Mr. Speaker, today's debate contemplates what Canada's role should be with regard to how we respond to the atrocities that ISIL has committed, threats and actions made against the security of Canadian people, its expansionist nature and the humanitarian and human rights crisis it has created.
This morning, the member for Vancouver Quadra said that the motion in front of us, which presents the government's position on this matter, fails our national interest test. I refute this argument and seek the House's unified support for the government's motion.
Those resting their position on this argument should think first that Canada's security, and that of the people we represent, is in fact one of the most important national interests we are seized with. The longevity of Canada's pluralistic peace is born from our collective ability to uphold the freedom from persecution that in turn enables the freedoms of speech, opportunity and personage on which the prosperity of our nation rests.
In this context, the question of national interest as it relates to the motion first rests on whether there is a clear threat to the national security of Canada's people. While it may be difficult for any of us to watch the manifesto video left by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, it clearly shows that attacks by radicalized jihadi ISIL sympathizers have in fact happened on our own soil, even in this very place that I speak today. While this alone should be evidence enough of this threat to our national security, the leadership of ISIL has sent out clear directions calling upon its followers to kill Canadians. ISIL's leadership is on record as stating:
If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever ... then rely upon Allah and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.
Further, the footprint of ISIL working within our country to recruit followers is also evident, with the RCMP recently laying charges against Ottawa area men who now stand accused of the same.
Beyond this clear and direct threat to our country, in which this conflict poses a unique interest to Canada, any so-called national interest test applied to the motion should be made within the context of the Liberal leader's opposition to the motion. He has implied that the motion does not adequately acknowledge that Canada has a role to play in confronting humanitarian crises in the world. This is false, especially given his use of the word “confront”.
The humanitarian crisis caused by ISIL's atrocities will not end unless it is first confronted by the international community using force to stop its expansion. ISIL is expansionist. We have seen the rapid growth of the territory it has taken by force quickly increase. Its adherents seek to expand ISIL's territory in order to establish a so-called caliphate, which would subjugate more of humanity to their warped, wrong and insulting interpretation of Islam and would also enable seizure of assets, which are used to fund and sustain its recruitment and military efforts. Simply put, if ISIL is left to expand its territory unchecked, the scope and severity of the humanitarian crisis it causes in its region, and the attacks it plans on foreign soil, will also continue to increase.
When paired with the acknowledgement that ISIL and its radicalized jihadi sympathizers have in fact carried out attacks against Canadians and have made direct threats to the security of our nation, saying that Canada should only have a humanitarian aid role in the international effort to contain ISIL is akin to saying that it is not in our nation's interest to prevent assault before it happens, rather to stand by and watch it occur and be satisfied in providing food, shelter and victim support services only after the crime has been committed.
This is not to downplay the need for Canada to continue its strong record of funding and delivering humanitarian aid to ISIL's victims. To date, Canada's aid support for the victims of ISIL has provided food to 1.7 million people, shelter and relief supplies to 1.26 million, improved access to education opportunities for up to 500,000 children, and provided psychosocial support and other services for 35,000 women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence in the region. In addition to degrading ISIL's ability to expand and entrench its territory, the military component of the motion allows for Canada's aid to flow to more areas and allows for more accountability and security of aid workers.
It should be clear to all of us that, as the Prime Minister discussed, this debate should not be about choosing between fighting the so-called Islamic State and helping its victims. Rather, to truly confront this humanitarian crisis, we need to do both.
The opposition has implied the motion does not present a clear mission and a clear role for Canada. This is also false. The motion enables a mission to work with our coalition allies to degrade, destabilize and weaken ISIL's position in the Middle East. Under this objective, the Royal Canadian Air Force has played a significant role.
Our special forces have increased the capability of Iraqi security forces to combat ISIL, including their ability to better plan, mount and execute operations against ISIL with increasing confidence and precision. Recently, Iraqi forces have made several advances, for example recapturing Tikrit. As Iraqi forces do not yet have the capability to conduct large-scale offences without coalition support, our continued support in the region is critical.
There is a clear and defined scope for our special forces. They are not allowed to operate in a combat role and are not to seek out combat activities. However, if members of our special forces are fired upon, they will fire back. Our special operations forces are working in an advise and assist role for Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga. This is not a role they could undertake outside of Iraq.
With regard to the need for expansion of this mission into Syria, ISIL has been consolidating and moving some of its heavier equipment into Syria because of the significant impact that coalition air strikes have had on ISIL operations in Iraq. Given the threat ISIL poses to our country and the atrocities it has committed, we cannot allow ISIL to have safe refuge anywhere in the world.
Our coalition partners recognize that Canada is well placed to support the coalition objective to counter ISIL's power base in Syria, specifically by utilizing our CP-140 Aurora aerial surveillance, our CC-150 Polaris refuelling craft and our CF-18 air strikes.
To be clear, with regard to the involvement of the Assad regime, we will not seek its permission to conduct the mission outlined in front of us today. Given the request for military assistance from the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIL, the United States is arguing the collective self-defence of Iraq as the basis for operations in the area. The United States has reported to the United Nations that it is taking the necessary and proportionate military action in Syria in order to eliminate the ongoing threat to Iraq on the basis that Syria is unwilling and unable to prevent ISIL from staging operations and conducting attacks into Iraq from Syrian territory.
As the U.S. has done, Canada will report to the UN Security Council that Canada is operating in Syria on the basis of collective self-defence, pursuant to article 51 of the United Nations charter. After waffling back and forth on his personal knowledge and personal position on this mission, including making a phallic joke about the role of the Canadian air force, the Liberal leader has also said, “...that the case for deploying our forces must be made openly and transparently, based on clear and reliable, dispassionately presented facts”. It is worth noting the irony of this statement, given that our government has improved upon the abysmal record the Liberals established on this front when they deployed the Canadian Forces to Afghanistan for a combat operation without a vote of Parliament. This shows who would not be trusted in this place on military missions.
By contrast, as we said six months ago, the government is again consulting Parliament on the extension and expansion of Operation Impact. We have provided updates on the mission to the Canadian public. As we have done over the last six months, we will constantly evaluate Canada's role in the region, which is why we have put a clear end date on the expansion of the mission in this motion. This is the essence of transparency.
As for treating the knowledge of ISIL's rape of thousands of women; genocide; beheadings; persecution of religious minorities, journalists, aid workers and LGBTQ; treatment of women as subhuman; and the encouragement of attacks on Canadians as dispassionate facts, I beg to differ. We should be passionate about these things, as they are the antithesis of Canadian values. They are evil and they are wrong. Support for this motion shows that our country is not willing to explain away the nature of ISIL's barbarism or be intimidated into trying to appease an evil that has formed the core of its governance around opposing the freedoms we enjoy by murdering, raping and seeking subjugation through fear.
The risks that we ask our country's men and women in uniform to undertake should not be taken lightly. However, the targeted and defined mission that has the capability to degrade a clear and direct threat to our country, both to its people and pluralistic peace, is the reason many choose to serve our country in the first place. It would be easier for us to turn a blind eye to these facts. However, as we head toward the 150th anniversary of the birth of our nation, we should not take the peace and security we enjoy as Canadians for granted, trading history's proof of what is right and wrong for a Liberal academic exercise, so that we become complacent in protecting its very existence.
In closing, those who have fought for our country in years past have left both a legacy of peace and a clear call to future generations of Canadians. We must always recognize and confront threats to our country's people, values and peace. We stand so charged today. Let us not fail in our choice on how to respond.