Mr. Chairman, the purpose of tonight's debate is to advise the Prime Minister of Canada in view of his upcoming meeting with President Bush on Monday.
I prepared these notes before hearing the speech made by the president of the United States to both the congress and the senate. I listened to it with great interest. I will listene to it again and read it, but tonight, it is with a heightened sense of urgency that I call on the Prime Minister of Canada to raise on Monday many of the issues that were discussed in the House and many of the conclusions that were formulated.
First, we cannot speak to this issue without saying how shocked we all were by this unspeakable tragedy that we all witnessed, through television, on September 11.
It is a new form of attack against any country. It is a form of crime in which individuals agree to have their own death detonate the death of others.
This is not new in history, but this time they are using technology against their human targets. They used commercial airliners to hit specific targets in a way that would make them collapse. They hit both the economic and financial heart of the United States, as well as its military power, when the Pentagon went up in flames.
No country is protected from this new tool of war. I think that, aside from the deep sympathy generated by such tragedy, this explains why the United States are extended so much sympathy and can be at the forefront of a great coalition that will hopefully rally the whole world against this new kind of terrorism which, we are told, is based on a religious ideal that is shared only by a small minority and is not embraced by all Islamists, far from it.
Yet, despite what I have just said and despite the coalition that is emerging, I think that, with all the diplomacy he can muster and with all his experience, the Prime Minister of Canada will have to make clear on Monday that a coalition implies that allies will be listened to.
We need close co-ordination between all countries, and not only is proof required that the operations were masterminded from outside the United States, but NATO countries will have to go and get mandates from their own people, as they all want to do.
France, for example, said that it would go through it's parliament. There would have to be a vote in parliament before French troops are sent in a military action. Other countries could do the same.
We have to go even further than that and Prime Minister Chrétien recognized it in this House. We have to go through the United Nations, because we need to go beyond NATO. We are far from what we have seen in Kosovo or Iraq. The “enemy” that we have been presented with, and is still not clearly defined, is vague and multi-headed. He has many supporters and to be able to attack him with any efficiency, we need the co-operation not only of the usual NATO countries but preferably of all countries around the world.
Once again, for that reason, the United States have to be able to count on full allies. From a good number of them, they cannot expect a blank cheque. That does not mean that all those countries do not strongly support the war against terrorism, against this new form of terrorism, but they will do it in a democratic way. We cannot trample on democracy to save democracy.
The United States were attacked in an exceptionally underhanded and barbaric manner. We must admit that, in Canada and the United States and other countries, internal security measures were not as good as we thought they were. I think this is the case in this instance; we have seen it in different ways and we have to admit that it is the same in the United States.
We will then have to, first of all—it has started here and in the United States—implement security measures, pass anti-terrorism legislation and ratify anti-terrorism conventions. There are two that Canada has not ratified, but it has said it intends to do so. Why? For example, to cut off the funding of these organizations.
However, we know this is not so simple, because as soon as they can benefit from the non-transparency of financial transactions, we can expect that they will be able to get funding from various sources.
So I get back to my argument. There must be close co-ordination in security measures, in legislation and also in a strike, in a response—I think there must be a response, a targeted and specific one. The Prime Minister said we should move forward prudently. I think this word is necessary.
I can only add that whatever action we take will be taken with the steely resolve to win. Otherwise the very foundations of democracy are threatened. All these measures will not succeed; even this whole war which is being declared will not reach its goals.
My party has said so, but it is not alone; today in a survey, 68% of Quebecers said that instead of military action they wanted to understand the root causes and find a peaceful way to deal with what is more than a conflict, to find how to resolve the situation.
It is easy to overlook as being a root cause the fact that these fanatics can easily recruit allies among the millions of people, especially young men, who live in poverty, have no education and no hope.
No security measure, no defence measure, no war measure will ever replace the true hope we must give them. In a way, this event must make us think. It might be too early to ask the Americans to do that, because they are still in shock, but it is something they will have to come to and I am quite sure that in certain spheres they are very close to doing it.
If we are serious about preserving freedom and democracy, we will not be able to do it on the cheap.