Mr. Speaker, the hon. member certainly knows Ukraine and she certainly knows Russia, and that knowledge will continue to be relevant to the development of Canadian policy in the months and years to come.
We have said very clearly that all options are on the table. That includes dramatic options. That includes options that have been suggested by members on this side and by our friends and allies. We look forward to being able to return to this place to say exactly what course of action we as a government recommend.
We have also been unambiguous in condemning the government of President Yanukovych for its use of violence, for the command and control arrangements that allowed that violence to be used against innocent protesters, for the lack of due process in passing repressive laws, and we stand by those condemnations with our friends and allies across NATO and beyond.
It is very important to understand the weight of our words and actions and the weight we will have as an international community if we act in concert, in unity. We have seen President Putin gain a certain amount of diplomatic prestige with his work in Syria, where he seems to care nothing for the fate of that civilian population. We have seen him sometimes side with the Iranian regime, countered only by united western pressure to impose some of the toughest sanctions in a generation in that country, which has changed the atmosphere and may yet still lead to a better result in Iran.
On Ukraine, the stakes are as high or even higher, and we, as I think any Liberal government in the past would have recognized, have a strong interest in consulting with our allies and making sure the actions we take hit as hard and serve as truly the interests of Ukrainian people as we can possibly ensure.