Mr. Chair, I noted that the foreign affairs minister stated quite strongly that it is important for Canada to state and restate our opposition to the weaponization of space.
In view of the fact that Canada's commitment to enter into negotiations to participate in Bush's national missile defence program totally and utterly failed to make a single reference to Canada's opposition to the weaponization of space, I am wondering how Canadians can take any comfort in the statement that the minister has made here tonight.
This was the letter from our defence minister to Donald Rumsfeld to basically say sign us up, we are signing on, we are going to negotiate our participation. Not a single word in that letter made reference to the weaponization of space, let alone Canada's opposition to the weaponization of space. Yet the press release that the Minister of National Defence sent out to Canadians to report on having sent this letter to the U.S. administration referred in what we would have to say is a footnote, like an afterthought, to saying “but of course Canada retains its opposition to weaponization of space”.
How does the foreign affairs minister explain that kind of duplicitous, hypocritical action of saying one thing to the U.S. administration and another thing to Canadians?