Mr. Chairman, I congratulate you on keeping very good time and I certainly will keep within the time limits myself. This is a take note debate on international actions against terrorism and the previous speaker says it is a crucial debate. In fact I do not think it is a very crucial debate at all. If it were a crucial debate there would be more than about 10 people in the House. This is a little gabfest in a very large room.
I would like to see more international action against terrorism. I would like to know why it is not the United Nations leading this international war against terrorism and why it is basically the United States, ostensibly under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; it is NATO, with 19 countries and only 1 of them Muslim, versus the United Nations, with 189 countries and many of them Muslim. I think we would have a far better buy-in for dealing with the terrorists and bringing them to justice if we had the auspices of the United Nations in the forefront.
It is my contention as well, despite listening to the remarks of the member for Nepean--Carleton many hours ago during the earlier debate, that it is not clear that the U.S. led strikes have the framework of international law. The member for Nepean--Carleton told us many things about the relationship between the United Nations and the United States, except that one of the first things the United States did after September 11 was to quickly pay up its more than $500 million in arrears to the United Nations plus another $300 million in interest: hush money or perhaps hush-up money for it to then get on with the job it wanted to do, ostensibly under the auspices of NATO.
Of course the perpetrators need to be brought to justice. It should be done under an international tribunal.
I do not think there is an adjective strong enough to describe why parliament was not reconvened when this war was called a week ago yesterday; perhaps the words incredulous or unbelievable could describe it. Lloyd Axworthy, to whom the previous speaker referred, made the noteworthy comment in the Globe and Mail that in fact parliament should have been recalled immediately. I think it is a sad commentary that it was not.
A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Afghanistan as desperate refugees face starvation and death as they flee the terror of both the Taliban and the U.S. and U.K. bombs.
Canadians need to be vigilant here at home to protect against unwarranted attacks on basic civil liberties and human rights. I hope the anti-terrorism bill will do the job the government obviously feels it can do. We will see in the days ahead whether it can.
We in this party condemn as strongly as anyone else the events of September 11 and we call for justice to be done before an international tribunal with strong participation from Muslims and Muslim countries.
We support our military unequivocally as our troops undertake this mission assigned to them. We wish them a safe home and the support of their families while they are away. I say that as the member who represents 15 Wing in Moose Jaw, which is now the NATO flight training centre in Canada.
This is a take note, no vote debate, but I submit that votes must be held before further military adventures are embarked upon in other countries, as has been alluded to in recent days.
Closer to home, as many other speakers have noted, we have to fight against the rising tide of intolerance and racism. We have to contribute much more generously than we have until now to an international humanitarian campaign to assist Afghani refugees.
On that point I note that in recent days a letter signed by representatives of Catholic, United, Anglican, Lutheran, Mennonite and Quaker churches argued for more international aid as an example of the type of measure that will eradicate terrorism in the long term.
The essential non-military character of the struggle against terrorism must be restored, according to that letter from the churches.
All member countries of the United Nations need to ratify the treaty that establishes the International Criminal Court.
We want the government to provide security for Canadians and a comprehensive review of security measures to meet the legitimate security concerns while respecting civil rights and liberties.
Political parties and Canadians who support the military action are trusting the military of the U.S. and the United Kingdom to strike only terrorist targets. As celebrated author John Le Carré wrote in the Globe and Mail last Saturday, we are all hoping that Osama bin Laden will be “blown to smithereens by one of those clever bombs that we keep reading about that kill terrorists in caves but don't break the crockery”. Le Carré says America is longing for “more friends and fewer enemies” but that as a result of its action what it “is storing up for itself...is yet more enemies”.
Ten years ago, Le Carré says, he went around the world at the end of the cold war talking about the unprecedented chance to transform the global community, but there was no Marshall Plan, no programs for ideological young people to go off on and create a better world. Instead what we have seen over the last 10 years is a world where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The moment has passed and will not come again for a long time, according to John Le Carré.
Senator Douglas Roche said that bringing perpetrators to justice is a worthy goal but does not justify killing innocent people and destroying the infrastructure of a country that already had one million refugees before the bombing ever began. He went on to say that “militarism” is not an answer to terrorism.
Some people say that we should bomb the Taliban and send bin Laden back to the Stone Age. It is to laugh at when we look at the pictures of Afghanistan. That country is already in the Stone Age. One of the biggest and most hilarious news stories of last week came several days after the bombing began, when the United States was declaring that it now had air supremacy over Afghanistan, a country whose main source of transportation appears to be donkeys, according to the news media and the pictures we see on television.
Murray Dobbin says that not only is continuous bombing of Afghanistan a pitiful response to unforgivable carnage, but it is certain to make things worse.
Canada could play an important role in the long term struggle against terrorism, but only by rejecting U.S. unilateralism and making every effort to force a genuine international response through the United Nations. With every bomb that falls, that opportunity slips further and further away.