Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I am very grateful to the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for staying and for expressing gratitude that I raised the issue at this late hour.
I do still have concerns. In part of his remarks, he seemed to, as others have done in his government, conflate the issue of the domestic use of firearms with this treaty. We need to underscore this so that no one is confused about it.
This treaty has nothing to do with the domestic use of firearms and it has nothing to do with any kind of civilian ownership or domestic trade of firearms. It is specifically about ensuring effective regulation of international transfers of conventional weapons. As I said before, it applies to a range of military apparatus, including tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, small arms and light weapons.
We hear the stories of child soldiers and we know that the forced conscription of children into war zones is an appalling and immoral act. If we can control the international trade in these munitions, guns and armaments, we can protect those children and we can reduce conventional conflict in hotspots around the world.
I urge the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his government to ratify the treaty on June 3.
Deepak Obhrai: Mr. Speaker, I can understand the concern that the hon. member has expressed in reference to the international export of arms. We have one of the highest standards for exporting conventional arms.
However, when we are signing a convention internationally, it is important to ensure that it does not spill over into the domestic legislation that is currently in Canada. For that reason, we are in consultation with stakeholders. Canada has every intention to control the export of arms to rogue regimes, which she mentioned.
The member can rest assured that we will be working with stakeholders, but our goal in the end is to sign this treaty while making sure that it does not spill over into the domestic laws of this country.