The number of elite Canadian commandos helping to train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq will also jump from 69 to 230, bringing the total of Canadian soldiers deployed in the region from about 650 to about 830.
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He said the Canadian Armed Forces’ role going forward will involve “allocating more military resources to training Iraqi security forces”, as well as “empowering local forces to take their fight directly to ISIL”.
Last week, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said the announcement would include new aid funding.
Trudeau also said the government will enhance measures focused on stabilization, counterterrorism and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security programming in the region, dedicating $145 million to unnamed initiatives in these areas over the next three years.
The boost in humanitarian assistance and increased diplomatic efforts could also place more foreign service personnel, medical personnel, diplomats and other Canadians engaged in non-military aspects of the mission in harm’s way. In fact, the prime minister away from our proud traditions by taking our CF-18 and Canada with a combat role against the worst terrorist threat in the world, “Ambrose said”.
“I’m very comfortable that what we have before us is a mission that we can sustain over the long term”, said Jonathan Vance, chief of the defence staff. “And the people terrorized by ISIL every day don’t need our vengeance, they need our help”.
The military has said that during Canada’s decade of operations in Afghanistan, 158 Canadian Forces personnel died. However, Trudeau’s promise that Canada would pull its jets was already part of his winning campaign.
Canada is adding 180 soldiers and C$1.6 billion ($1.15 billion) in new aid and military spending to its fight against Islamic State militants, while withdrawing its planes from coalition airstrikes. “The only reason for this decision that anyone can point to is that it was done for political purposes in the heat of an election campaign”, Ambrose said. “Canadians certainly deserve better”.
He says the Liberals support what will be effective – “not for what will make us feel good to say at any given moment”.
The NDP accused the Liberals of “blurring the line” between combat and non-combat roles.
The U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman said in a statement, per the Toronto Star, that the Canadian government’s announcement was in “line with the coalition’s current needs”.
The Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan must attend a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member countries in Brussels on Wednesday.
Canada announced Monday that it will pull out of an air coalition bombing Daesh and replace its airplanes with more ground troops.
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The ongoing mission, known as Operation Impact, will be extended for another two years, with a review scheduled in March, 2017.
