Laurie Hawn

[Business of Supply, May 17th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, improvised explosive devices are one of the most deadly things that our men and women in Afghanistan have to deal with. They have been a scourge for many years. They show up unpredictably. They take their toll in lives and injuries, not just for Canadians but for Afghan civilians as well.

This government of course is moving to give the Canadian Forces the capability to deal with devices like this and to keep our men and women safe. The government is rapidly moving to make sure the Canadian Forces have what they need to get the job done in this area. Canadians know this and support it, and they know it is the right thing to do.

I would like to ask the parliamentary secretary to describe to the assembled members how the plan to acquire a new detection and route clearing system is coming along.

[Business of Supply, May 17th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, Canadian reservists in army, navy and air force reserve units of the Canadian Forces are an integral part of Canada's defence mission. Together with the regular force counterparts, they have selflessly committed themselves to defending Canada and Canadians in North America and helping Canada ensure that we live in a peaceful and stable international community.

These reservists are exemplary citizens and they make us all proud. Not only are they serving Canada in the Canadian Forces, but as citizen soldiers, they are also representatives of the Canadian Forces to their communities and to the Canadian public. In many respects they are ambassadors of the CF to their families, neighbours and civilian co-workers.

In domestic crises, whether it may have been wildfires in British Columbia, flooding in Manitoba or ice storms in Quebec, these reservists have answered the call. In our current mission in Afghanistan reservists have answered the call and are serving with distinction alongside the regular force and our NATO and Afghan allies.

I remind the assembled members that, under the terms of service of a reservist, all of these deployments are voluntary. Reservist who respond to a domestic crisis or international deployment have to balance their civilian lives, their career, family and other civilian responsibilities with their service and dedication to Canada and Canadians.

Like their regular force counterparts, they have made the choice to serve Canada. It is an admirable one that all members here respect and pay tribute to.

This service is invaluable to Canada. That is why Canadians are pleased to hear that the Government of Canada has announced a modernized pension plan for the Canadian Forces that, for the first time, extends pension coverage to reserve force members.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence provide the assembled members with details on how this modernized pension plan will benefit our men and women in the Canadian Forces, both in the regular force and reserves?

[Airport Security, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, last Friday it was reported in the media that a Transport Canada security inspector at Pearson airport was charged.

Can the Minister of Transport provide more details on this case?

[Business of Supply, May 8th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague's comments. Since they were directed at Alberta, I would like to make a couple of comments and ask her a couple of questions.

First, she talks about a transfer of wealth. She is right, it is about a transfer of wealth. It is about the fact that 16% of every manufacturing job in the province of Ontario depends on the oil patch in Alberta. I know she does not care about that in the province of Quebec, but it is also about transfer of wealth in terms of the equalization payments that go to Quebec that are funded by, in very large part, the oil patch in Alberta and taxpayers in Alberta.We do not mind that. I certainly do not mind that as an Albertan.

However, I would like to ask her a question. People talk about unfair increases in the price of gas. Under the Liberal plan for Kyoto, it would go to $1.60 or $2.00 a litre. I am sure she would find that unfair. But what is fair? People say this is an unfair rise or that it is an unreasonable profit. I would like to know from the member what is, then, a fair rise in gas prices, depending on market fluctuations, and what is a reasonable profit for the oil companies? I suspect the answer to that would be zero, but I would like to ask the hon. member that question.

[Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, May 7th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre is recognized internationally as a leading centre of excellence in its field. Since its beginnings, the PPC has trained over 10,000 foreign military, police and civilians from 140 countries and has delivered courses in 31 countries. Pearson graduates can be found in key posts around the world.

I will focus my comments today on the outstanding work the Pearson Centre is doing in Africa, in support of the Prime Minister's commitment with his G-8 colleagues at St. Petersburg to enhance global capacity for peace operations with a focus on that continent.

The Pearson Centre engagement in Africa began with the CIDA funded Programme de développement des capacités en maintien de la paix et sécurité launched at the Summit of la Francophonie in Moncton in 1999. Through this initiative, programs and curricula were developed that strengthened the capacity of thousands of Francophone African military officers, civilian police and civilians to take part in peace operations.

There is an established and urgent need for well-trained, French speaking personnel to work in major peace missions around the world in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Burundi and Côte d'Ivoire. The Pearson Centre's history of training assistance in Africa, as well as its bilingual ability to provide training assistance in both French and English, enables it to effectively respond to this requirement.

The Pearson Centre is also working to expand the training capacity of regional training institutions in Africa such as the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana as well as at l'École de Maintien de la Paix in Mali that play an important role in building African capacity to manage conflict and face future crises. Within the space of a few years and with the support provided by the Pearson Centre, the Kofi Annan centre has emerged as a state of the art and internationally recognized training facility.

The Pearson Centre is also a key partner of Mali's École de Maintien de la Paix, EMP, where it provides, with federal government assistance, about one-third of the school's instructional program. Since the EMP early beginnings, upwards of 1,400 African officers have been trained with the support of the Pearson Centre. Officers leave the school with a greatly enhanced knowledge of modern multidisciplinary peace operations, thus increasing their ability and those of the forces in which they serve to contribute effectively to peace operations in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Another area where the Pearson Centre is having a tremendous impact in Africa is in helping to meet the growing demand for civilian police, or CIVPOL, in peace operations.

International police peacekeeping is an essential component of Canada's engagement in building a more secure world through stabilizing failed and fragile states.

Over time, not only the number of UN police has substantially increased, but as with other elements of peacekeeping missions, mission mandates have evolved significantly from simple monitoring activities to active engagement in implementing the rule of law such as executive policing in places like Kosovo and East Timor, to direct participation in assisting post-conflict stabilization, peace building and security sector reform such as in Haiti.

