Mr. Chair, I will keep it short because I see that my colleague from across the way would also like to pose a question.
I take exception to the member for Halifax stating that her leader, Jack Layton, is contributing factual information to the debate. The simple truth of the matter is that he has been fearmongering. He has been raising the legitimate concerns of Canadians to a higher level through the use of terminology like star wars, son of star wars, weaponization of space and all this type of nonsense.
I would draw her attention to a guest editorial that was written by Jack Layton. It appeared in a number of newspapers across the land, I believe, including the The Globe and Mail . This example is from the Ottawa Citizen , in which he states:
The cost of a fully operational Star Wars exceeds $1 trillion US. Were Canada told to contribute only one per cent of the cost--and it's unfathomable given Bush's fiscal situation we'd be told to pay nothing--we would have to pay $10 billion U.S.
That is the type of nonsense that her leader she is bragging about is putting out there in national newspapers in Canada. There is no foundation in fact for that type of information.
I would ask the member to defend the number he states: that Canada would be forced to contribute $10 billion U.S. to this. We have not been asked to contribute a dollar to it.