Honourable senators, as UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell has stated, “Any war is ultimately a war on children.” Or, as those in this chamber of my generation will recall, “War is not healthy for children and other living things.”

Currently, there are upward of 100 armed conflicts raging across the globe that put children directly into the crosshairs of destruction. These children have had no say in the machinations of deluded leaders or the unleashing of weapons that spew death. These children have had their childhoods snatched away. These children have died, been physically or psychologically maimed, have lost a parent or loved one or have been abducted and forced to leave all that was precious and dear to them.

Colleagues, but for the grace of God and good luck, those children could have been our children. They could have been our grandchildren. In a way, all children are our children and our grandchildren, and this is not the life that we want them to experience. The Russian genocidal war on Ukraine is but one example of the horrors that war unleashes on the most innocent. In Ukraine, about 7 million children are directly or indirectly experiencing the horrors of war. Many thousands have been deported or forcefully displaced. They have disappeared, become victims of sexual violence, been wounded or died.

Senators, we have a shared humanity and thus a shared responsibility to do whatever we can to make sure that our children do not now or evermore experience the horrors of war.

Today, we are joined by a leader who has dedicated her career to justice and to shining a light on the atrocities of this aggression. Oleksandra Matviichuk has been documenting Russian war crimes in Ukraine for over a decade and, through the work of the Center for Civil Liberties, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. She is visiting Canada with the support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation to remind us first-hand of how Ukrainian children are being impacted by Russia’s genocidal war.

Irpin, Bucha, Mariupol and now Kharkiv — to name only a few — are places that will live in infamy. Their children have paid an unfathomable price just because they happen to live in Ukraine — all this because of the delusions of a hostile, imperialistic autocrat and, sadly, the lack of resolve from Western nations to step up quickly and properly to protect these children.

We in this chamber can do something about this. We must continue to increase our support to Ukraine so it can rapidly defeat Russia. We must make further commitments to the recovery and rehabilitation of those children, who will carry the scars of this conflict for their entire lives and into generations yet unborn. We must act with more haste and more resolve.

Colleagues, as I have said, these children are our children. What are we going to do to keep our children safe? What are we going to do to give our children the childhood they need?

Thank you. D’akuju.