Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Langley--Abbotsford.
I again welcome the opportunity to rise and partake in the debate about national security. It is a relevant debate although what we are seeing here today perhaps diminishes the fact that we need a debate on national security.
When we in the Canadian Alliance Party look at some of what we want to draw out today we understand even more that it is not over. National security is not something we are finished with. We are still seeing an ongoing threat to national security.
I will speak today to one of the specific concerns we have in our party. The hon. member for Langley--Abbotsford will speak to another specific concern. Each member of the Canadian Alliance will speak to a specific national security concern.
As we all know, yesterday marked the six month anniversary of the September 11 attack on America. It is quite fair to say it is a day that will never be forgotten. I did not get an opportunity yesterday on the anniversary date to again express my sincere condolences to all families who lost loved ones in the twin tower attacks, loved ones who included citizens of the United States, Canada and other countries. I do so again today. They are still in our thoughts and in our prayers.
I take the opportunity to urge the government to immediately commemorate the lost lives of September 11, 2001 as recommended yesterday by my colleague from Medicine Hat.
This past weekend a senior Canadian intelligence agent warned that dozens of Islamic militants already in Canada could well be planning acts of terror against Canadians on our own soil. This was not shortly after September 11. This was last weekend. Michael Kelly with the counterterrorism branch of CSIS told symposium delegates at the Royal Military College that “The threat is real, it is immediate, it is here”.
For so long we have thought Canada was immune to attacks like the one we saw in the United States. Although we recognized that terrorist organizations were using our country to plot or stage attacks against our neighbours we felt we were immune to such attacks. We have heard it again here today.
Canada has long been thought of, especially by radicals, as a comfortable spot to forge documents, make travel arrangements, fundraise, recruit, and engage in other activities to support terrorist networks abroad. Since the attack on America a lot of evidence has been brought forward to substantiate these suspicions. However we have never thought we could be a hard target. We have never considered that an attack could be made on us. As mentioned by the CSIS individual over the past weekend, the tide is changing.
According to the security expert, Israel and the United States which are the principal symbols of anti-west hatred will become less available to terrorists as they implement more stringent regulations and precautions. As Canada becomes more involved in the war against terror there will be a considerable threat to Canada and its citizens. Much more must therefore be done to protect the lives and liberty of Canadians including taking the threat of biological warfare more seriously.
In a speech I gave on September 18 last year I spoke about the threat of anthrax. I said that despite the warnings of 1998 the government had done nothing to prepare us against potential biological or chemical attacks.
A number of years ago the United States was threatened by the potential of Iraq smuggling the deadly anthrax bacteria into the country. It conducted a series of drills to work out how it might respond as a nation. Donald Henderson of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the successful international effort to eradicate smallpox, concluded that the United States was ill prepared to deal with this type of attack. Henderson recommended the U.S. government stockpile drugs and vaccines, develop and distribute rapid tests for agents used in biological weapons, and come up with effective ways to isolate infected people.
Despite the warnings and recommendations of the mid-1990s and the inglorious long past of chemical warfare, neither the United States nor Canada took the threat seriously.
We can learn from history. Ancient Greek city states overwhelmed opponents in the past with noxious fumes of smoldering pitch and sulphur. Chinese warriors wafted arsenic laced smokescreens against their foes. Plague soaked corpses were tossed into enemy fortresses during the Middle Ages.
On April 22, 1915 German troops twisted open the valves of 5,000 cannisters of chlorine gas at Ypres, Belgium. Massive green clouds made their way toward the allied forces. Within minutes thousands of panicked victims died. British forces retaliated with mustard gas, phosphine gas and other poisons. The total casualties on all sides in World War I are estimated to be 1.3 million.
Modern chemical warfare did not just drift onto the scene. Chemical and biological weapons have long been seen as efficient means with which to destroy the enemy. Yet we are not prepared. Some 100 kilograms of anthrax spores administered by a crop duster or light plane flying over any Canadian city could deliver a fatal dose to over three million people in a very short period.
Canada knows this simple fact because Canadian research led to the development of anthrax as a biological weapon. A deadly bacteria, anthrax was mass produced on Grosse Ile. It was the first such germ warfare station among the western nations. We became the major supplier of anthrax to the British military during World War II.
Canadians have been reluctant to admit we were pioneers or innovators in German chemical warfare. If we were to ask my hon. colleague across the way from Ancaster--Dundas--Flamborough--Aldershot, the author of the 1989 book Deadly Allies: Canada's Secret War 1937-1947 , he could attest to this.
However prior to September 11 and despite our extensive knowledge and involvement with this deadly type of warfare we were not prepared to deal with it until a number of anthrax scares, a couple of which resulted in death in the United States. We are only now taking the threat of biological warfare seriously. Perhaps the question should be posed: Are we taking it seriously?
An Ottawa Citizen article by Carol Harrington in early February said the government was finally preparing the country to respond to terrorist attacks including biological and chemical attacks. My office has tried to confirm the accuracy of Ms. Harrington's article but to date the Department of National Defence has failed to confirm it.
My offices on the Hill and in Crowfoot have made numerous attempts to get information about the approval of $12 million for the Defence Research Establishment in Suffield to erect several buildings where police, firefighters and medical personnel would learn in classrooms and in the field about terrorist attacks and, more specifically, biological and chemical warfare. This is extremely important to me because Suffield is next to my riding. I have endeavoured to learn as much as I can because individuals from councils have come to me requesting information about what is happening in Suffield.
For the Citizen article Ms. Harrington interviewed John Leggat, assistant deputy minister of science and technology in the Department of National Defence who said “It will be up to municipalities to identify key people and their teams who would need this kind of training”.
This would appear to be a directive from the government. However it is like our national sex offender registry. The government has accepted it will do it but never gets around to it. Suffield was chosen for the site because it is a Canadian centre of expertise in chemical and biological weapons. Construction is supposed to start next year.
Ms. Harrington reports in the Citizen article that “The centre will also serve as a resource library for scientists to advise emergency crews who are first on the scene of a biological, chemical or radiological attack”.
Currently Canada has only one military response team trained for those types of attacks and it is based here at CFB Borden in Ontario. However it takes eight hours for the military to leave the base or respond to an attack. That means it could take 24 hours for such a group to arrive if there was an attack in British Columbia.
Again, we have yet to confirm through the government the building of these counterterrorism centres but we certainly do support it. This is the party, the Canadian Alliance, that two days after we reconvened the House, recognized the need for anti-terrorism legislation and we brought forward the supply day motion to come up with anti-terrorist legislation.
We implore the government to consider more training facilities, more national security, putting the dollars that are needed back into the security forces that the Canadian public want and demand.