FAAE Committee Report

December 28, 2007.

DISSENTING OPINION submitted by CPC Members

CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL POLICY PUT TO THE TEST IN AFGHANISTAN:
A PRELIMINARY REPORT

On December 13, 2007, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (SCFAID) passed a Motion supporting a report entitled, Canada’s International Policy Put to the Test in Afghanistan: A Preliminary Report.      

The Government members of the committee did not vote for the motion on which the preliminary report is predicated because of the following objections:

First, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) committee members have consistently maintained that the mission in Afghanistan merits serious and fulsome discussion executed in a manner that respects the importance of all aspects of the mission.  As such, CPC members would be remiss to support a preliminary report that, by virtue of its unrealistic timeframe, prohibited any level of thorough and rigorous analysis of the evidence; not only is there an intention to invite more witnesses to appear before SCFAID but the possibility also exists that the committee may travel to Afghanistan, among other possible options on studying Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. 

Second, the motion that yielded this preliminary report required the report to be merely and purely a summation of facts obtained from evidence already presented before the committee.  The report as passed by SCFAID, through a combined opposition vote, was not a neutral representation of facts but was a report peppered with implicit recommendations and editorials many with which the committee could not agree.  By definition preliminary, implies something that is a work in progress.  Therefore, the inclusion of recommendations, whether implicit or explicit, would be premature as the committee’s study of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan will be continuing in 2008.

Third, CPC committee members share the view that this intended preliminary report was not assigned due time to create an accurate and full summation of the evidence placed before the committee thus far.  Instead, it was rushed through without adequate debate, reflective of the efforts by opposition party members to act in a clearly partisan direction.   

For these broad reasons, the CPC members cannot support the preliminary report as it currently reads.  CPC members of the committee direct readers to review the evidence contained in the transcripts of the meetings held thus far during the committee's Study of Canada's Mission in Afghanistan at the website:
http://parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/CommitteeHome.aspx?Cmte=FAAE&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2