Mr. Chairman, I am glad my colleague mentioned the issue of and the concern about unity in parliament, because the main effort behind my speech tonight is to present a viewpoint where we in fact can be unified against this common enemy.
The one point I would like to make tonight, or at 1.30 in the morning now, is that we are involved in not one but two campaigns against terrorism. The battle we are fighting is on two fronts, not one. Every party, every member of the House of Commons and most Canadians can support at least some elements of one of those campaigns. For me that is quite uplifting, because originally on September 11 I was worried and distressed when we were presented with the clear and present danger for Canada and for the world that we could not come together. However, with this understanding I can see that we are all working together in condemnation of terrorism and for a solution.
What are these two campaigns, these two fronts that we are fighting on, these two battles that we must win? The first one is simple: Murders were committed and the murderers are still at large. These murderers are adults. They have the same free choice we all have and they choose to murder.
As we do with all murderers in Canada, we will leave no stone unturned until they are caught and brought to justice, and just as it is illegal in Canada to harbour criminals, anyone who harbours these criminals will be committing an offence. I have not heard anyone in Canada suggest that we do not pursue murderers. In this we are united. It is only on the methods of capture that we have different views.
However, even in this we are united in many goals. Every member of the House of Commons wants to do what is possible to avoid innocent civilian casualties. Every member of the House agrees that we are not attacking any religion or any country. We are only disabling the weapons of two small groups of people in Afghanistan, the terrorists and another small group that forms the totalitarian Taliban regime, which is hiding these terrorists and oppressing the Afghan people.
We all agree that this task will take all the tools available, not just enforcement assets. It will include new anti-terrorism legislation, vigilance at our borders, enhanced intelligence operations and strengthened security forces and abilities but all with careful regard to any ramifications for our human rights.
Finally, we all agree to the international aspect and its importance. Terrorism occurs in most countries in the world, which is why we all appreciate this great international effort whereby NATO and the United Nations came on side right at the beginning and one of the largest coalitions in the world was built to fight the battle of terrorism.
That is the first battle we are engaged in and must win: to catch the murderers and their terrorist co-conspirators around the world.
The second front, the second battle, is to ensure that once these terrorists are caught and brought to justice and their training camps destroyed, we will try to reduce the chances of this ever happening again. We must try to change a world that can create so much hate that people would give their lives to massacre others.
How would we do this? We would do it by reducing the environments that breed terrorism. What are these environments? What are these root causes? The poverty of refugee camps and those who have nothing to lose is one of them. We are working on this and have done so for decades with foreign aid and organizations, trying to help people around the world. We have to continue to do that and to do more.
That is not all, because as we know some of these terrorists who took part in this event were quite wealthy. Therefore, we have to work to reduce the lack of education. We have to work to promote different views and problem solving. We have to work to eliminate religious intolerance in the world. We have to work to create a world where there is an interdependence of economies, where everyone is participating in the economy and everyone benefits from its success.
We do not know what all the causes are. That is why I am encouraging us to spend more resources and do indepth study of what breeds terrorism. Then, after study, we can strategically target our humanitarian aid so that we can use some of it in advance and not have to use it in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy.
I hope with this new understanding that we have these two campaigns and that we can all support at least one element of one of these campaigns that we are all fighting together a common enemy. In this respect, I am very proud of my constituents in the Yukon.
I was on an open line show for an hour last week and heard a wide diversity of opinion. No one was in agreement. Many were for peaceful solutions while others were for military solutions and strategies. There is a great divergence and no common understanding. What I was proud of was that as people talked no one tried to preclude other people from making their contribution to solving this problem.
The last thing I would like to speak about tonight is peace. It is noted how much Canadians love peace. Why not? We have a beautiful country and environment in which to raise our families, but, I might add, none more beautiful than my own in the Yukon. As the great Canadian poet Robert Service put it, “It's the beauty that fills me with wonder. It's the stillness that fills me with peace.”
Why would anyone want to leave Canada to go to war against terrorism or anything else? No one would. That is why Canadians do everything in their power to achieve peace. For years Canadians and their organizations have reached out to the poor of the world to combat poverty that creates strife. If that does not work, we try to discuss, mediate, arbitrate or negotiate the problem away.
If battles are engaged, we try to get between the adversaries as we have done so many times as peacekeepers all over the world. If that does not work, if Canadians or other peace loving people are murdered and terrorists infiltrate our soil, we are fearless in battle to regain peace.
Just as we are the Canadians who fought for peace at Dieppe, Hong Kong, Holland, Ortona, Korea and Normandy, we will engage in this campaign against terrorism on both these fronts and we will win. We will regain the peace that Canadians love so much for our children and their children.