Mr. Speaker, I also am proud of the fact that over many decades Canada has always been—and was under the previous government—one of the biggest humanitarian donors to the crisis in Iraq and Syria. I applaud the government for continuing on with its humanitarian efforts, just as we were a large contributor under the previous government. However, it is not enough.
Every one of our allies has asked us to step up the fight against ISIS. The Prime Minister can talk about all of the lovely things that came out of the White House after his announcement, but the reality is that, weeks before that, those in the U.S. administration, those in France, and those in the U.K. came forward and asked everyone to step up their efforts in the air strikes.
The point was made that we have to step up our humanitarian efforts and the work on a potential peace accord, but the point was also made that there is absolutely no peace to keep and people are suffering on the ground. Millions of Iraqis and Syrians are fleeing the region. They are arriving here in Canada, and we welcome them, but they are leaving their homes and they will never be able to go back until there is peace. There is no peace to keep, and that means, at this point, the short-term goal of the coalition is to degrade and defeat ISIS and push it back out of the territory where it is wreaking havoc and a reign of terror over civilians. That is what air strikes do. That is exactly what military action is about. We are not part of it anymore. We are not part of the fight against ISIS.