Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to follow up on a question I asked the Prime Minister last month following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, on the Pentagon and on the plane that went down over Pennsylvania on September 11.
At that time and since, we have condemned, in the strongest possible terms, these terrorist attacks as crimes against humanity and have called for those who were responsible to be brought to justice within the framework of international law and under the framework of the United Nations.
Today in following up on this question, I want to point out that since October 7 we have witnessed in Afghanistan an illegal, immoral and profoundly destructive war. I rise this evening to plead with our government to end its support for this war and to end Canadian participation in it. This is a war which is creating many new innocent victims, innocent Afghani civilians. How many hundreds have already died as a result of this destructive war?
As well, we know that UN deminers have been killed. We know that Red Cross and the United Nations' warehouses have been bombed and destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Afghani people are fleeing the terror of the bombing and the terror of the Taliban regime. Canada's response to those refugees has fallen far short.
I was particularly concerned to learn that Canada is involved in the military coalition with respect to the use of cluster bombs. The United States is dropping cluster bombs from B-52 bombers on Afghanistan. The shameful response of our Prime Minister to this is that we have to let American generals fight this war. He said that Canada would let American generals decide on the appropriate weapons.
As New Democrats, we are not prepared to agree with the use of cluster bombs, which have been condemned by the Red Cross. In fact, the Red Cross has called for cluster bombs to be banned. We are not prepared to say that Canada should be part of a military coalition that allows and sanctions the use of cluster bombs. In many cases they do not explode directly on impact and are like hundreds of little landmines.
Canada has led internationally in the campaign against landmines and yet this is a blatant contradiction when we are prepared to support the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan. What is even worse is that cluster bombs, which are yellow in colour, are the same colour as the food packages. Now the Americans are warning Afghani civilians that they had better be careful because they might be picking up a cluster bomb instead of food.
For Heaven's sake, what has happened to Canada's historic role? Why will we not speak out for the rule of law and for bringing this under the umbrella of the United Nations, even at this late date, to end the suffering and the creation of more innocent civilian deaths? As the parents of one of those young men who died in the World Trade Center said during a memorial service, “Why on earth would we bomb Afghanistan and create even more innocent civilian victims? That doesn't bring back the life of my son”.
I appeal for a peaceful solution; a solution of peace and justice.