Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence for his work today in this debate as well as for his support for our men and women in uniform.
If we allow ISIL to operate out in the open, as happened before the international military interventions, the attacks it would perpetrate in the region and internationally would just grow. Because of the air strikes in Iraq, it has now retreated across the border in Syria. That is why we have expanded the mission to allow Canadian pilots to target ISIL targets in Syria.
Giving ISIL unfettered access to a region where it can do whatever it wants, plan, train and carry out attacks, would be a disaster even greater than what is already there. We cannot stand by as an international community and let that happen.