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Dan-in-Ottawa

ISIS: Mission in flux

This week is a constituency week: The House of Commons is not sitting after having been in session for the previous two weeks. The House will resume next week for a three week session until the next constituency week. For the sake of interest between now and the House adjourning on June 23rd for the summer recess, there will be a total of six constituency weeks and thirteen sitting weeks remaining. 

What happens during a constituency week? Contrary to the opinion of some, a constituency week is not a holiday for MPs or MLAs. Constituency weeks provide opportunities to meet with local citizens, as well as other groups and organizations in a Member’s home riding. 

Constituency weeks also provide opportunities for Government Ministers, as well as Opposition critics, to travel into different regions of Canada to attend similar meetings. 

In some cases, Government may also make announcements relevant to certain areas. We learned this week that the Government may choose to announce a major policy change during a constituency week, as was the case when Prime Minister Trudeau finally announced a new policy on Canada’s mission against the terror group ISIS.

As was promised by the Liberals during the election, and also announced this week, our CF-18 fighters that have been part of the allied air coalition against ISIS will be withdrawn and returned to Canada. 

However, these will be the only aircraft withdrawn, as our Polaris refueling and Aurora surveillance aircraft will remain in the region to assist the continued bombing operations by our coalition partners. 

In addition, the current 69 members of our Armed Forces who are on the ground providing training and assistance with bombing activities will be increased almost threefold to 230 soldiers. 

Another change is that small arms and related ammunition will now be provided to Iraqi security forces, along with the deployment of Canadian helicopters, to provide medical evacuations. 

Over and above these changes, the current humanitarian aid currently provided to the region will be increased. As a result, the total cost of the new mission is estimated to increase up to $1.6 Billion, in total, over the next three years.

My thoughts? It is disappointing that the Prime Minister did not make this announcement in the House of Commons, where the original mission was announced on March 24th of 2015. 

An announcement in the House allows the Opposition to directly question the Government, providing an opportunity to respond while also ensuring that the Prime Minister’s comments are on the official record. 

Why is this important? During his response speech to the current mission announced last year, Justin Trudeau, then leader of the third opposition party, stated (and I quote directly), “We can, and we should, provide that training far from the front lines.” 

In reality, and as confirmed by Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance, under the new Liberal announced plan our training soldiers will continue working near the front lines ‘painting targets’ that, in turn, will be bombed by our allied coalition partners.

This raises another point of concern. Canada will continue to provide reconnaissance aircraft to locate targets, as well as aerial tankers so allied bombers can reach those targets, and, finally, troops on the ground to paint the targets to be bombed. This demonstrates the critical importance of aerial bombing to this mission. 

Yet, while Canada remains implicitly and actively involved in the bombing of ISIS, the withdrawal of our CF-18s in essence suggests that we support our allies doing this heavy lifting, but no longer stand shoulder to shoulder carrying an equal load, as has always been the Canadian way.

I welcome your thoughts, questions and comments on this or any subject before the House of Commons. I can be reached at [email protected] or toll free at 1.800.665.8711.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

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About the Author

Dan Albas is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola and the co-chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.

Before entering public life, Dan was the owner of Kick City Martial Arts, responsible for training hundreds of men, women and youth to bring out their best.

Dan  is consistently recognized as one of Canada’s top 10 most active Members of Parliament on Twitter (@danalbas) and also continues to write a weekly column published in many local newspapers and on this website.

Dan welcomes comments, questions and concerns from citizens and is often available to speak to groups and organizations on matters of federal concern. 

He can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free at 1-800-665-8711.



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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