Madam Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to speak in this debate on peacekeeping. In case you had not noticed, this is the first time I rise in the House to speak in a debate on our armed forces. If I am not mistaken, it is the third such debate, and this is the first time I have decided to intervene.
I do so not as a member of the national defence committee or the foreign afairs committee but to pass on some of the comments I heard from some of my constituents.
First of all, I want to congratulate all those who participated in the Dayton agreement and made it a success. I believe that all these
people who came from far and near deserve to be congratulated by the whole world.
We also owe a vote of thanks to all the parties who signed the agreement. They showed they were at least willing to try to restore peace to a part of the world where it had disappeared and this only a few years ago.
Some friends were telling me that they had met people who came from the former Yugoslavia who had lived there prior to and during the war period. They had lived in a country that was as normal as one could find, perhaps not quite as wealthy as ours, but for a country that operated under the kind of regime it did, it was relatively prosperous. They had done rather well. They were living as we do, perhaps not as wealthily, as I said.
Virtually overnight the peace they had known was no longer there. The neighbours they had known as friends became their enemies. Families were broken up in the strife. All of a sudden people could no longer trust virtually anyone. People had reverted to that Hobbesian state of nature where it is every person for himself.
I suppose if it teaches us anything, it is the fragility of peace everywhere and that we should cherish peace if we happen to enjoy it at the present time, as we do. It has at least taught me that.
I also want to say that I am proud to be a Canadian and heir to the legacy of Lester B. Pearson. As you know, I presented a motion in this House to have a statue erected in his honour. It is just next door to this building. It was erected a number of years ago, and I am pleased to have been the one to suggest this. I must say that every time, and especially recently, when I pass this statue of Mr. Pearson, I remember his particular contribution to peacekeeping throughout the world.
We have some colleagues who are perhaps a little more isolationist than others in this chamber. I am not one of them. I happen to believe that we have an important role to play in the world. We do not live on a planet of our own. We share this planet with everyone else. It is time we remembered it. Some members across the way see it differently. They are indicating so by their heckling at the present time, which is their privilege.
I do not believe we are doing our job properly as MPs if we do not know members of Parliament from other countries, if we do not speak with them, if we do not find out what goes on in the world. Whether we realize it or not, whether we are by nature isolationists or not, the planet is shrinking all the time because of communications, because of increased trade, because of all these reasons.
The problems of one country are the problems of the world, not just of that country. Even if they were problems of only that country, I still believe it would be our duty morally and otherwise to help where we could. However, they are not only the problems of those other countries, they are everyone's problems, particularly in the world in which we live.
I was here when we dealt with and voted on this issue when it involved the Gulf War. Madam Speaker, you will remember that night. That night we all realized very suddenly how small the planet had become once those scud missiles left Iraq and were aimed at another country. In the space of a few minutes many members of the House became all too familiar with every spot on the globe where we were expecting a scud missile to land next. It did not take us long to learn the planet was smaller and that all of us in this world were closer to each other than we had previously thought. It is time we all remembered this.
This evening some members are saying: "We cannot vote for this kind of initiative; we cannot speak out in favour of this kind of initiative because we do not have enough information".
All of the parties were provided with material. The parliamentary secretary tells me that documentation was offered to all parties in this House. I trust that members of all parties have a little idea of what is going on in the world, what has happened in the past, what has happened in this war, and so on.
The members were indeed properly informed and I would add that those who do not have the information perhaps chose not to find out any more.
I would like to speak about our role as Canadians. Some people have said we should not go there because we have been there already. That is a rather unusual view. To me that means we have expertise. We have experience. We have been there and we know what we are doing.
Our military people are well trained. They are the best. Our military people, we know from previous roles we have had in that part of the world and elsewhere, are very qualified. They have done tremendous work. We have the expertise and the experience and we are highly respected. Yes, we should be there.
I have constituents who have been to the former Yugoslavia, either in Croatia or in Bosnia. Recently there was a meeting of young people in my riding and a young man came to address the meeting. He is a soldier who has just returned from Bosnia. His job was to deactivate land mines. He brought some material with him, along with his blue cap and blue beret which he wears for more formal occasions. He spoke about the job he did in Bosnia.
It did not take long before hands rose to ask the soldier whether he would go back. He said yes. They asked him why. He said he thought they made a big difference and because they saved lives.
There was a time not that many months ago when Canadian soldiers were experiencing great difficulty in that part of the world. Canadian soldiers and soldiers from other countries were either being held as hostages or were being otherwise threatened. That was the time when all of us in the House should have supported those soldiers. We should have been united.
And what did some of the hon. members have to say? While some of our Canadian troops were being held hostage, they were telling us that it was time to announce our withdrawal from Yugoslavia.
That was not the Canadian way and we did not do it. That was not the right way and we did not do it. As far as I am concerned we do have a role to play and we should be contributing as Canadians. I believe our military would support that. I believe the Canadian population would support it. I believe it is the right thing for us to do. Let us hope, contribute and pray that peace in the former Yugoslavia will last for a long time.
