Mr. Speaker, every once in a while an event transpires in this House that galvanizes all the parties and all the members to move in one direction. It is one of those days today.
On this issue, we have been united. The issue is land mines, banning land mines, dismantling land mines and trying to make our world a bit more sane. I am very proud to be a member of Parliament, to be part of this Chamber at this time. I think all Canadians should be proud for the role that we are playing.
Forty years ago on February 28, my family and myself left Hungary and went to the Austrian frontier. As we went across the border at night, we were conscious of the fact that we were going through land mines.
I say this because the reality of having to deal with the evil of land mines affects many people on this planet. There are many people who are Canadians who have experience with this. I can say that walking through a field which should not be an extraordinary exercise can be a very terrifying one.
At the time I was 10 years old, my brother was 12 and my sister was three. My parents were in their mid-thirties. Land mines were used to keep people out but so often land mines were used in Iron Curtain countries to keep people in.
The terror of that night is something that has never left me. It was a year ago this past September that I had the experience of being an observer for the elections in Bosnia-Hercegovina. In an area that had a population of four million people, they had six million land mines.
When I was in Mostar, I was on a bridge over the Neretva River which divides East Mostar from West Mostar. On one side we have Muslims and on the other side we have Croatians. This is a very beautiful river. After seeing it, one wants to walk down to it. If you had your fishing rod you would want to try fishing. It is a very beautiful and scenic site. The reality was that you could not walk down to that river because any place you walked in Bosnia-Hercegovina you had to be always mindful that there were six million unmarked land mines.
We have to ask what kind of experience we have in terms of an individual who has to live in those kinds of conditions where the simplest pleasure of walking in the woods can be a tragic and terrifying event.
I reflect back to all the graveyards that had those fresh flowers from people who were victims of that terrible war and to know there were six million land mines waiting to go off long after the conflict was over, perhaps blowing somebody up as they were trying to rebuild their war-torn home or killing a farmer who is working in the fields or maybe killing a child playing in the fields.
I am incredibly proud to be in this Chamber. It was back in 1956-57 when Canadians under Lester B. Pearson invented peacekeeping in order to deal with the problem of Suez. We certainly are continuing in that tradition with the initiative before us today.
In lending support to what the previous speaker from Peterborough said to a grassroots movement, we are recognizing that the insanity of land mines and the insanity of war that maims hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of people, is something that we must stop and work against.
When we reflect upon the demographics in Canada and why we are the way we are as a nation, peacekeepers striving to make this planet a better place and, in many cases, representing a beacon of hope in a troubled world where we can bring people together from all corners of the world, we have one-sixth of the people in Canada who were not born in Canada, but it helps us to understand why we as Canadians so very much want to play a role to make this world a better place. It does not matter where there is a conflict on this planet, we have Canadians who came from that part of the world with relatives and friends in their homeland who are hurting and suffering.
Yes, I am incredibly proud as I think we all should be at what is taking place here today and the role that we have played in making the banning of land mines a reality in the not too distant future.
I can only commend all my colleagues for the kind of unity they have shown on this issue.
I would certainly single out the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister for pushing with such great vigour in the political arena on the international front the whole cause of banning and ridding this planet of land mines.
It is only proper that the Nobel Prize recipient, Jody Williams, was someone who spearheaded the non governmental organizations in the battle against land mines. I also reflect back to my home community where so many people have worked on this issue, particularly the Mennonite Central Committee.
As we push this ahead, we know that we have Canadians with us. I think we can indeed be proud of the mission which we have undertaken and the difference we are going to make.