Afghanistan  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence says that he was not kept in the loop about all of the details of the Afghan mission. In the book titled The Savage War, the minister talks about the decision to strike a committee concerning the mission. He said, “It wasn't discussed with the broader cabinet, no.”

Libya  Mr. Speaker, we are convinced that we must change the focus of the Canadian intervention and put all our energy—and that is where we disagree—on reconstruction, democracy-building, humanitarian aid, intervention and overall support for Libyans in their current efforts.

Libya  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for the question. It is certainly not simple. As I was saying, the situation on the ground needs to be addressed immediately and we need to start building that country's institutions as soon as possible, because it will be a rather complicated task.

Libya  Mr. Speaker, the short answer to that question is yes, we do have a moral responsibility to act. Indeed, people like Dr. Bengezi are heroes who are helping on the ground, and Canada has to be there to help them. The military intervention costs about $10 million a month. That is what we think because we never really got detailed numbers.

Libya  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for this very pertinent question. I talked about humanitarian aid and touched briefly on the issue of rape as a weapon of war. In a society such as Libya's, it leaves marks, both psychological and social, because ostracism goes hand in hand with rape.

Libya  Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, we now need to concentrate on rebuilding Libya. That is what the Secretary General is saying. It is urgent. It needs to happen now. It will not be easy. In fact, it will be very difficult. The country is very ethnically diverse and has been ruled by an authoritarian government for more than 40 years.

Tunisia  Mr. Speaker, Canada is now refusing to be considered part of an electoral riding in a foreign assembly, even though the government agreed to such requests in the past. This change will mean that over 15,000 Tunisians living in Canada will not be able to vote in the upcoming Tunisian election.

Libya  Mr. Speaker, the NDP supported Canada's military involvement and also supported extending the mission, in June, in order to protect the people of Libya from the violence of the Gadhafi regime. The NDP's support for the two motions was in large part motivated by and based on the doctrine known as R2P, responsibility to protect.

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for their questions, something I did not do before. This is indeed rather disturbing. However, as I said in my presentation, this government seems to have a tendency to pay little attention to expert opinion. In this case, I quoted at length from the Canadian Bar Association report, because I thought it was important.

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting to note that the answers given by my colleague across the floor all presume that these are not legitimate refugees, but rather bogus refugees. The organization Rethink Refugees reminds us that under international law, arriving by boat is completely legal.

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, what I would like to tell Canadians, including myself, people I know and my family who want to keep our streets safe, is that the source of crime in Canada is not boatloads of refugees armed to the teeth who are coming here to attack us. That is just not the reality.

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, we have before us a bill that is rather questionable in several respects. It is also a bill that, unfortunately, demonstrates some very worrying trends we see in this government. This bill was criticized in its previous, but similar, incarnation by a number of experts and organizations for a variety of reasons.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, Tunisians living in Canada want to vote during the upcoming Tunisian general election, but it seems as though they will not be able to vote because the government is telling them that Canada cannot be an electoral constituency in a foreign assembly. Does the minister know that Canada and the United States have elected officials in France's National Assembly?

International Day of the Girl  Mr. Speaker, although I have had many opportunities to speak in this House, this is the first time I am doing so to make a personal statement. I would like to begin by sincerely thanking the voters of Laurier—Sainte-Marie for the trust they have placed in me. I will do everything I can to remain worthy of that trust.

Member for Mississauga—Erindale  Mr. Speaker, foreign affairs must be taken much more seriously. While the Minister of Foreign Affairs is looking after portraits of the Queen and his parliamentary secretary is looking after his personal life, who is looking after this country's foreign affairs? In the case of the parliamentary secretary, we have been told that an investigation took place behind closed doors and that the member did nothing wrong.