Mr. Speaker, on the weekend I had an opportunity to speak to a soldier from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa who had served several rotations in Afghanistan. He urged me not to go forth with an inquiry on this issue. He said that every time the Afghan deployment is debated in Parliament, it puts the lives of our soldiers in theatre at greater risk. He recounted that when the motion to withdraw from Afghanistan or to end the combat mission in 2011 was before Parliament, they were in a operation where they heard the insurgents on the radio saying to each other that they should kill as many Canadian soldiers as possible because we were debating this in the House of Commons and that when Canadians saw the caskets of soldiers coming off the plane it increased public pressure. They wanted the MPs to vote to get out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible.
\nI asked him if they listened to Al Jazeera while they were fighting at the front, so to speak, and he said, \u201cNo, ma'am. We heard this chatter on our coms\u201d. So they had heard Taliban talking to one another, urging each other to kill as many Canadian soldiers as possible. He credits the leader of the NDP directly for the death of his best friend as a consequence of that.
", "fr": "Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident, la fin de semaine derni\u00e8re, j'ai eu l'occasion de m'entretenir avec un soldat de la base des Forces canadiennes de Petawawa qui a servi \u00e0 plusieurs reprises en Afghanistan. Il m'a suppli\u00e9 de ne pas lancer une enqu\u00eate sur cette question. Il a dit que chaque fois que le Parlement discutait du d\u00e9ploiement des soldats en Afghanistan, cela faisait courir des risques accrus aux soldats sur place. Il a soulign\u00e9 qu'au moment o\u00f9 nous avons discut\u00e9 de la motion visant \u00e0 retirer les troupes d'Afghanistan ou de mettre fin \u00e0 la mission de combat en 2011, ils \u00e9taient en op\u00e9ration dans des endroits o\u00f9 ils pouvaient entendre les insurg\u00e9s se dire sur les ondes qu'ils devraient tuer le plus de soldats canadiens possible parce que nous discutions de cette motion \u00e0 la Chambre des communes et que lorsque les Canadiens voyaient les cercueils des soldats descendre de l'avion, cela accroissait la pression publique. Ils voulaient que les d\u00e9put\u00e9s appuient le retrait des troupes d'Afghanistan le plus rapidement possible.
\nJe lui ai demand\u00e9 s'il \u00e9coutait Al Djazira sur le front et il m'a r\u00e9pondu: \u00ab Non madame, nous avons entendu ces propos sur nos ondes. \u00bb Ils avaient entendu les talibans discuter ensemble et exhorter leurs coll\u00e8gues \u00e0 tuer le plus grand nombre de soldats possible. Il attribue d'ailleurs la mort de son meilleur ami aux propos du chef du NPD.
"}, "url": "/debates/2009/12/1/cheryl-gallant-1/", "politician_url": "/politicians/cheryl-gallant/", "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/1416/", "procedural": false, "source_id": "2989729", "h1": {"en": "Government Orders", "fr": ""}, "h2": {"en": "Business of Supply", "fr": ""}, "h3": {"en": "Transfer of Afghan Detainees", "fr": ""}, "document_url": "/debates/2009/12/1/", "related": {"document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2009%2F12%2F1%2F"}}