Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for New Westminster—Coquitlam.
As we assemble here in this safe and venerable place, hundreds of our fellow Canadians are serving our country and standing in harm's way in Afghanistan. In doing this duty, they have our full support. New Democrats have called for a full debate for many weeks. I was hopeful that tonight at long last we would finally have the answers to the important questions that Canadians are asking about this mission. We share Canadians' concerns and so far, the government in this debate has not assuaged these concerns.
As I begin, I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to 12 Canadians, including one diplomat, who lost their lives in service to our country in Afghanistan.
I would also like to express our gratitude for the enormous sacrifice made by the families of the military on behalf of this country.
We must never forget that it is our task and our duty as parliamentarians to determine what we ask of our men and women in uniform. Such decisions must be made by the people chosen democratically by the citizens of Canada and not by bureaucrats, generals or cabinet alone.
After all, how can we ask our soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan if democratic debate and decision making is denied in our own Parliament? Mr. Chair, through you I call on the Prime Minister to set himself apart from his Liberal predecessors by committing to a democratic debate and vote in the House on any further role for our Canadian Forces in Afghanistan beyond our current commitments.
We are here to support our women and men in uniform through the democratic debate that they deserve, something assured all Canadians by the democratic rights that our troops are prepared to secure with their own lives. Those who portray the request for a vote as a lack of support for our valiant and committed defence personnel are attempting to portray democratic debate on foreign policy as a choice between cheerleading or abandoning our soldiers. Such a characterization does not honour our troops or our democracy. Surely, wise foreign policy involves far more than that.
We are here tonight to ask questions and raise concerns to help Canadians determine if this is the right mission for Canada to be participating in beyond our current commitments, which end in February 2007, vital questions that are now being raised all across this country in legion halls, school classrooms, editorial pages and coffee shops.
Last November the Minister of National Defence, then his party's defence critic, outlined in this very place an essential list of questions that the government must be able to answer when committing Canadian troops abroad. The government could now have done this by answering the very questions the Minister of National Defence himself posed just a few short months ago. Let me remind everyone of these questions and some others.
What are the goals and objectives of this mission and how do they meet Canada's foreign policy objectives? What is the realistic mandate of the mission and how is it being enforced? What is the defined concept of the operation? What is the effective command and control structure?
What are the rules of engagement? Can we commit ourselves somewhere else while we are in Afghanistan? For example, could our forces undertake to stem the genocide in Darfur at the same time?
What are the mechanisms for effective consultation between the mission partners, criteria to measure progress, a definition of success, an exit strategy, all of these question?
In addition there are some actions we must take immediately. We must renegotiate the agreement made on the transfer of detainees to third parties. We must ensure that our obligations under international humanitarian law are spelled out in the letter of our agreement to match the much more meaningful and clear treaty made by the Netherlands.
Canada's role in the world and our reputation around the world rests on our reputation as a peacekeeping nation. On September 11, 2001 an immense tragedy did strike the United States and indeed Canada, but we cannot let that act of terror, that day of great loss, cloud our vision of our country or ourselves. The United States, the Bush administration, has built foreign policy upon the fear brought on by those horrible attacks, but Canada must not succumb to the indulgence of fear over hope.
We must ask how we can harness the hopeful work of peacekeeping that has set our nation apart. Canadians are asking questions about priorities and so far in this debate, too many of these questions are not adequately answered or not answered at all. More debate and a vote in the future are required.