Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank the member for Lakeland for her passion for women and girls around the world who are put at risk by groups like ISIL, and for her great speech here in the House today.
I will be sharing my time with the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola.
It was an honour to participate in this debate last March when our government at the time brought forward a motion for debate and a vote in the House of Commons. That is a hallmark of our Conservative government. That is something we started in this place.
The previous Liberal government, whether it was deploying troops to Afghanistan or redeploying them to Kandahar, under the governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, did not consult the House.
I would have congratulated the Liberals on adopting that Conservative practice, but we have now since learned that, before the Prime Minister had even finished moving the motion, they had already made the decision without consulting this House. We thank them for the consultation after the fact, after they had already made up their minds, but at least we are having a debate here in the House, which is again a new phenomenon for the Liberal Party, so we congratulate them on that.
I want to talk a bit about previous Liberals in previous governments and their views. I want to quote from the former deputy prime minister, who said:
Canada has a good reputation...but let's make no mistake about it: Canada does not have a history as a pacifist or a neutralist country. Canada has soldiers that are buried all over Europe because we fought in defence of liberty.
That is a quote from John Manley, which he made after 9/11 when there was some concern about what the Canadian response would be, and there were some who were putting forward the response that Canada was a peacekeeping nation, that in fact we did not fight, that we did not get our hands dirty.
I heard that disturbing trend again from Liberal members today in debate. The Liberal member for Surrey—Newton, earlier in the debate, said this Liberal motion was, “...a return to Canada's...type of international engagement”.
That is an insult to all the brave men and women from across the generations who fought in World War I, the fight that shaped our nation; in World War II, responding to the Holocaust and to the threat that Nazi Germany posed to the world; in Korea; and in Afghanistan.
Again, there is this whitewashing of our combat mission in Afghanistan, when it is said that we just trained in Afghanistan. At the end of that engagement, yes, the focus was on training, but prior to that, there was a counter-insurgency in which armed men and women in uniform were involved, 158 of them paying the ultimate sacrifice with their lives to serve this country for the greater good and for vulnerable people who were under the thumb of the Taliban. Those brave men and women went to make life better, as the member for Lakeland said, for young girls who could not go to school, for those who were killed simply for not worshipping in the same way as the Taliban in their twisted ideology.
Let us not forget that the Canadian way has been to fight injustice and to protect the innocent, and we have done that throughout our history. We should not simply talk about the blue helmets and the blue berets. That is a proud part of our military history as well, but let us not diminish the work that our men and women in uniform have done across the generations of this country. They built this country; they fought for what was right.
When we brought this motion forward in the last Parliament, I remember respecting so much former member of Parliament Irwin Cotler, who refused to stand with the Liberal position, because he believed in the responsibility to protect, as does our government.
I cannot believe, as the member for Lakeland said in her speech, a Liberal member saying that our men and women, our hundreds of support staff, our trainers on the ground, and our six CF-18s were tokens, that this was somehow just a token effort that was not really worthy of support, and if we really meant it, we would have sent in the PPCLI or some light brigade.
That is what we were asked to do. We were asked to send CF-18s, and that is what we did. For the member to minimize that as tokenism is a disservice to the men and women in uniform who have been serving this country valiantly for the last 18 months. She should be ashamed of herself.
Perhaps there is a reason why that sort of rhetoric comes from that side. It starts at the top with the Prime Minister. When he was leader of the third party, he was asked about our mission with six CF-18s participating with the coalition. What did he say? I know Liberals do not like to hear it, but I am going to say it again. He said we were going to whip out our CF-18s to show everyone how big they are, and that is what the contribution of the Royal Canadian Air Force was. What an insult to the people of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Then again in the debate, when the matter was brought to the floor, perhaps having to tidy up his language a bit, he said the only thing we were contributing was a few aging war planes. Again, that is an insult to the men and women who fly those planes.
Let us talk about what they have done in their time acting on behalf of the people of Canada. What has the Royal Canadian Air Force done? It has flown 1,378 sorties, 783 support aircraft flights, and 251 air strikes, and 399 ISIS targets were destroyed. That is what we are here to debate. That is what we on this side of the House in the official opposition are here to say. Why do we support the continued bombing by the CF-18s? It is because it is working. Prior to the bombing campaign by the coalition, ISIS was rolling across the open country through Syria and Iraq with impunity. It was taking whatever it wanted. It was rolling like a standing army. What has happened because of the air campaign? Its supply lines have been cut off, its financing has been reduced, and its occupied territory has been reduced by 25%. It is working. The CF-18s are part of that.
Again, I heard government members today saying there are lots of bombers in the area and Canada is providing only 2.5% of the sorties. Then why is it such a big deal to keep them there as part of the multi-pronged approach? When the former prime minister, now the member for Calgary Heritage, brought forward the motion in the last Parliament, he said that we must respond with humanitarian support and we must respond militarily. We now hear the Liberal government saying it can go with training and it can bring in more refugee support, all of which the Conservatives supported when we were in government. However, the other thing we supported was the continued use of our CF-18s and the brave men and women who have done such a great job delivering for the Government of Canada and the people of Canada in this fight against ISIS.
What I find ironic or interesting in this motion is that there are some who are trying to portray this as a philosophical opposition to bombing. It is tough to be philosophically opposed to bombing when Canadians will still be painting targets, refuelling, and providing reconnaissance for selecting targets. Therefore, why would we not allow the men and women of the Royal Canadian Air Force to continue to deliver those bombs on behalf of Canadians? Why would the government not continue to degrade and destroy ISIS? We are supporting the bombing effort; we are just not supporting our men and women in the Royal Canadian Air Force to continue to do the job they do so well.
ISIS is a terrorist organization that deserves to be destroyed and degraded. Our brave men and women in the Royal Canadian Air Force have been doing a fantastic job in delivering for Canadians and for the Government of Canada. The CF-18s should stay there, and that is why I will support the amendment and oppose this motion.