Mr. Chair, in the last exchange, the minister said that they are not considering any participation from the standpoint of sending military to the region. At the same time, the Prime Minister said in answer to a question last week, “One can never categorically rule out participation”. As we know, the chief of the defence staff has also said that they are looking at what they could do.
Historically, we have brought motions to the House and voted on whether there will be any deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces. Those forces could be used in supporting those already in the region or to support the Gulf states or other allies in the war against the Iranian regime, but we had votes in the House for Afghanistan in 2006 and 2008, for Libya in 2011, and for Iraq and Syria and the war against ISIS. Even under Justin Trudeau, we had a vote on the Iraq and Syria war in 2016.
Will the minister guarantee that there will be a vote before we send any Canadian Armed Forces into the region to assist our allies? Will he also address the issue of whether the 244 troops currently in the region, in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt and the Golan Heights, are safe, armed and able to protect themselves or just sheltering in place?