Mr. Chairman, it is with great sadness and deep concern that I participate in the debate this evening. Our country, along with our great neighbour to the south, our friend, the United States of America, along with our ally, Great Britain, our mother country which provided the model for this parliament and other institutions of governance in this land, and indeed all of the western world are threatened by the perpetrators of the events of September 11.
Together we face an enemy like no other in the past, an enemy who has as his goal the destruction of our society, an enemy unencumbered by the constraints of nationhood and human dignity, an enemy who cares nothing for his own life let alone the thousands who died on September 11.
I support Canada's commitment to send the Canadian armed forces to serve in the coalition currently engaged in operations in Afghanistan directed at eliminating this hideous threat. It is never an easy decision to commit a nation to war, but commit we must to ensure the safety of our neighbourhoods and the continuance of our way of life. There has never been such a threat on our own shores.
The words of Chesterton never rang more true than now: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”. On behalf of my constituents and all Canadians, let me wish our troops Godspeed and a safe return to those they now leave behind.
The evil of September 11 was not an abstract ethereal cloud that somehow overcame people like a fog. It was an evil conceived in the minds of those who choose to see the lives of fellow human beings as nothing more than a means to an end. Bin Laden has willingly embraced murder in an effort to achieve his perverted vision of a society dedicated to God.
Time and time again the world has seen despots who justified their horrific action as God's work. We know the type and will not judge as guilty those who have a real understanding of the faith desecrated by the actions of a few evil men.
Leaders of all religions, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Jew, Muslim and others, have condemned the acts of September 11 and we share their horror. In short, this is not a war against Islam. It is a war against a terrorist who has caused innocent people to be killed before and attempts to justify his unholy actions as God's work.
The Prime Minister's shoulder to shoulder pledge to support the Americans in the war against terrorism is, as respected columnist and commentator on military matters Peter Worthington noted “mostly rhetoric with some tokenism”.
Major General Lewis MacKenzie, who commanded UN soldiers during the siege of Sarajevo, said the federal government has failed to fund its military as required under the 1994 white paper on defence and that has left the country unable to contribute to an international effort against terrorism with anything less than a token force. He said “We are not capable of carrying out the very instructions that the Government of Canada has given the military”.
MacKenzie pointed out that even if Canada was asked to contribute a battle group of 1,200 or 1,400 soldiers “we would be unable to deliver it to any theatre of operations without American military support, making Canada a potential liability rather than an asset”. He said further “We would need a taxi to get us there. We don't have the strategic lift capability we would need to get anywhere and we don't have the infrastructure”.
As well, MacKenzie suggests that even if we could provide a couple of squadrons of CF-18s for “attacks on terrorist camps or the states that give them shelter...we would need the Americans to provide their in-flight refuelling capability to get them overseas”.
Another example of the shabby treatment our military has received from the government was raised by my colleague, the member for Edmonton Centre-East, who released a DND document last week which shows that the Sea King helicopters are probably no more than ballast on this trip because at temperatures of 35° Celsius and above the Sea King cannot fly and the temperatures at this time of the year in the Persian Gulf are often over 35° Celsius. Naval helicopters are the eyes and ears of their ships. Without them the lives of the personnel aboard the frigates are needlessly put at risk.
Our military has been sadly underfunded for years. In 1998 the auditor general advised parliament that while DND required almost $11 billion for equipment over the next five years the government had budgeted for little more than half that amount.
In a recent article, Scott Taylor of Esprit de Corps magazine wrote that since 1993 defence spending has been slashed by 23% to $9 billion. This represents only 1.1% of GDP and Canada ranks barely ahead of Luxembourg for the lowest expenditure among NATO's 19 nations.
Mr. Taylor notes that a year ago Lord Robertson, NATO secretary-general, warned that additional military spending was required Canada. He stated that “If our armed forces are to do the complex, difficult and dangerous jobs we assign them--and if they are to succeed in these jobs--it is the duty of each NATO ally to make needed improvements”.
Lord Robertson is not alone in his criticism. In 1997, British Falklands war hero Lieutenant-General Sir Hew Pike created a controversy when he claimed politically correct policies, none aimed at enhancing operational effectiveness, had badly eroded our forces' combat capability. He said “The Canadians have surrendered any claim to be a war fighting force”.
Scott Taylor says that in their efforts to recruit a 25% target of women into combat trades, the forces have been funding the feminization of standard army webbing and rucksacks and the design of a special combat bra. Meanwhile, essential supplies have become so short that during three years of peacekeeping in Bosnia new arrivals had to exchange kit with homeward bound soldiers.
Rather than acknowledge Sir Hew Pike's concerns, defence minister Art Eggleton rose in the House of Commons and arrogantly dismissed the valiant soldier with “Take a hike, Pike”.
Sergeant Tom Hoppe, a highly decorated Canadian soldier, took exception to this. “Pike is right”, Hoppe said. “When you've got the Defence Department more concerned with paying for sex-change operations than taking care of combat-stressed soldiers, and policy makers more concerned about regulating body piercing and hair tinting than about new armored vehicles, we've got a serious problem”.
In 1993, the Prime Minister said we could not afford what he called the Cadillac helicopter selected by the previous government for use aboard our naval frigates. He spent $500 million to cancel the contract and never did bother replacing the aging helicopters.
Somehow at this moment, with our navy going into a war zone, I would feel a lot easier if the navy had a Cadillac helicopter or two on those ships, and I bet our sailors would too.
When the Minister of Foreign Affairs said Canada faces a glaring inadequacy in its intelligence gathering, defence and foreign aid capabilities that is compromising the country's ability to meet overseas commitments or to live up to its international reputation and when he said that "You can't just sit at the G-8 table and then, when the bill comes, go to the washroom", he was really admitting what we all knew, that our military did not have the resources to do the job and Canada was getting by on a reputation earned decades ago, a refreshing admission. Finally, someone was being honest with Canadians and telling us the truth even when it made the government look as if it had not done its job. Leadership is not simply protecting one's behind: it is being honest with the people one is responsible for, the people one represents. At times like these, Canadians want to believe in their government.
That being said, it is easy to feel revulsion toward our leaders. Immediately after September 11, they told us there was not a problem. They were prepared to label as undemocratic anyone who questioned them. Now they have changed their position. They are going to protect us, perhaps, but it is they who dumbed down our military, RCMP, CSIS and the immigration and refugee determination board system.
The Prime Minister, defence minister, immigration minister, justice minister and solicitor general have a responsibility to us as Canadians. They have a responsibility to keep Canadians safe and to respond on our behalf against those who would endanger us. They have not done so. They have failed us.
Successive Liberal governments, from that of Lester Pearson to that of Pierre Trudeau, who failed to show up when our freedoms were being tested in World War II, have allowed this country's defence forces to deteriorate from their place of prominence in the great wars and Korean conflict to the point where we need to take a taxi to get to battle stations and our brave soldiers, sailors and air crew are put at risk by just showing up with obsolete equipment.
I said at the outset that we face an enemy like no other in our past, an enemy who places no value on human life, his or ours. Distant though the battles to which our troops are travelling may be, our safety here is dependent on their success. They are our heroes. We will keep them foremost in our thoughts and prayers.