas attack on Israel it’s an inappro appropriate message to send to terrorist organizations around the world that if they do things like this maybe
Somebody will wake up and and and pay more attention to them not less advocates for the motion such as Heather mcferson say this is not about rewarding Hamas that wouldn’t be doing that uh but this is a very contentious debate contentious issue and the vote will be sometime after 7 o’clock tonight
Okay thank you Karina we do appreciate this of course that’s something that we’ll be watching for Karina Roman for us
Members of Parliament are set to vote on an NDP motion calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to “officially recognize the State of Palestine.”
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