Mr. Speaker, there are members here who indicated they have membership in the Royal Canadian Legion in some form or another. I am very pleased to second this bill to establish a National Peacekeepers' Day on August 9 of every year.
Indeed, 120,000 Canadians have been killed in conflicts since World War I. This includes several hundred peacekeepers who have been killed serving Canada and the world in this capacity.
I congratulate the hon. member for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing for recognizing our Canadian peacekeepers who have earned the respect and admiration of the international community. His speech was as erudite and articulate as ever.
This bill is a continuation of our strong support for veterans across our country.
I was honoured to speak at the Thunder Bay South cenotaph ceremony and then I visited five other legions across my riding. For those who may not be aware, that is about a 1,000 kilometre round trip.
As we discuss Canada's role in Afghanistan, it is especially appropriate to remind ourselves that peacekeeping is an honourable aspiration for us and brings us to the point of our current role in the world. That we support our combat troops in Afghanistan is unequivocal. Their end goal, as mentioned, is peace.
Is there an expanded role for Canada's military in this troubled world?
Recently I was one of two Canadian members of Parliament who were part of the team to ratify the compact with Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Besides the secretary general of the United Nations, the prime minister of Iraq, Condoleezza Rice of the United States, there were many other presidents and heads of state representing 80 countries. Canada is very fortunate to have a capable team in its foreign affairs department, and thus most of the hard negotiations had already occurred.
Canada has contributed $300 million to assist in five areas, including: security reform, such as training police; governance in electoral processes; humanitarian assistance, such as landmine removal; basic social and economic needs, such as safe water and new classrooms; and democratic development, such as building a free press.
Although our participation in Iraq is minor, it is a chance for us to reaffirm our role as independent peacemakers. Several diplomats told me off the record that Canada's role has been diminished by our doing whatever the president of the United States tells us to do. Canada has a way to go to restore the damage this has inflicted on our reputation.
These meetings set in motion a process to help rebuild Iraq into a free and democratic nation. As with all peacekeeping, there can be no illusions about how difficult and lengthy this process can be, but this is a model that can serve to restore freedom to other oppressed countries. The reconstruction of Europe, Japan, and more recently Croatia, are examples of what can be achieved through sincere international cooperation.
What troubled me the most as I discussed our role in the world was the loss of our neutrality by snuggling up too closely to the United States. This has cost us, in some measure, our position as a peacemaker in the world. Some say they agree with this and that might sound acceptable, except I truly believe that the world needs more negotiators, arbitrators and neutral referees to settle these conflicts.
Our loss of status by becoming a mini clone can only be overcome by asserting ourselves as a nation that knows its own mind as a sovereign country. We used to be the country the rest of the world trusted because we were independent thinkers. We do not need to be in lockstep with the United States. In fact, we are undermining our own foreign service by becoming essentially parrots of American foreign policy.
We do value our relationship with the United States, but if we do not make our policies as an independent free nation, we lose the respect of the rest of the world. Americans are our best friends and great neighbours, but I believe they also want to respect our sovereignty.
The representatives at Sharm el-Sheikh described the importance of these conferences, “that finding stability in Iraq is the key to world peace”. Many leaders of national delegations stated frequently that these were historic meetings that could only come about as a result of people who do peacekeeping. Yet Canada did not even send a senior minister and my job as an observer was to study and report. I returned to Canada quite troubled by the loss of reputation. People representing other countries asked me what has happened to Canada.
To wrap up, a National Peacekeepers' Day will be part of the process of restoring our national pride as we honour those who died in the cause of peace and those who continue to strive to make our world a safer place.