Mr. Speaker, as the member of Parliament for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, which includes Garrison Petawawa, I welcome this opportunity to participate in the debate regarding Canada's contribution to the war against terrorism.
There is an ongoing and serious security threat in the Middle East posed by international terrorism. It is not only a threat to innocent victims in that war-torn part of the world, but also represents an active threat to international security and stability for Canada and our allies, as we have seen in Paris and more recently in California here in North America.
The brutal murders of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Corporal Nathan Cirillo on Canadian soil mean that no Canadian is safe. This is why the Canadian Armed Forces must continue to be a part of the solution as full participating members of the international coalition against terrorism.
My riding is home to the largest army base in Canada. More significantly, Garrison Petawawa is home to the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, CSOR, the first new regiment to be stood up in over 60 years. The decision to triple the number of Canadian soldiers on the ground in the fight against ISIL to compensate for our withdrawal of the CF-18 jets affects my community directly, as it affects my local base. Those soldiers will come from CSOR. They and their families are my friends and family, my constituents. I see their faces every day.
As a member of the Petawawa community, I shared the grief and anguish of our military family when the political decision was made to disband the Canadian Airborne Regiment by a previous Liberal government during the period referred to by the former chief of defence staff, General Rick Hillier, as the “decade of darkness” for Canada's military. I was an elected member of Parliament when that same government made the political decision to send Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan without proper basic equipment. Moreover, the 1993 election promise to cancel the replacement purchase for the Sea King helicopter meant that Canadian soldiers died on the dusty roads of Afghanistan.
Will the 2015 election promise to withdraw Canadian jets from the war on terror mean that Canadian soldiers will die this time in Iraq?
Our Canadian soldiers were sent by the Liberal government to a land of sand and deserts wearing forest-green uniforms. The defence minister was not listening or chose to ignore the briefing when he was told there were no forests where our soldiers were being sent.
Once in Afghanistan, our soldiers were forced to use the Iltis jeep, a ride that offered no protection to its occupants. Garrison Petawawa remembers Sargent Marc Leger and Corporal Robbie Beerenfenger who lost their lives when their Iltis jeep hit an IED.
During the inquest into their deaths, it was revealed that soldiers who used the Iltis jeep had to make a choice between the more likely way they could die: from a sniper, or a roadside bomb. If they felt the greater danger was from snipers, a soldier kept his armoured vest on. If a soldier felt there was a greater danger from roadside bombs, he removed his vest and sat on it, as the Iltis jeep offered no protection from being blown up.
In the incident that killed Sergeant Marc Leger and Corporal Robbie Beerenfenger, the driver of the jeep, who had served longer in Afghanistan, had determined that the greater threat was from an IED. He survived that bomb blast by sitting on his fragmentation vest and was blown clear. Sargent Marc Leger and Corporal Robbie Beerenfenger were wearing their fragmentation vests and died in the explosion when the jeep hit the roadside bomb.
What life and death choices will Canadian soldiers now have to make knowing that Canadian air support will not be there if needed?
When the commander of the U.S. troops saw the jeep that our Canadian troops had to use, a horrified General Tommy Franks offered armoured Hummers, an offer that was turned down, for reasons only the Liberal government can explain.
However, once our Conservative government was in control of the situation, we immediately moved to provide things like proper uniforms, strategic lift to get our soldiers away from the roadside bombs, and replacement of the Iltis jeeps by vehicles complete with armour plating to protect the occupants from land mines.
Canadian soldiers do not complain. They do their job. We owe it to them to give them the proper equipment and resources to do the job we ask them to do.
The new defence minister is very quick to tell Canadians that he has firsthand experience serving as a reservist in Afghanistan. That would suggest he has direct knowledge of the consequence of sending soldiers into conflict without the proper tools and resources.
With that knowledge, he needs to explain to Canadians what will happen when we get another situation like what occurred last December. Will what happened in Afghanistan happen in Iraq? Will history repeat itself with the withdrawal of the air cover?
Canadian soldiers were involved in some direct fighting in northern Iraq. Luckily for those soldiers, they could call in air support from CF-18 Canadian fighter jets. These are the same jets that have been ordered home by an uncaring Prime Minister and his defence minister, who claims empathy for the serving soldiers based upon his time as a reservist in Afghanistan.
Perhaps the minister is suffering from selective amnesia. Or, did he not speak to soldiers who were first sent to Afghanistan without the benefit of strategic lift or who lost a comrade to a roadside bomb? As a reservist serving in Afghanistan, did he avoid being sent in a green uniform that would allow him, in the worlds of the Liberal predecessor, to be better seen?
The Prime Minister and his advisors cynically hope that Canadians have forgotten what happens when troops are caught in a war zone without proper air support. The high casualty rate in Afghanistan was a direct result of the politically motivated decision by the Liberal Party to cancel the Sea King replacement helicopter contract, without the strategic lift to pull our soldiers away from harm's way. Soldiers died.
It is 2016. Canadian foreign policy is taking a radical shift to the left. Now, we have another Liberal government making another election promise not to provide air support for Canadian soldiers.
I forgive the Canadians who may be confused in thinking that the year is 1993, the last time a Liberal election promise was made on the backs of soldiers.
While Canada prepares to spend millions of dollars airlifting tens of thousands of Syrian non-combatants to Canada, millions more suffer in camps, under the constant threat of attack.
Now is not the time to retreat. If they take away our air support, someone is going to die. Soldiers need to know that the government has their back. Bringing home the CF-18 military jets sends the wrong message at the wrong time.
It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. Nowhere is this more important than in the rhetoric Canadians are hearing from the government as the Prime Minister spins the peacekeeper myth. Using peacekeeping as an excuse, Canadian soldiers will be ordered to abandon the honour and recognition earned in Afghanistan. By pulling them back from the international coalition fighting terrorism, it will allow the government to make larger cuts and freeload on our allies, which was our reputation before 2006.
Cutting our military and abandoning our allies is absolutely the wrong direction for Canada. As a member of Parliament, I remind the government of its obligation to our NATO partners and its responsibility to protect the freedom, democracy, and safety and security of all Canadians.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant continues to threaten world peace and security. That threat has not changed.