Iraq  Mr. Chairman, as I said in my speeches in October and tonight, I believe the position we have laid out is consistent with international law. I also believe the worse thing that could happen to the United Nations would be for members of the international community to disregard and fail to enforce, if necessary, about 15 resolutions over the past 12 years.

Iraq  Mr. Chairman, clearly the seating arrangement this evening lends new meaning to the term “coalition”. Let us talk about the importance of the United Nations. Since the gulf war in 1991, it has passed some 15 resolutions. It is important for the UN's credibility to have these resolutions respected.

Iraq  Mr. Chairman, first I did not say that we ignore the voices of Canadians any more than we ignore the voices of other nations around the world, but in the end we take this information and we do what we believe is in the best interests of the country and the world in the long term when it comes to these kinds of matters.

Iraq  Mr. Chairman, I listened with close attention to what the Minister of Foreign Affairs had to say. I noticed that he went to great lengths to say that the government has not changed its position. However, I could produce a whole series of quotes over the past two months not only illustrating such changes, but particularly in the tone.

Status of Women committee  And now it feels very much the same, that with the 1996 EI changes, women are further jeopardized. We haven't made any real progress. It's clear to me that we need a wholesale reform when it comes to employment insurance. Having five more weeks of benefits just doesn't cut it. So I want to thank you for underscoring that and for making that very clear.

Agriculture committee  Allen's intent was to expand the powers or change the powers of the subcommittee beyond what was conferred by the main committee. This was clear, because the opposition wished to expand the subcommittee meetings into the fall and winter. Clearly, that is beyond the power of this current committee, as anything may happen after the summer recess concludes.

Foreign Affairs committee  When you ask, as well, if we are becoming more like the United States, by an equally clear margin in the reverse direction Canadians say that in fact we are becoming more like the United States. As I mentioned earlier, when we do the comparisons through time, and with some of our value comparisons, which are consistent with the international literature, they suggest that the value differences separating Canadians and Americans are relatively modest and the differences are getting smaller, not larger.

Political Financing  Mr. Speaker, this is a very important topic. I wish we were dealing with the issue of campaign finance reform and electoral legislation as part of a broader agreement between the parties and, frankly, on the basis of the issue of fairness to all players. Unfortunately, the reality is that the government is bringing in legislation because of problems in the Liberal Party's image around corruption and scandals, and because of the struggle for power within the Liberal Party itself.

Finance committee  Based on Mr. Drummond's remarks, one might well believe that that was more the result of a lack of clear-sightedness, prudence, on the part of officials and investors. It is also possible that other interests were at stake. We don't yet know the reason, but we hope to discover it. Mr. Drummond, you said earlier that, at that point, it was entirely clear in your mind that buying asset-backed commercial paper was really too risky and that you naturally avoided, as it were, venturing into that.

Iraq  Mr. Speaker, let me go to a more precise question. Both Australia and Great Britain have stated that Saddam Hussein is in material breach of United Nations resolution 1441. As well, evidence is mounting that Saddam is blocking the work of the UN inspectors team as required by the resolution.

Iraq  Mr. Speaker, in 1998 the Prime Minister said: Make no mistake, Saddam's behaviour to date indicates that he will not honour diplomatic solutions so long as they are not accompanied by a threat of intervention. The least sign of weakness or hesitation on our part will be interpreted as incitement...We believe that Canada cannot stand on the sidelines in such a moment...Canada will be counted.

Iraq  Mr. Speaker, let me return to the Prime Minister's quote. He said: The least sign of weakness or hesitation...will be interpreted as incitement. The Prime Minister himself and his government have been waffling consistently on what to do in the past few weeks. He said: We believe that Canada cannot stand on the sidelines in such a moment...Canada will be counted.

International Trade committee  It's very clear that the Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress and in the government do not wish to grant a free trade agreement to the Government of Colombia, specifically to President Alvaro Uribe, for reasons of human rights, and they have said so.

International Trade committee  But in the case of Colombia, I feel that it is not, because it is good to make clear that in Colombia there are not two positions in the political struggle, that of the government and that of the armed forces, but rather three positions—even more, I would say—in these matters of Colombian political life.

Finance committee  I thought at the time that there was no value in that market and that it was a disaster. All that was very clear to us at that time, and I wonder why the others did not see the same thing. It's impossible for me to answer that, but you should put the question to the others.