Mr. Chair, I know that there is a bit of baiting going on here tonight by the members opposite in the government. However, I think he has to examine his own understanding of what peace-building and peacekeeping actually mean. If he looks at the various 10 enumerated actions, which I suggest he look at, he will understand that peace-building, building and assisting in strengthening the rule of law and institutions in the host countries, and helping national authorities develop priorities and strategies to address the needs of judicial institutions, police, corrections, et cetera, are some of the mandates listed there.
The fact of the matter is that the experience of peace-building is complex. It is multi-dimensional. It may involve assisting in a circumstance where, once peace has been achieved and we are not engaged in combat, we can provide assistance to have greater security in Mali.
We just talked about the inadequacies of the Malian army in terms of being able to provide security for their country. We were astonished, and I am sure that the parliamentary secretary was astonished, to hear General Ham suggest that the Americans had neglected to provide ethical training when they were assisting in training troops in Africa. I do not think we are guilty of that. I think the training provided by Canada and that can be provided by Canada has a different dimension to it.
There may be ways we can be helpful. We have to first find out if there is going to be any mission of that nature and see what Africa needs.
I know this. When we were asked to provide financial assistance to AFISMA to take over control of the operations, we said no.