Marc Garneau

[Situation in Iraq, September 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have a specific question for my hon. colleague. The government has talked about reviewing after 30 days the role that has initially been described. My question is when that 30-day clock begins. My assumption is that it will begin when Canada reports that the special ops forces have arrived in northern Iraq and that they are now working with the Kurdish. The government will give us some kind of signal that the clock now begins. I was wondering if my hon. colleague could confirm that.

[Situation in Iraq, September 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the member is listening to what I say, but he should not jump to conclusions.

I wanted to make the point tonight that Canadians need to understand that this will not be over in 30 days, even though that was the initial deadline that the Conservative government talked about. It is important to realize that this will last a long time.

However, we in the Liberal Party will review every single part of this evolution and particularly if there is a change in the role decided by the government, because we want to make sure the role does not change without there being a full parliamentary debate about it.

Why are we there? I think there have been violations of international law and crimes against humanity, and I do not think I have to go into much more detail about that. I think all Canadians understand that fact very clearly.

[Situation in Iraq, September 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canada at this point has decided to send in an advisory group of special operations forces and stay behind the combat lines. We in the Liberal Party support that initial decision. The reason we do is that we feel that ISIS is a very dangerous threat to the world.

There is no question about it. We are already, as I mentioned in my speech, concerned about the fact that some young, misguided Canadians have gone over to that area and some have come back and they have become radicalized. We have even seen some of them on television. Apparently they have died somewhere in the combat.

This is a very serious concern. When Mr. al-Baghdadi talks about his caliphate, which could go from southern Spain to India, this is an extremely serious matter. When we see the beheadings of three people—so far two American journalists and one British aid worker—and when we see the fact of the horror of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have fled in terror from places like Mosul and others, there is no question in my mind that it is a very simple thing: ISIS is a very dangerous force, which must be defeated.

[Situation in Iraq, September 16th, 2014]

moved:

That this House do now adjourn.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to lead off on this emergency debate, which deals with Canada's military involvement in Iraq. I think it is the essence of democracy that we, as a House, should have the opportunity to debate this rather important subject, given the fact that we are talking about sending some of our Canadian soldiers into harm's way.

What the government has told us so far is this. Today the Prime Minister mentioned 69 people. It is not clear to me whether those are special forces or whether that includes some of the military that are already flying our Globemaster and Hercules aircraft over there. Be that as it may, a number of special forces will go into the northern Iraq portion of the country, in the Kurdish part, and provide strategic and tactical advice to the Peshmerga forces there. They will clearly be behind the wire during this time, and after a 30-day period, Canada will review whether it will continue with that particular role, and I am not exactly sure when that clock started ticking. Essentially, that is what the government has told us.

In committee last week, I made the point of asking for assurances that there would be no combat role; in other words, those Canadians would not go to the front lines, would not accompany the Peshmerga on any offensive forays across the front lines or be involved in any defensive operations in case ISIL decided to mount a counteroffensive. I was assured that Canada would not be in any combat role.

I further asked the question whether the government would be sure to inform Parliament if it was at any point contemplating a change in the role that it has described to us thus far. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of National Defence assured us that would be the case.

Having said that, there are still many questions. I mentioned the details. We found out about the 69 today. We do not know exactly when they will arrive over there and when the 30-day clock will start.

Let me say for Canadians that it is particularly important that we get a sense of the time scale we are dealing with here. This is not a 30-day operation. If one listens to what President Obama has said, this will be a multi-year effort. Therefore, we are going way beyond the initial 30 days, and I think it is important for Canadians to realize that in order to weaken and eventually defeat ISIS or ISIL, it will take a rather long period of time; so there is a very real possibility that Canada's role could conceivably change. That is why it is important for us to get as much information as we can from the government on what possibly can happen and how this mission can evolve.

We all know that ISIS needs to be defeated on the ground. It is fine for the coalition to provide modern weapons to Iraqis and Kurdish forces. It is also very well for us to provide tactical advice, as Canada will be doing, or as other coalition members may be providing in terms of air strike support, but eventually ISIS will have to be dislodged and defeated on the ground. That is something we cannot get around.

At the moment, ISIS is firmly entrenched in a significant part of Iraq as well as in Syria, and if it is going to embed itself into some of the villages, towns and cities—Mosul, for example has two million people—it is very important for us to realize that this will take a long time and will involve some very serious operations where we want to make sure there is no collateral damage.

I was in Iraq for a few days two weeks ago and it is very clear, and all of the parties agree, that we must provide a greater contribution in terms of humanitarian effort, that we must continue our diplomatic efforts and that we must continue to deal with Iraqis refugees. However, the question is this. Militarily, other than our current role of providing airlift and the fact that we are going to provide tactical advice, what is the potential that this role could modify itself in the coming months, because it is going to take a long time? That is why it is extremely important for Canada to think this through and for Parliament to be informed in case there are any changes.

I apologize for not mentioning earlier that I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver Quadra.

I want to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs for including me and the NDP critic in this trip. We had the opportunity to see something that we do not see when we just read clippings and watch the television. We saw some of the refugees who are in the camps up in northern Iraq. United Nations officials told us that they were planning to build about 8 to 10 camps, and they had the money to do so, but they needed 25 of them. These officials have been overwhelmed by literally hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have fled the terror of ISIL and are now crowding into northern Iraq. We met Chaldean Christians who were huddling around the Chaldean church in Erbil and literally could not even go to a refugee camp. That is how drastic the situation was, because there was no refugee camp to accommodate them. It is very clear that we need to do a great deal more on the humanitarian side.

