Art Eggleton

[Kosovo, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we are into a 21-day period that the contact group has outlined as being necessary to push the peace process forward. It took seven days to get to the table. They were at the table as of this weekend. They will have another seven days to reach an agreement and another seven days beyond that should that be necessary.

We have six CF-18s in Aviano, Italy in case the peace talks break down and if NATO decides to proceed with its air strikes. Also, if as part of the peace agreement, we do get a peacekeeping—

[Kosovo, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we have not yet formally been asked to supply troops but there is preliminary work being done at NATO. That is being done in connection with the peace talks that are presently going on in Rambouillet, France. In those discussions part of what they will be considering is whether a peacekeeping mission could be agreed upon by the parties. If it is, then it is quite likely Canada would be asked. In that case, I would expect the government to make a decision after some consultation with members of parliament.

[National Defence, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry, but I do not trust the hon. member's reading of any document. From what I have heard from him before, he does not get his research right.

We certainly have a navy. We have an air force. We have an army. They are all doing their utmost to protect Canada's sovereignty. That is one of their prime functions as is identified in our policy framework in the 1994 white paper, and they are doing a good job at doing it. Yes, we have fewer resources. Things have been very tight but they are doing a great job with the resources they have.

[National Defence, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we have an air force that does this. We also have a navy with its patrol vessels, frigates and MCDVs.

We have the longest coastline of any country in the world and a function of our Canadian forces is to make sure that we do surveillance.

[National Defence, February 4th, 1999]

I am afraid, Mr. Speaker, the only cloud is over the head of the hon. member because there is no cloud in this case at all.

Quite clearly anything that would have been relabelled would have been fully retested. The retesting that was overseen by the consultant hired by the department of defence in the United States fully went through the entire process of testing in great detail. I have had our medical people in the Canadian forces describe to me that process. It is one that is very thorough to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the product.

[National Defence, February 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, that is not true at all. The plant was not shut down. The plant was told that it had to make some improvements. There were some contaminated products that were totally removed but nothing that was contaminated ever got out or ever got used in terms of our Canadian forces.

I never said it was tested in Canada. I said Canadian doctors and the Canadian military approved it as indeed did Health Canada. They fully had the information on the testing that was done in the laboratory and were satisfied that it was safe and effective for our troops.

[National Defence, February 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, in fact the FDA did not shut down the plant at all. It said yes, there needed to be improvements. The plant partly closed to make those necessary improvements. But every ounce of that serum was tested and overseen by an independent company to ensure that it was safe and effective to both the United States forces and Canadian forces.

[National Defence, February 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to provide whatever I can to convince the hon. member that in fact it was safe. I noticed the last time we had this discussion the member could not wait for us to give the anthrax serum to our troops. She wanted to make sure they got it to protect them. That is exactly what we did. We gave it to them to protect them. It was safe and it was effective. In fact any serum that was found by the FDA to not be fully safe or effective was removed.

[National Defence, February 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, in reference to the chief of the air staff, none of us would ever recommend anything that was not safe and not effective. The vaccine was tested very thoroughly at the laboratory by an independent company. It was not tested in Canada. We do not make the vaccine in Canada and it is not licensed in Canada. It was tested at the laboratory, the best place for it to be done.

Our medical doctors are fully satisfied that this vaccine is safe.

[National Defence, February 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the only thing mouldy is the thinking in the Reform Party.

The medical profession in the Canadian military has looked at this closely. The United States has also looked at it. The same vaccine has been given to many more Americans in their military forces.

People have been able to take it with very few problems at all and certainly no problems relevant to the kind of issues the Reform Party is trying scaremonger about.