Mr. Chair, congratulations on your appointment. You are doing an excellent job.
I too want to commend our brave forces for the tremendous job they are doing on peacekeeping missions around the world. This is a great debate. Anytime there is something as important as this is for Canada, it is important to have these debates.
The people in my riding are split. Especially more recently, there have been concerns coming up, some I think through lack of information. I would encourage the government to make sure it gets full information out as much as possible on the purpose of our troops being there, their role, any commercial interests, the international nature of it and the protocol on prisoners so they know that the Red Cross has access. This would certainly help Canadians' understanding of this.
I visited Afghanistan to make sure our troops were happy and well equipped and they were. I was excited about the pride of the Afghans in having us there and wanting us there to protect their democracy, and the role the troops are playing in making sure that in dangerous situations aid can get through, and the way we have modernized the armed forces.
Following on the comments of the member for Esquimalt--Juan de Fuca, I hope that the member will encourage his government to take even more action for exactly the same noble reasons of protecting lives, protecting democracy and protecting human rights in Zimbabwe, the Congo and Darfur.