It is estimated by the United Nations that there will be a need for up to 29,610 trained civilian police over the next five years due to the current surge in peacekeeping. The Pearson Centre is making tremendous headway in addressing this challenge.

Through the West African police project, or WAPP, the Pearson Centre is strengthening the capacity of six west African countries, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone as well as the Economic Community of West African States to provide civilian police to peace operations. Since the project began in 2005, CIVPOL deployments from these countries have more than doubled.

Supporting greater integration of women into peace operations is called for by United Nations Security Council resolution 1325. Such results, to Canada's credit, are being noticed internationally. The United Nations and others have called for the expansion of the Pearson Centre programming in Africa.

The Pearson Centre serves Canadian foreign policy interests through its training and capacity building assistance in Africa. It further serves to demonstrate Canada's commitment to integrated multi-disciplinary international peace operations. It is for this reason that successive governments have provided the Pearson Centre with core funding since its creation in 1994, as well as specific program funding assistance ever since.

I will address the remarks of the hon. member for Halifax for just a moment. She and her colleagues of the New Democratic Party will never understand the concept of peace through strength.

I point out for her that the NATO family, which she is so quick to denigrate and so happy to denigrate every chance she gets, was responsible for keeping the nuclear annihilation, of which she fears rightly, at bay throughout world war three, which, as we call it, was the Cold War. We won that war. We won it without firing a shot. We won it by peace through strength. There were a lot of losses suffered, many of whom were friends of mine. We did not fire a shot and it was done by peace through strength.

Despite the prevalence of inhumanity and terrorism, there are still opportunities for Pearsonian style peacekeeping. There are still sacrifices to be made.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge today the loss yesterday of Corporal Benoit Chevalier, the Canadian peacekeeper who was lost in the Sinai, with eight French peacekeepers, in the crash of an aircraft.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning...We will remember them”.

[Business of Supply, May 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I must tell my hon. friend across the way that we are not disagreeing with anything here. Everybody acknowledges what happened in the residential schools and everybody in the House knows it was a disgrace. It was a disgrace that spanned decades of Liberal and Conservative governments so we are not arguing any of those facts.

However, some of his comments, frankly, are fallacious, disingenuous and several other words that I am not allowed to say in this place.

Does the member not recall that under the Liberal government in 1998, the Government of Canada did apologize and that the motion before the House is in fact for the House to apologize? Why will he not just simply acknowledge those facts and quit trying to make a case that the Prime Minister and the government is somehow unapologetic because it is just not true?

[Business of Supply, May 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I grew up in Winnipeg too and I have lived around aboriginal communities all my life. The motion calls on the House to apologize. I believe we have said that the House is certainly prepared to do that; certainly we are.

The Government of Canada has apologized. It apologized in 1998. Apparently that apology is not good enough for the member and I can understand that. It was an apology from the Liberal government at the time and I probably would not be satisfied with that either.

I would like to point out that it would appear that all of these troubles started on January 23, 2006, but they have been going on for quite a while. I think if people were to look at the record they would find there are probably more years of shame under a collection of Liberal governments than there ever have been under a Conservative government.

I would like to ask the hon. member, does she acknowledge the fact that the Government of Canada apologized in 1998? Does she understand that the House, and not the Government of Canada, is being asked to apologize? We are willing to go along with that. Does she acknowledge that there is enough shame to go around on all governments throughout the history of Canada on this whole file?

[Business of Supply, April 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on March 27 five Afghan medical specialists were kidnapped by the Taliban while returning from their work at a displaced persons camp outside Kandahar. The five are still being held by the Taliban. On April 22 local media reported that one had been killed.

On April 4 the Taliban kidnapped two French aid workers, along with two Afghan colleagues, in Nimruz province. The Taliban claims to have executed the women, although we do not have proof of that.

On April 17 five UN aid workers were killed by the Taliban in an attack that took place in Kandahar city.

This is not about the Taliban targeting Canadian soldiers. This is about the Taliban targeting anybody who is trying to make life better for the Afghan people.

I want to ask my hon. colleague if this is the kind of partner that she would like to work with. Does she not recognize that it cannot be won militarily but it cannot be won without the military protecting the kind of people the Taliban are murdering every day?

[Kids with Cancer, April 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, last Saturday, five young heroes battling cancer lived their dreams and became pilots and chefs for a day.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Kids with Cancer event allowed these brave youngsters to soar above Edmonton with instructors from the NAIT aviation school and the Edmonton Flying Club and also take a spatula spin with some of Edmonton's new culinary masters at NAIT's chef program.

Putting on my old flight suit and flying helmet for these brave kids was an honour and a privilege. I had the thrill of strapping on a Cessna 172 with a new 17 year old flying buddy named Eduardo Rodrigues. Eduardo was a natural and I felt safe throughout the flight.

Despite our medical advances, cancer still destroys lives and affects millions of others. Every day, brave kids, like Eduardo Rodrigues, Teran Gollan-Boyko, Juan Duque, Nevada Green, Matthew Bryan and their families, climb above their problems and fight to live and live well.

Their battle inspires me and every Canadian who has been affected by cancer. I salute these young heroes who slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings, even if just for an hour. I salute them and all Canadians battling cancer.

[Business of Supply, April 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, for the hon. member to say that no progress is being made in Afghanistan absolutely flies in the face of reality. I have been there. I have seen it with my own eyes. Every briefing we get from General Howard of the military talks about progress, talks about the positive things that are happening.

I will point out to the hon. member that one of the 37 allies there is Croatia. It was not long ago that Croatia was a failed state and we were bailing it out.

Maybe if we get this right, with or without its help, maybe Afghanistan will be a part of a coalition helping to bail somebody else out. Would the member like to see that or not? Would he like to see Afghanistan stay a failed state?