Business of Supply  Their love and encouragement along a series of twists and turns in my path ultimately led me to an opportunity to serve with the United Nations in Iraq from 2005 until 2012. It was from that position that I entered Canadian politics. This will be about as partisan as I will ever get, but it was at the moment when the Liberal Party, my party, had been pushed up against the wall after the 2011 election, and when there were whispers that there may no longer be a space for the Liberal vision in the tapestry of Canadian politics.

Arab Heritage Month Act  When I was growing up, I and many people of my generation saw constant conflict in the Middle East between various nation-states, and the growth of terrorism scared many people. We saw the despots in control of Arab countries such as Syria, Iraq and Egypt and the puppet regimes in other countries such as Lebanon. The Persian neighbour of Iran saw the Ayatollah come to power, seize the U.S. embassy and declare us in North America to be the great Satan.

Foreign Affairs committee  Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stood up for these ideals when he recognized that it would be wrong for Canada to get involved in the conflict in Iraq. Prime Minister Harper stood up for these ideals when he committed Canada to the defence of Afghanistan. Now the NDP-Liberal coalition seems to be asking us to abandon our work on Mr.

Afghanistan committee  We had one member on the ground who had, I believe, 10 or 12 deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq and had seen some pretty horrendous things, but he reported back that this was the most intense, emotionally draining two-week period of his life. The work that our people did on the ground was nothing short of outstanding.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It tends to result in considerable loss of civilian life. We have seen this in recent years in Syria and Iraq, in cities like Raqqa, Mosul and Fallujah. In modern conflicts, we have also seen the catch-all phrase “dual-use targets” being used to justify attacks on a very broad category of potential targets.

National Defence committee  As you know from your work in Iraq, coordinating civil-military response is absolutely essential. It doesn't matter whether it's conflict, or it's a disaster response. Being able to build mechanisms where people can share ideas, share information, and then appropriately allocate that information and those resources to respond to whatever the crisis of the day is, is absolutely essential.

Business of Supply  However, when we look at Ukraine and the training mission that has been ongoing there over the last number of years, I would argue Canada has played a critical role in supporting Ukraine in that opposition to Russia. When I was Iraq, again, although it was a U.S.-led coalition, I was part of the team that actually stood up the NATO training mission and went in and briefed the Canadian general and his team that was leading that NATO training mission into Iraq.

Government Operations committee  Within North America, the two main countries with a large ocean-going navy are the United States and Canada. The U.S., over the last several decades, due in part to their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have really let their navy become their red-headed stepchild. They're not giving it the attention that you would expect from a country that depends upon a free flow of global trade. Part of this means that their defence industrial base has been really challenged, especially the naval shipbuilding side, where they technically could build more ships that they currently, but they haven't been able to do so.

Natural Resources committee  Have any of the top ten oil-producing countries in the world imposed an emissions cap? Have Russia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, China, the UAE, Brazil and Kuwait in particular—any of those countries—imposed an emissions cap?

Natural Resources committee  Has the Canada Energy Regulator ever reviewed the safety and environmental standards in such other countries as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China and Iraq? If so, I'm wondering if they've actually done a review of their requirements as well, for a comparison.

Business of Supply  It has missiles for deployment and uses a network of about 22 proxy militias to terrorize its neighbours and Israel. Iranian militias are active in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and much of the Middle East, including the Palestinian general authority. Maybe Canadians watching are wondering what all this has to do with Canada. Maybe, up until a month ago, they thought the same about Ukraine, but I am here to tell them and the House that the world is an unsafe place and there is evil in our midst.

National Defence committee  Because they are responsible for accepting basically all citizens, they have established military service for people who are neurodivergent, for example, people on the autistic spectrum, and have found a way to have meaningful involvement by neurodivergent people within their military. In the United States there is more concern with injured veterans, particularly from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. In the same way that Canada has a few ways that people who have been injured can continue to serve, I think that's really the best way of thinking about how we can expand those exemptions, particularly when we start looking at recruiting people in non-traditional occupations like cyber-operator.

Natural Resources committee  To the best of your knowledge, have the nine other top energy-producing countries in the world, namely the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, the UAE, Brazil and Kuwait, implemented an emissions cap for the oil and gas sectors? Are you aware of that, yes or no?

Natural Resources committee  To the best of their knowledge, have any of the other nine top energy-producing countries—the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, UAE, Brazil and Kuwait—implemented an emissions cap for their oil and gas sectors? That's one that maybe they could answer now.

Government Operations committee  This was still prior to the return of great power competition and rivalry that we've seen. There was no air threat to the Canadian Forces in the context of Afghanistan. In Iraq, we were dealing with insurgents. That easily goes by the wayside. There's no problem right now. We don't need it, so why bother? We can rely on allies on a limited basis, because we fight in a coalition.