Mr. Speaker, development and diplomacy are required to win the hearts and minds of Afghans. Even a former colleague of the member for Joliette, Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, clearly indicated that security is needed for children to be able to go to school and in order to build drinking water treatment systems. We know that the 3 Ds are required in Afghanistan. We also know that the Bloc Québécois has adopted a 3 I approach: inconsistency, irresponsibility and improvisation.
I would like our colleague from Joliette to explain the comments of some of his colleagues who, with their fancy footwork and backtracking, are being political opportunists. Why is the Bloc Québécois dabbling in political opportunism? In June 2004, their leader stated, “Let us be perfectly clear...we must work tirelessly to track down and bring to justice those responsible for these barbaric acts.”Why does this no longer apply in 2008?
In 2006, the member for Saint-Jean stated, “All this suggests to us that they are on the path to success and more needs to be done to get there. We probably have to stay in that country for quite some time.”
I could give you many more quotes along those lines. Even in this House, in 2007, a member said that a sovereign Quebec would participate in international intervention in Afghanistan. Where is the Bloc going with the mission in Afghanistan, if—