Mr. Speaker, all members of this privileged House have been afforded the opportunity to be here through their constituents with the expectation that they will be straightforward and honest in the responses and statements they make in the House. It was not all that long ago, when I was first elected, that I was told about the importance of being honest in replies to answers and straightforward with respect to questions.
It would appear that the Prime Minister has intentionally misled the House. If it is found to be the case, through the Chair, that is a very significant occurrence, and Canadians need to be aware of that.
The New Democratic Party has put forward a fairly strong case. I would like to go over question period from yesterday. We gave both the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence the opportunity to provide clarification on the matter.
Let me read the actual question put to the Prime Minister yesterday by the leader of the Liberal Party. This is from yesterday's Hansard:
Mr. Speaker, last fall the Prime Minister said that our mission on the ground in Iraq was, and I quote, “to advise and to assist. It is not to accompany.”
Yesterday, the Minister of National Defence clearly stated the opposite.
Would the Prime Minister like to take this opportunity to correct his minister?
If we read the response that was given, it was a sidestep. There was no acknowledgement whatsoever.
Later on in question period, the Liberal critic for defence, the member for Vancouver Quadra, asked:
Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the House, the Minister of National Defence justified front-line combat by saying, “I am not sure we could train troops without accompanying them.”
Yet on September 30, the Prime Minister explicitly ruled out combat on the ground. He said in question period, the mission “is to advise and to assist. It is not to accompany.”
Why is the defence minister directly contradicting the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister, today covering for him?
Do Canadian1s not deserve the truth?
That is where we afforded both the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence the opportunity yesterday to provide clarity on what it was that the Prime Minister meant to say back in 2014. At no point did the Prime Minister or the Minister of National Defence attempt to clear up what is obviously a significant discrepancy. That discrepancy needs to be addressed.
We believe that this is very serious, and we might request another opportunity to provide further comment on it. Ultimately it would be nice to see either the Prime Minister or the Minister of National Defence stand in their places and provide the clarity that we have been asking for for the last couple of days.