Mr. Speaker, I am rising at the hour of adjournment, or as we colloquially call it around here, the late show, to pursue a question I asked the Prime Minister but to which the response came from the hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The question I asked was on March 9 and was in relation to the events of February 28, when, illegally, the government of Israel and the government of the United States authorized attacks, strikes, on Iran. In my question to the hon. minister, I quoted our former minister of foreign affairs, the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, who actually wrote to the Toronto Star to say, “Canada once rejected America's aggressive, unlawful foreign policy. Today [the Prime Minister] embraced it.” He went on to say, again quoting Lloyd Axworthy, “Under the [United Nations] Charter, cross-border uses of force are prohibited except in two narrow cases”. He then pointed out that Operation Epic Fury, as the White House called it, applies to neither.
I wanted to ask the Prime Minister at the time whether he would belatedly condemn what the U.S. and Israel did in attacking Iran. The response from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, just to summarize, was that while we support Iran's never obtaining nuclear weapons, this support is not a blank cheque. Canada reaffirms that international law binds all parties. The U.S. and Israel must respect the rules of international engagement. In other words, this stopped and fell short of a condemnation of our allies' ignoring international law. That is in fact what we did. The condemnation should have been from Canada's government immediately.
I want to include in my brief remarks tonight while pursuing this question something that I rarely do. I would like to thank a member of the opposition benches, a newly elected member of Parliament from the riding that abuts mine, shall we say, my neighbour, the hon. Liberal member for Victoria, who was, prior to entering politics, associate professor of international law at the University of Victoria. He was unequivocal in issuing a written statement that Canada's response fell short.
I will quote the hon. member for Victoria as he was quoted in the Times Colonist: “Canada cannot endorse the unilateral and illegal acts of military force”. He went on to call for “a consistent Canadian standard, one that applies the laws of war and the principle of protecting civilians, whether the actors are allies or adversaries.”
The difficulty we have is that Canada should have been quick to condemn in the first Trump administration. I think we actually did that when the Trump administration tore up the agreement that had been reached with Iran, which was working. Of course the goal is to make sure Iran never has nuclear weapons. The Government of Iran is ruthless, ignores human rights, is abusive and also exports terrorism. Nobody questions that, but ignoring international law is a grave error. In the case of the original U.S.-Iran deal, it was working. It was “Trust but verify”. The international atomic energy experts were getting access to all the research facilities.
As the time passes, I wonder what the government is saying about the United Nations charter and international law. Is it only when it is convenient?