Mr. Speaker, early last Tuesday morning, I had the opportunity and the privilege to speak in this House to explain why I am personally in favour of the current military intervention in the former Yugoslavia.
Why do we have to debate this issue again today? I would say or I would be tempted to say that it is because of the government's bad faith. But I will not talk about bad faith, but rather about clumsiness. I do not want to presume right from the start that the government is acting in bad faith, so I will say that it is being clumsy. Why is it being clumsy? Because, despite the consensus that was expressed spontaneously regarding the intervention in the former Yugoslavia, despite the fact that all parties in the House have spontaneously supported the government in its intervention, the government is acting in a mean-spirited way toward the opposition parties by giving them very little information, voluntarily creating confusion and giving an impression of improvisation. I think shows the government as well as Canada's and NATO's intervention in the field in a bad light.
I can only hope that there is no such improvisation in reality. I would even go as far as saying that I am convinced there is no such improvisation, which leads me to think that the government is indeed hiding information from the House. We only get spurious answers to our numerous questions. We are being told that the question is hypothetical, that NATO officials have made no such request, that the question is premature. In fact, we have been given that type of answer at virtually every stage of the conflict since the beginning.
The defence minister insidiously stated that we had to consider sending ground troops, then backed down a few hours later, saying: “We have yet to reach that stage”. When we enquired about the opportunity of sending peacekeepers in Kosovo we were told that “the situation is hypothetical, we have not received any request so far, we have yet to reach that stage”. However we learned a few days later that the government was preparing to send 600 troops for a peacekeeping mission in Macedonia.
The same thing happened when we heard that additional CF-18s could be sent because the U.S. president wanted to double NATO's air capability. We asked: “How many additional aircraft will be sent to satisfy this request?” The government replied: “We have not received any request so far, we have yet to reach that stage, this is a hypothetical question, it is premature”. At last, we learned that 6 additional CF-18s have been sent or are about to be sent to the theatre of operations.
Now we learn that Canadian troops are probably already in Kosovo. Again, we ask the same question and we are told once more that it is a hypothetical question and that we are not at that stage yet. We got the same old answers we have been getting for some time now.
We recognize that in a conflict situation, strategic constraints prevent us from disclosing the details of operations and preparations. This would certainly be against the national interest and that of the allied forces.
In that case, why not be a little more open and frank and say “As things now stand, we cannot, for strategic reasons, give the House a clear answer to this question”. This would be better than misleading the House and its members by stating “It is a hypothetical question. We have not received any request to that effect. We are not there yet. It is premature”.
Somebody famous once said that war was too important an issue to leave it to politicians. I believe this saying applies to the government and the military staff that stands behind it in this conflict. Indeed, it seems universally recognized that members of parliament are not knowledgeable, credible or serious enough to be able to deal with matters as important as wars and conflicts.
By its mean attitude, the government is jeopardizing the strong consensus that had spontaneously formed around him on the issue of the military intervention in the former Yugoslavia.
The government is taking this consensus for granted, as the Prime Minister made very clear today. He allows himself to treat the opposition in a very condescending way by saying “Anyway, they all agree”. We are not throwing back into question our position on the intervention in the former Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, some kind of mistrust of the government is emerging and that is unhealthy during a conflict.
As I said earlier, the government's attitude could give the impression that it is improvising to some extent. This improvisation takes many shapes, including that of appearing to let others take the lead. We could have expected that Canada, with its long peacekeeping and peace-seeking tradition and its seat at the UN Security Council, would have shown leadership in trying to reach a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Instead, Canada kept silent. It embarked in military operations without necessarily looking for a political solution or giving the impression it was looking for one. Our German friends have come up with a very detailed peace plan, which, of course, we support, but Canada seems to be dragging its feet.
It was also said that, as far as military operations are concerned, Canada was trailing behind NATO and the USA. On that point, allow me to put into perspective this so-called submissiveness to American interests.
I remember that, in 1991, during the Gulf war, many of those opposed to the conflict told us that it was somewhat shocking to see the USA, and the international community behind it, launch military operations in Kuwait while doing nothing about the conflict that was breaking out in Bosnia at that time.
These bleeding hearts were saying “Of course, there are economic interests at stake in Kuwait; there are oil fields. If there had been oil in Bosnia, they would have intervened”. Now, these same people often wonder why Canada is following the United States. The same people who criticized the United States, NATO and the international community for not intervening in Bosnia are now condemning this intervention in Kosovo. I think the situation must be put in perspective.
My Bloc Quebecois colleagues and myself have explained at length why it had become absolutely necessary to intervene. At the end of World War II, we believed that mankind had changed, that it had learned from its mistakes. Unfortunately, the tragic events in Rwanda showed us that this was not the case, that we had not learned from our mistakes, that we had not changed as much as we thought we had. At that point we told ourselves that we would never again let the situation deteriorate to the point of witnessing such mass killings.
Therefore, we intervened in Kosovo. The former Yugoslavia refused the German peace plan, and the United Kingdom's defence minister, the NATO secretary general and the U.S. secretary of state are suggesting that Milosevic must be removed from office in Belgrade. This leads us to think that the conflict will be a long one and that it will probably require the sending of ground troops. Should this be the case, it would be totally unacceptable for the government to decide to send Canadian troops to the theatre of operations without first consulting this House. We are talking about the lives of our fellow citizens, and we are accountable to them.
Earlier, I heard the minister say “We have the support of Canadians”. This government seems to be governing by polls. It should remember that its legitimacy lies only in the general election that led to this parliament and that, consequently, it must consult the House before sending ground troops.