David Collenette

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, these are just variations of earlier questions. I do not want to take the time of the House to repeat the answer at any great length.

The department has handed over thousands of pages of evidence that were required by the commission and were further requested. I am very concerned that the commission has said it is still dissatisfied. The department has been requested to make a statement on Thursday. It will make the statement. If the commission is still dissatisfied then it has the full power to find out what actually happened.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I do not need the hon. member to tell me about my responsibilities.

Once again, the hon. member has blatantly distorted the facts from yesterday's submission by the counsel for the Somalia inquiry. This is a pattern that this member follows for his own partisan ends.

This morning on "Canada A.M." he said, contrary to the facts, that the commission had asked the RCMP to look at the computer disk. I said yesterday that it was the department that brought in the RCMP to look at the computer disk.

Do not believe me because he does not believe me. Believe commission counsel, Simon Noël. When he was asked yesterday about who requested the RCMP to come in, it was the military police. This member is distorting the facts every day and that undermines the integrity of his questions.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want everyone in this Chamber to work together to find out the truth and not play partisan politics with this very difficult issue.

It is very difficult to take the member for Okanagan-Similkameen-Merritt seriously in his guise as the defence critic when he has been all over the map on this inquiry.

In October of last year he said that the commission is headed by top notch people and will come to conclusions. On April 2 he said that the inquiry should be shut down, that it had outlived its usefulness. This morning, he said that the commission is doing a fabulous job.

If the commission is doing a fabulous job, then let the commission ask all these questions of the relevant witnesses. Do not ask them every day in the House of Commons.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is basically repeating the earlier question. The commission will get to the bottom of the document issue. Let us wait to see what happens on Thursday. Let the commission do its job.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I answered this question a little earlier. There has been an unprecedented search of DND files.

Half a million pages of documents have been sent to the commission. If, by Thursday, the commission is still dissatisfied, it is the commission's job and within its mandate to find out why the rest of those documents are not available.

The commission has to do its job. It has to analyse all the data and then come forward with recommendations, which the government will consider.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, if I heard the hon. member correctly, he made a blatant accusation against me that I am a party to a cover-up. Does he have evidence of that fact? If he has evidence of that fact then he should submit it to the inquiry.

This is what is wrong with the Reform Party and the approach that it is taking. It is slandering and libelling people here in the House of Commons under parliamentary immunity and not allowing the commission process to get at the heart of the matter. That is not what Canadians expect.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

The leader of the Reform Party obviously does not know what justice and fairness means in Canada.

Justice and fairness means that everyone gets a chance to give his or her point of view in a setting that is impartial. The commission has decided to look at the documentation issue, including the public affairs issue, which will start next week.

Only then, after the chief of defence staff and everyone else has the ability to put the facts on the table, will Canadians be able to judge. We should not prejudge the matter on the floor of the House of Commons.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, what is at the heart of this matter is justice and fairness for everybody in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence.

[Somalia Inquiry, April 16th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member does not need me to state that. The general stated it himself last week very clearly. I can assure the hon. member that what the general said last week was absolutely correct and absolutely true.

I was somewhat concerned yesterday with what the counsel for the commission said with respect to documents. It gives us some concern. However, I think we should keep this in perspective because the department has provided about a half million pages worth of documents. Further documents were requested and those have been turned over.

Last week the chief of defence staff initiated a search unparalleled in national defence history. It bore great fruit because many documents did surface and were given to the inquiry.

If by Thursday the inquiry is still dissatisfied with the question of documentation and what it has available then it is within its mandate and its power to get to the bottom of what happened to the rest of the documents.

I would ask that after the inquiry sees the results of the further search by the department that it continues with its hearings and get to the bottom of things because that is what Canadians want. They want the truth to come out and only the inquiry will get to the bottom of it.

[Department Of National Defence, April 15th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am quite affronted that the hon. member would accuse the government of tarnishing the image of the armed forces. If anything is tarnishing the image of the armed forces, other than the problems we have to deal with on an ongoing basis, it is the attitude of the members opposite who are making political points on the backs of the men and women who serve with distinction in the Canadian Armed Forces.