Pursuant to notice of February 17, 2021, moved:

That, in relation to Senator Leila M. de Lima, an incumbent senator of the Republic of the Philippines, who was arrested and has been arbitrarily detained since February 24, 2017, on politically motivated illegal drug trading charges filed against her by the Duterte government, and who continues to be detained without bail, despite the lack of any material evidence presented by the Philippine government prosecutors, the Senate:

(a)condemn the Philippine government’s unjust and arbitrary detention of Senator Leila M. de Lima;

(b)urge the Philippine government to immediately release Senator de Lima, drop all charges against her, remove restrictions on her personal and work conditions and allow her to fully discharge her legislative mandate;

(c)call on the government of Canada to invoke sanctions pursuant to the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) against all Philippine government officials complicit in the jailing of Senator de Lima;

(d)call on the Philippine government to recognize the primacy of human rights and the rule of law, as well as the importance of human rights defenders and their work and allow them to operate freely without fear of reprisal; and

(e)urge other parliamentarians and governments globally to likewise pressure the Duterte government to protect, promote and uphold human rights and the rule of law as essential pillars of a free and functioning democratic society in the Philippines.

She said: I move this motion standing in my name and welcome this opportunity to show support for a sister senator incarcerated unjustly.

As a senator from Manitoba, I speak with an especially heavy heart today having heard from colleagues such as Senators McCallum and Christmas when, as a contested state, Canada is confronted by even more evidence than was provided in the final report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission so ably led by our colleague former senator Murray Sinclair.

I wish to acknowledge that I am a resident of Treaty 1 territory, the traditional territory of Anishnaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. I also wish to acknowledge that the Parliament of Canada is situated on the unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin and Anishinabek First Nations.

Honourable colleagues, I rise today at the beginning of Filipino Heritage Month in Canada to ask you to turn your minds and hearts towards another senator. Allow me to share this senator’s own words:

Everything that almost every person takes for granted has been denied to me.

 . . . The ability to say ‘Good morning’ to my loved ones . . . . The ability to hold my grandchildren. The ability to kiss my mom on the cheeks. The ability . . . to praise my son . . . Israel, who has autism, on his latest beautiful artwork.

Colleagues, this denial is ongoing after more than 50 months and is the result of opposition senator Leila de Lima being forced to live in a cell in the Philippine National Police headquarters, having been scooped on the order of the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, in February 2017 and charged with smuggling drugs for a drug lord that she had actually prosecuted while Secretary of Justice.

Colleagues, the Honourable Leila de Lima was a dedicated public servant, the chair of the Commission on Human Rights of her country before becoming Secretary of Justice and then a senator. As Secretary of Justice, prior to Duterte being elected president, she crusaded against internal corruption, exposing a former president, a number of senators and other senior politicians. Later, as a member of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, de Lima spearheaded an investigation into extrajudicial killings in the name of the Duterte administration’s brutal war on drugs.

I will stop there for this evening.