Madam Speaker, I wish to thank the member for Burnaby--Douglas for his comments. I will limit my comments to the question that he asked in December because he found the response unsatisfactory.
The member for Burnaby--Douglas is dissatisfied, unhappy, and disagrees with the fact that the federal government, through the Solicitor General, has listed the Kurdistan Workers Party, otherwise known as PKK and which is now commonly referred to as the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress or KADEK as the member for Burnaby--Douglas mentioned, pursuant to the Criminal Code on December 11, 2002.
What does that mean? It means that under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which received royal assent on December 18, 2001, the government has the ability to create a list of entities.
Under the Criminal Code, the governor in council may, on the recommendation of the Solicitor General of Canada, establish a list of entities if the governor in council is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the entity has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity, or is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of, or in association with an entity that has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity.
PKK was also listed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs pursuant to Canada's United Nations suppression of terrorism regulations on November 7, 2001, in other words, more than a year prior to the listing under the Criminal Code based on the recommendation of the Solicitor General.
The member has not mentioned that the PKK is known to have led a campaign of guerilla warfare and terrorism by attacking Turkish armed forces, diplomats and businesses in western European cities, and by attempting to destabilize tourism in Turkey by bombing resorts and kidnapping tourists. Such behaviour is clearly terrorist in nature. The listing of the PKK is one more means to ensure that such behaviour is not supported or facilitated from Canada.
It is clear that the Solicitor General, when making such a recommendation to the governor in council, has done so on clear information that has created reasonable grounds to believe that PKK or KADEK, as it is now known, is currently in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the sense that it has either knowingly facilitated, participated in, acted at the direction of terrorist activities, or facilitated such activities on the part of a terrorist organization.
Canada does not list entities lightly. We have had opposition members who have been really unhappy that we have not listed--