But what about the military side? Why should Canada care? Why, as some Canadians have asked, are we getting involved over there? The reason is that this affects all of us. This is not just an Iraqi or a Syrian problem. This is a problem that concerns the collective security of the world.

According to foreign affairs, about 130 Canadians have gone over to that region and some of them have come back. They have been radicalized. They are in this country right now, possibly trying to recruit more soldiers to go over and fight for ISIL. This is something that concerns us. We cannot turn our backs on this.

The question is this. What will our military role be? Mark my words; this is going to last a long time, not just 30 days.

We need to think about this seriously. We need to follow it very clearly. We need the government to provide us with answers to the questions, when they are worked out. Some of these things will take a while to work out because military operations are complex. We cannot arrive at all of the answers right from the beginning. Some work has to be done with the Kurdish Peshmerga to define the roles. Work has to be done with the other coalition members. This will be a complex operation that will involve not only ground operations but also air operations. We expect the government to keep us informed, and most of all, we expect the government to tell us if it is contemplating any role change.

We need to do more with respect to the humanitarian issue. We all agree with that. The Minister of Foreign Affairs even agrees that we need to deliver on results there. We need to continue our diplomatic efforts, as we did when we met with the president of Iraq and the foreign affairs minister. We have to encourage that country to be inclusive of its Shiite, its Sunni and its Kurd citizens but also its minorities who are Christian and other ethnic minorities, so that they are all working with one common purpose, which is to get ride of ISIS.

Many questions will need to be answered in the coming weeks and months with respect to what roles the different members of the coalition will perform. We do not have the answers to that. We have to understand that it will take a while to get the answers.

My parting message is that Canadians must get used to the idea that this will not be over in 30 days, and Canada will not walk away from it then.

[Request for Emergency Debate, September 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to ask you to hold an emergency debate on Canada's military role in Iraq.

As you know, last week the Prime Minister announced that Canada would be sending a few dozen special operations forces soldiers to Iraq to support the Kurdish army in the country's north. The soldiers are there in an advisory capacity and will remain behind the front lines. The forces' mission will be reassessed after 30 days.

Engaging our country in a military mission should be the subject of debate in Parliament, particularly given the fact that the Prime Minister has announced plans for it and remains short on detail and, most important, open ended. MPs should have the opportunity to express themselves on this very serious matter. Many questions remain to be answered.

I hope that you will grant my request and that we can hold this emergency debate as soon as possible.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, September 15th, 2014]

With regard to the RCMP: for each recommendation made by Assistant Chief Judge Daniel R. Pahl in his report dated March 3, 2011, made under the Alberta Fatality Inquiries Act, concerning the shooting deaths of four members of the RCMP on March 3, 2005, (a) what measures, if any, has the RCMP or government taken in response to each recommendation; (b) when were those measures taken; and (c) if no measures have been taken in response to a particular recommendation, why not?

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 15th, 2014]

With regard to government funding, for each fiscal year since 2007-2008 inclusive: (a) what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans to any organization, body, or group in the province of Quebec, providing for each (i) the name of the recipient, (ii) the location of the recipient, indicating the municipality and the federal electoral district, (iii) the date, (iv) the amount, (v) the department or agency providing it, (vi) the program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, (vii) the nature or purpose; and (b) for each grant, contribution and loan identified in (a), was a press release issued to announce it and, if so, what is the (i) date, (ii) headline, (iii) file number of the press release?

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 15th, 2014]

With regard to foreign affairs, and specifically applications to export military goods or technology since January 1, 2000: (a) in respect of each such application, how many human rights experts were consulted (i) from within the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, (ii) from within another department, specifying the department, (iii) from within an overseas diplomatic mission, specifying the mission; (b) for each such application, what methodology was employed to demonstrate that there is no reasonable risk that the goods or technology would be used against the civilian population; (c) in assessing that risk for each such application, were consultations undertaken with any of (i) Amnesty International, (ii) Human Rights Watch, (iii) the United Nations, (iv) any other external organization, specifying the organization; and (d) will the government revoke an export permit granted under such an application if there are new or mitigating circumstances or information that indicate the goods or technology may be used, or may have been used, against civilians or in other violations of human rights or international law or norms?

[Foreign Affairs, September 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that ISIL is not only a threat to Iraq and Syria, but to the entire collective security of the world and of our shared values.

Canadians, through Parliament, should be fully engaged on this issue and Canada's potential response to it.

Does the Prime Minister agree that Parliament should debate this issue and will he participate in such a debate?

[Literacy, June 18th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend Dr. Linda Shohet and The Centre for Literacy, located in my riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie.

Founded in 1989, the centre is Canada's pre-eminent literacy organization.

For 25 years, Ms. Shohet has been working to deepen our understanding of the role of literacy and essential skills in the labour market. Thanks to the organization's efforts, employers are able to offer training programs to the most vulnerable workers.

The Centre for Literacy is internationally recognized. Unfortunately, the government cut its funding, as it did for 22 other literacy organizations across Canada.

Evidence shows that The Centre for Literacy's programs and the analysis it performs point to where investments in workforce training need to be directed.

We thank Dr. Shohet for championing literacy and for her commitment to vulnerable workers, particularly our youth, aboriginal Canadians, and immigrants.