Art Eggleton

[Fragmentation Bombs, November 7th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to allowing the use of cluster bombs, Canada is not using cluster bombs. We are not involved in the bombing of Afghanistan. The United States is using them but they are lawful to use. They are not banned in the same way that anti-personnel landmines are banned.

One thing that Canada does pay attention to within the United Nations framework is the cleanup of any weaponry that is left. The whole point about anti-personnel landmines is that they are in the ground and they hurt people after the conflict is over.

No matter what the weaponry is, we want to make sure there is an appropriate cleanup so innocent civilians are not hurt afterward.

[National Defence, November 6th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her representation and desire to get these helicopters just as quickly as we possibly can, and we are aiming to do that.

The memorandum she referred to that suggests 2010 is only in an extreme case, such as if we run into further difficulties in getting them delivered. We will do everything we can to get the helicopters replaced just as quickly as we can.

Meanwhile, we put $50 million into upgrading the Sea Kings and they will be performing quite well in the Arabian Sea area.

[Foreign Affairs, November 6th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, this has been the same question for several days. I am afraid the answer must be the same. Every effort is made to avoid children, to avoid innocent civilians.

There are innocent people in any conflict who become victims, most unfortunately, but every effort is being made by the United States and the allies that are a part of the coalition to avoid civilians, to stay away from civilian populations, and to target only military installations and military personnel.

[Terrorism, November 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, again, the aim of any bombing is the military capabilities, to depreciate those military capabilities. Every effort is being made by the United States and the coalition to stay away from the civilian population. That will continue to be the policy.

[Terrorism, November 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the cluster bombs are aimed at the Taliban and they are aimed at the al-Qaïda to downgrade the military capability. They are not aimed at the Afghan people. They are not aimed at innocent men, women and children like those who were in fact aimed at by al-Qaeda in New York. They will continue to use whatever weapons they feel are necessary to bring about that degradation.

In terms of the population, however, they are changing the colour of the packages so that in fact there can be no misunderstanding, because we want to help the Afghan people.

[Depleted Uranium, November 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of whether it is being used by the U.S. in connection with the Afghanistan campaign.

Of course it is not used by Canada any longer, although we are not involved in the bombing in Afghanistan, but we still do not use it. We have also offered to anybody who is deployed in any theatre of operation who thinks they may have been exposed to it an opportunity to be tested. That offer still stands. We have not been able to find any evidence of low level depleted uranium affecting the health of Canadians but we still want to be vigilant because we are concerned about their health care needs.

[National Defence, November 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the permanent joint board of defence is the senior bilateral advisory group between Canada and the United States on continental defence matters. It reports directly to the Prime Minister of Canada and to the president of the United States.

The board existed since the second world war. It is not a policy setting device but it is an opportunity for broad ranging discussion on defence and security issues. It has both military and civilian personnel. It is co-chaired by someone from each side of the border. The member of parliament for Brossard--La Prairie ably represents Canada on the board. It recently had discussions about September 11 and its fallout, which of course is the current issue.

[National Defence, November 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, now he has given up on tomato and tomato and he is into apples and oranges but he is very out of date with all his information.

We have been going through a recruitment plan which has been quite successful in getting initial people. We are also offering incentives and bonuses to bring in people in certain trades and occupations in the military in which we have been short.

Yes, we have joint efforts. The army, navy and air force do co-operate together and they have for years. Where has the hon. member been? It makes sense to better serve Canada by training our forces to do the best they can to fight terrorism.

[National Defence, November 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, what he said yesterday was nonsense and it is nonsense today. Or, as his leader says, tomato or tomato, it is the same thing.

We have over 2,000 troops involved in the campaign against terrorism, many of whom are navy. We do have people back here who will both serve to protect our country and who will also relieve the people we sent overseas from their service after a period of time.

We will continue to honour our commitment. We are going up in terms of recruitment at this point in time. We are getting additional people into all three armed services.

[National Defence, October 31st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, that is absolute nonsense. That is not what I said. That is what he thinks he would like me to have said.

Let me give a couple of instances. When we had the ice storm here we had 4,000 personnel in overseas missions but we could still put 16,000 troops on the streets of this country to help Canadians citizens.

On the eve of the millennium when we were concerned about the millennium bug, we had 3,000 people overseas but we still had 25,000 troops, 11,000 reservists, ready to help their fellow Canadians.