Bill Casey

[National Revenue, October 2nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the question again. Will the minister contact the between 20,000 and 30,000 Canadians who are disabled and who did not return the form? Will the department contact those disabled people to make sure they are able to reapply for the tax credit?

[National Revenue, October 2nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians are being denied the disability tax credit because the form is convoluted and complicated, but at least 20,000 disabled Canadians are being denied simply because the forms were not returned. Whether they are disabled or not, they are taken off the list, kind of like negative billing.

Has the minister made any effort to contact these people to find out why the forms were not returned?

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly do support that statement 100%. I personally oppose any impending war, as the member mentioned. I think it is our obligation and our duty to do everything we can to avoid even one fatality. To me that is where our focus should be. It should not be on getting ready for war. That has to be a priority but we have to spend equal time or more on trying to find peaceful solutions.

Today the Leader of the Opposition suggested that I was waffling or in the middle of the road because I was emphasizing the peaceful process and the diplomatic way. That is what I will always do no matter what he says.

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I will make a comment before I get into the meat of the member's question. This is the kind of thing that bothers me. He just said that some soldiers or some civilians may die in the process. I do not think we could ever say some may die in the process and carry on. I think we have to stop when we say some may die and think it over and give it a sober second thought.

To answer the member's question about equipment for the military, when we were in power we were the last ones to expend any amount of money on the military. We built frigates which have been very successful. The last actual major expenditure we committed was for helicopters. We committed to all kinds of new equipment, land, sea and air, for our military to make sure they were properly equipped. Since 1993 we have seen it all decline, all taken away and there has been absolutely no re-investment in equipment for the military.

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I love the member's paradoxical questions on an oddity of life. No, I cannot answer that question but I think we should all push for conformity and consistency by all countries.

When the member was referring to the oddities of life I was trying to think of another country that was attacked in a pre-emptive strike. Paradoxically it was the United States that was attacked in a pre-emptive strike in 1941 by a country that felt it was at risk by a superpower that had weapons of mass destruction of that day.

There are lots of paradoxes. I cannot explain them but I certainly appreciate the member's question.

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to stand and speak to this issue tonight. It certainly is one of the most important issues we have talked about in a long time. Many of the issues we discuss are rather trivial but this certainly is not a trivial issue. It is a very important and meaningful debate.

Because of that I find it hard to understand some of the positions taken here tonight. It seems to me that we essentially have two roads from which to choose. One is a road of diplomacy, a road where we try to use all our diplomatic and political energies to find a peaceful resolution to this perceived threat and one that will eliminate the pressure and, in the end, lift the restrictions from the people of Iraq and provide a solution to the problem.

The other road is one of war, of military action, of violence and of aggression which will result in the deaths of thousands of civilians, men, women and children, hundreds of soldiers, maybe our own sons and daughters here, and incredible environmental and property destruction. It will be a long, drawn out conflict.

I do not see how we can talk about a choice of one road or the other when it is so obvious that we must take the diplomatic route, at least at first. It seems that some people want to jump to military action first. Their focus is on military action. It is not on diplomacy. It is not on political resolution.

Certainly we support the road that ensures every diplomatic effort that can be made is taken to avoid some of those awful consequences of the other road, that is, the devastation and fatalities. When someone suggested that if we even suggest a diplomatic route we are waffling, or we are in the middle and not taking a strong stand, I took exception to that. Any time we talk about taking an action that will result in somebody dying, we need to have sober second thought. We cannot just jump on it and say that we must take this action and we must to do it now, especially when the information we have at hand is so limited, unconvincing and lacking in credibility.

The member for Pictou--Antigonish--Guysborough asked what evidence there was. I ask that same question. What current evidence is there of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Everybody says that it is there and that there is no question about it, but I have never seen a photograph or heard a testimony. I have never heard anything that is current which says there are weapons of mass destruction. They may be there but all I am saying is that I have never heard or seen anything with my own eyes that is very convincing.

