Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Kildonan—St. Paul.

The revelations that the RCMP presented to Canadians last Monday were absolutely shocking. I talked to a number of people across the country who were shocked at the idea that agents of the Government of India were not only involved in foreign interference but also going further than that, and that foreign interference included murder; extortion; use of organized crime, with some international crime syndicates and some here in Canada; intimidation of Canadians; and coercion of Canadians. It got to the point at which the RCMP had to essentially warn Canadians. It specifically warned 13 Canadians that their lives were in danger because of foreign interference. There were concerns that their lives were at risk because of actions that agents of the Government of India may take. This is a clear affront to our sovereignty as a nation. This threatens our democracy and threatens us as a country.

We must take steps to protect Canadians. We have to protect our sovereignty. We must protect our democracy. As well, we need to get answers for Canadians as to why this is happening and how this continues to happen. We need to take steps to stop foreign interference from all countries and, in this case, directly from India.

It is important that we, as parliamentarians, as well as the government, take national security seriously. We must take the threat of foreign interference very seriously.

The idea of foreign interference from India is not new. When I was younger, we would hear of people who had spoken up on human rights issues or other issues that the government of the day might not have agreed with. There would be concerns that they may not receive a visa to go back to India. That was the type of threat that we commonly heard previously. However, what the RCMP has uncovered now and the evidence it has of murder, extortion, coercion and the use of organized crime goes way beyond what we used to hear about before. It is at the point that, in the United States, a plot to murder an American was thwarted by U.S. authorities. U.S. security agencies were able to thwart that plot. Soon after that, arrests were made in the U.S. Unfortunately, we do not have that here.

The Prime Minister, at the Hogue commission, admitted that Canadian security agencies have known about foreign interference from India and that it has been committing foreign interference for years. The government has not taken appropriate steps to protect Canadians, even after a Canadian was assassinated on Canadian soil. Canadians continue to be under threat.

The fact is that, for a number of years, we have been attempting to bring solutions forward on foreign interference. It was our party that pushed for a foreign interference registry so that foreign agents would be registered. The Liberals rejected this, and the NDP supported them. Finally, after pressure from the Conservatives, we now have what is starting to become a foreign interference registry of agents to be registered to stop foreign interference.

Extortion is one method the RCMP has said agents of the Indian government are using to target Canadians. They are using international gangs. They are using and paying gangs here in Canada. One solution that we put forward was my private member's bill, Bill C-381. It is important that, as opposition members, we put solutions forward. The fact is that, right now in Canada, there is no minimum penalty for extortion, but with Bill C-381, anybody committing extortion would have received three years as a mandatory minimum sentence. It would have been four years if they committed that extortion with a firearm and five years if it was in relation to organized crime. That is precisely what we are talking about here today.

This is exactly what the RCMP has said is happening in this case: Through organized crime, Canadians are being extorted. However, the Liberals and the NDP voted against that bill. When we put solutions forward, unfortunately, the Liberals rejected those solutions. The fact of the matter is that Canada is now much more dangerous than it was nine years ago in every respect and in every category. Crime is up. Murders are up. It is less safe to be in Canada, and as we are finding out, foreign interference from India has gotten to an extreme level in which Canadians' lives are threatened. We have already seen that a Canadian has been assassinated because of it.

It is important, and it should be, for the government to take more and better actions to protect Canadians.

Tim Uppal

$616,032.00