Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak today to the motion from the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca. I would like to read it back into the record. It states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should convene a meeting of “like-minded nations” in order to develop a multilateral plan of action to reform international organizations (e.g. International Monetary Fund, World Bank, United Nations) so that they can identify the precursors of conflict and establish multilateral conflict-prevention initiatives.
It should be easy to support the motion because it talks in general terms about the need for reform. As speaker after speaker will admit, there is a crying need for reform in each of the multilateral organizations mentioned in the motion. The theme is common within the organizations themselves as they seek to change their mandate in this post-cold war era. They are searching for answers and a consensus from the international community and the leaders in the international community on where to go from here.
The 21st century does not look like it is going to be the century of peace and prosperity. If anything, this post-cold war era has been an era of increasing regional conflicts that require the thoughtful intervention of world leaders and community leaders before the conflicts erupt into violence.
The member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca has a bit of a track record in this area that should be noted as people consider this. It was his initiative, long before it was a topical or faddish thing to do, to support the abolition of landmines. It was his initiative, both nationally here in Canada and internationally as a medical doctor and dealing with the aftermath and fallout of the landmine situation, which started the ball rolling in many countries as people decided to come together.
How did they come together? They came together in a meeting of like-minded nations—the same sort of initiative the member has put forward here—to talk about ways to do away with that curse on mankind that is the landmine.
Long before Princess Diana got on board and the government grabbed this initiative and ran with it, the member from Juan de Fuca had started the idea in many people's minds that this could be achievable. Some of the same protests that I hear from the government side about it being hard to do and that it has already tried to do it here, there and everywhere, we found that when we got together in what became the Canada initiative, we could change the world. We did, we have and we should be thankful for that.
The motion deals with, as some would say, a good theoretical discussion, but it is far more than a theoretical idea. It is an idea whose time has come. When the government chooses to disengage from the debate or says that it is already doing all it can, we see, as we saw today in Pakistan, what happens when we disengage too much.
We have disengaged from India and Pakistan because of our anger over what they have done on the nuclear front. We now hear that a couple of planes have apparently been shot down in the area between these two nations. One has to wonder what the precursors were to the conflict. One has to wonder what was in the tea leaves. If only we had an active international organization of like-minded nations that saw the precursors to the violence, to list them and to find ways to mitigate them by working through the reform of international organizations.
Every night on the news we see the situation in the Balkans. We hear people, who seem to be coming out of the woodwork, saying, “For 10 years we have told you this was coming. You could see it”. All the evidence was in place and all the signs were there, but none of the international organizations chose to read the signs and react in any meaningful way.
Now we are reaping the whirlwind. That goes for the Balkans, the India-Pakistan situation and most of the continent of Africa. People come back with horrible eye witness accounts. They say that it has been going on and building for a number of years and that if we had just looked at the signs we would have seen the disaster that was coming.
When disaster struck in Rwanda people literally cried on television. They said they told the United Nations there were signs that big genocidal problems were brewing and that it had better do something. The United Nations is just not geared react. It reacts after there is a war, a conflict or a genocide taking place, but it does not have the precursors in place, as this motion says, to deal with a situation before it erupts in violence.
That is why the motion is so timely. It is interesting that we have had a series of motions in this session dealing with either peacekeeping initiatives or conflict prevention initiatives such as this one. I guess it is a sign of the times. It is the sign of the need that many backbenchers see even if the government does not. Backbenchers see the urgency of finding ways to deal with the changing international situation.
As I mentioned earlier that situation is not less tense because of the end of the cold war. All that has done is allowed a series of smaller but hugely important regional conflicts to take root and to fester unchecked until they erupt in violence.
When people are considering the importance of this issue they should go through the House of Commons list of why this motion should be considered important. Why should it be votable, for example? Is it something of international significance? The answer in this case is an obvious yes. The government says it is doing all it can do or should do so we should not worry about it.
The truth is the international organizations have said this is something they have to grapple with. In the case of Pakistan-India we have spent billions of dollars in aid but have not spent at least a small portion of that on making sure we have identified the precursors to conflict, finding ways to reduce those conflicts and finding ways through the World Bank, the IMF and the United Nations to help reduce the tension levels rather than just saying the answer must be more money. Money is not the answer in these situations. It is to identify a whole series of indicators and then deal with them through international organizations.
First, the motion meets the criteria of being of international significance. Second, it is important because it is on the cutting edge of foreign policy. I mentioned that there has been a series of initiatives from both sides of the House on foreign policy issues.
This initiative does not conflict with the government's agenda. It dovetails nicely into what I believe Canadians would like us to do in the House, that is to work co-operatively not only in this place but internationally to move forward this peacekeeping, peacemaking and war preventing measure.
Third, it capitalizes on something that Canadians too often take for granted, our good international reputation. It would send a signal to the international community and the people who watch these debates and are keenly interested in our foreign affairs that we have taken this matter seriously, that we will make it a priority and that we are willing to work co-operatively with like minded nations to make sure that peace is not just a theory but a reality in the 21st century.