Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of National Defence insisted that sending Canadian soldiers into wartorn Afghanistan with no weapons to defend themselves was a non-issue. He said that he would do the paperwork necessary to arm our troops by August.
This week his office announced that the minister himself was going to Afghanistan with military bodyguards and lo and behold, the paperwork was done overnight. Why does this suddenly change from a non-issue when it comes to protecting our troops to an urgent issue when it comes to protecting the minister?