Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister having given us notice of the statement and also having made the statement today. It is important that the House have an opportunity to consider the events in Honduras. They have been a major preoccupation for not only the citizens of that country but also for the entire region around Honduras, as well as the Organization of American States.
This is not an editorial comment on the minister's statement, but the only thing I would have liked to have heard from the government would have been a clearer statement from the minister, and today was an opportunity to do so, to indicate that the removal from office of the president in what effectively became a coup d'état was itself a deplorable act.
I know the Government of Canada has joined with the OAS in making the condemnation of that original event, but I still think it would have been timely for the minister to have repeated it today because it is important for us to recall how all these events unfolded.
We are well aware that the events in Honduras have divided the country. We are well aware that a few initiatives by President Zelaya created a political crisis and even constitutional problems.
Still, we have to say that as a democratic country and a member of the OAS, we remain convinced that replacing a president in a non-constitutional manner is not the way to change governments, especially considering the history of the region and the problems it has had, with coups d'état, military coups and a lack of respect for civil authority.
All of us are very sad that President Zelaya was expelled from the country. This is a real problem. Honduras is still in crisis and is going through a difficult time.
I just want to say, on behalf of my colleagues in the Liberal Party, that we value very strongly our relationship with the people of Honduras, and indeed with the people of the entire region.
We all recognize that Canada, in addition to all of its other identities, is a country of the Americas. We are a country which shares this part of the world with the people of Latin America, the people of South America, and the people of the Caribbean. We attach a great deal of importance to that relationship.
Above all, and this is something which I think unites the House and it is important for us to remember the extent to which we are united, we are a democratic country. We are federal country. We are country which values human rights. We believe very strongly that our foreign policy should reflect, at one and the same time, our interests and our values.
I can only say, and this perhaps adds a decidedly non-partisan note to the occasion, that we wish the minister of state well in the mission that he is undertaking on behalf of Canada, as well as all the other countries that are engaged. It is extremely important that we try to reach a peaceful conclusion to the conflict and to the crisis in Honduras.
It is critically important that constitutional authority be installed clearly and emphatically, and that those who would carry out their political activity in a non-constitutional way should be made very clear by all the countries of the Americas that this kind of behaviour is no longer the way to go in the Americas, that we expect the democratic processes of the country to be fully respected.
