Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We are for an immediate ceasefire. We want to see the cessation of violence. But it's not enough to just say the words; there has to be a plan that follows. There has to be, in my view, a robust international intervention that is going to stand between these factions. There has to be a plan in which we see some movement, I would suggest, on the part of Hezbollah to return kidnapped soldiers. There has to be a plan that is going to assure the longer-term stability of the region. Simply mouthing the word “ceasefire” is not going to make it happen.
As far as the tragedy, and the toll, and the destruction that has been inflicted upon civilians, inflicted upon in particular the innocent people in Lebanon, are concerned, I hope you're not suggesting, and I don't think anybody in this room would suggest, that any government would favour that type of devastation. And the family members—and I've spoken to the family members in Montreal—are victims in every sense of the word. Their loss is something that, unless you've experienced it yourself, you can't appreciate. And I don't pretend to be able to say that I've ever experienced anything like that. But I expressed to them, in the most personal way I could, the Canadian government's and my own condolences for what has happened.
I think in the context of the statement that you've referred to, made by the Prime Minister, it's important to note that he made that statement on his way to the G8 summit, in St. Petersburg, at the very start of this conflict. At the end of that international gathering he was a signatory on behalf of our country to a statement that specifically calls for the cessation of violence and a ceasefire. That is Canada's position.