Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be able to rise to redress the question I raised on November 4, not even two short weeks ago, in which I asked the Minister of Defence where we are sending our soldiers in the UN mission in Africa; especially, on the basis that they are talking about root causes of the terrorist movement and why things are melting down in Africa. Essentially, we are dealing with radicalized terrorism. We are dealing with individuals who have a warped sense of ideology, a very twisted idea of what religion is; and of course, they are wanting to commit jihad and use peacekeepers as targets.
We know for a fact that in Mali, which is one of the countries to which the government wants to send our troops, al Qaeda in the Maghreb, which is the main terrorist organization in Mali, has already declared that it wants to use UN peacekeepers, blue helmets, for target practice. In just a couple of short years since the UN mission started in Mali, more than 106 peacekeepers have been killed, largely by terrorists.
The thing that we need to keep in mind—and everybody wants to talk about the root causes of this evil—is that these organizations, these gangs, these thugs, these terrorists, have been very successful in recruiting and retaining those individuals. We have to remember that the main groups that we are going to be fighting, that our forces are going to be encountering, are part of the major terrorist organizations. Even al Qaeda in the Maghreb, which is working out of Mali, has splintered off and part of the group under the leadership of al-Zawahiri has proclaimed allegiance to ISIS.
So, the same organization we are fighting with in Iraq, the same organization that has created all the havoc and death and atrocities in Syria, is now also the same organization we are dealing with in Mali.
We sent our troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda, and al Qaeda is still out there, still exists, is still committing terrorist acts, is still committing all sorts of atrocities against innocent civilians, and is not playing by what we would consider the rules of war. However, it is losing ground. Even though it still has the allegiance of al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya, it has lost its control of Boko Haram, which has now pledged allegiance to ISIS. Also, it is important to know that Boko Haram is functioning in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and north Cameroon, places where our troops can go.
Instead of looking at root causes, instead of sending us over there on a UN mission and being underneath the layers of bureaucracy dealing with the terrorist organizations that are there, why does the government not send us over on a NATO mission, or on a UN-led mission, to actually root out this evil, rather than deal with root causes, and allow us to get rid of these terrorists and bring true civility and protection to the civilian populations in North Africa?
Our big concern here is that the UN is not the proper organization to conduct a war effort. When we are fighting terrorism, it is a war. Even the government has quit using the term “peacekeeping” because there is no peace to keep.
I look forward to hearing the parliamentary secretary's response.