Today's news that Iraq has agreed to comply with its commitment to the United Nations to allow weapons inspectors in is very encouraging. We all know that is no guarantee. We are not under any illusion that this will solve the problem for sure. If fact I can guarantee everybody that there will be hurdles thrown in the way as we go along, but it is our job together with the international community to overcome those hurdles without sending in soldiers and without using force unless it is absolutely the last option.

Canada's role should be to ensure that Iraq keeps its commitment. We should be applying our own influence to Iraq and to Iraq's friends to apply influence on Iraq to ensure that it complies with those rules. If we are successful there will be no war, no deaths and no women or children will die. There will be no retaliation and no destabilization or environmental degradation and destruction.

This whole debate is so complex that it makes one stop and think about so many different things. As many people have said, one issue that causes a lot of us to be uncomfortable is the unilateral action that was just raised. Whether it is unilateral or a few countries, it does not matter, we need to have rules based diplomacy here. We cannot have strong countries, whatever countries they are, taking action against weaker countries without following international law, international rules and the United Nations. We cannot start down this road and have this happen or it will be just chaos in the international community. Every stronger country will then refer to this action as a precedent for what they want to do to a weaker country. I think it would be a very dangerous divergence from where we have always gone.

Someone brought up regime changes a little while ago. That is a new divergence. How can one country say that it does not like a particular government, no matter how good or bad it is, and that it wants it to change or it will take all the action necessary to change the regime, even though it may not have done anything to harm the aggressor country in the last 10 years. This is a very dangerous road to go down and would set a dangerous precedent. We have already heard that other countries now use that same term of wanting a regime change.

The other issue that bothers me is the evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Everybody talks about it but nobody puts the evidence on the table. The United States has not. Great Britain has not. Canada has not.

I asked the question at the foreign affairs committee the other day about what proof we have right now that is current and credible that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. All I heard were references to 10 years ago and that things were really bad. I did not get an answer about today.

What happens if we do attack that country and it turns out that there are no weapons of mass destruction and thousands of people die? I and I do not think anybody in Parliament knows for sure exactly what weapons are there or are not there. For that reason and because we would be putting hundreds and thousands of people's lives at risk, we must explore every diplomatic opportunity and ensure that we take every step before we support military action.

We think that Canada's action plan should be simple. We think that before one Canadian soldier risks his life we, as politicians, and our diplomatic corps should take every step possible to ensure that they have exhausted every opportunity to resolve this issue.

Second, every effort should be made by the government to follow the recent directive by the United Nations and the agreement with Iraq to ensure that it follows up on the agreement, keeps it word this time and allows unfettered access by the United Nations' weapons inspectors.

We must ensure on the overall that we all follow international law and follow the rules of the United Nations, because if we deviate from these then we just set precedents for other countries to do the same thing. Then we will be offended and we may even be the victims of that action if we are not careful.

We must ensure that rules based diplomacy remains the centre of international cooperation in conflict. One superpower, no matter who it is, must not assert its power over a smaller country without the approval of the United Nations and without complying with international law.

That is our position. We say, not necessarily force but, yes, force if absolutely necessary, but first we must explore every diplomatic and political opportunity to avoid one fatality.

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the hon. member's comments. It sounded like he was challenging the government to participate in military action with or without clarity from the United Nations in further resolutions.

I was surprised that he did not spend equal time in challenging the government to use diplomatic and political measures to try to resolve these differences. However, seeing as the Alliance is always asking and demanding accountability and predicting cost, has the Leader of the Opposition predicted what the costs would be in dollars and, even worse, in lives if Canada were to enter into military conflict in Iraq?

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

I would like about an hour, Mr. Speaker, but perhaps five minutes would be good.

[Iraq, October 1st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Considering the seriousness of the debate and the subject, I wonder if we could seek unanimous consent to have a little more time with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to ask questions on this very serious issue. We all have many questions. We need to know.

[The Environment, June 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I hope I get a better answer than that.

About a year ago I raised the question about Isle Haute, a pristine island in the Bay of Fundy, two and a half kilometres long, which is exactly the same as it was about 10,000 years ago.

I asked the Minister of the Environment if he would designate this a wilderness preserve. He seemed to be inclined to do that. Has he made any progress on this designation?