“It is important to understand while air strike operations can be useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities.”
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Ending Canada’s bombing campaign, which was a Liberal Party pre-election promise, has drawn criticism from Trudeau’s Conservative rivals in Parliament, who say the country is abandoning its allies during a pivotal period for Iraq and Syria.
Indeed, the government’s new mission will actually put more Canadians in harm’s way, given the increased number of trainers to be deployed in Iraq.
“We think we ought to avoid doing precisely what our enemies want us to do: they want us to elevate them, to give in to fear, to indulge in hatred”, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference Monday.
With no major economic indicators due out this week, the focus will largely be on corporate earnings, a Bank of Canada deputy governor speech and an announcement early Monday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Ottawa will allocate $840 million over three years to provide food, shelter, health care, and other essentials.
Trudeau said his plan is more effective than the previous commitment. A source reported to Reuters last week that the United States, Britain and France were impatient with Ottawa over how long it has taken Trudeau to clarify Canada’s combat role.
Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, October 30, 2014, over Iraq.
Some two-thirds of Canadians polled recently, however, support the bombing mission or even want it to be expanded, in the wake of extremist attacks in Jakarta and in Burkina Faso that killed seven Canadians in January. “Canadians certainly deserve better”.
Trudeau described the new role as “a complete and robust mission that engages all different aspects of where Canada is good”.
The NDP accused the Liberals of “blurring the line” between combat and non-combat roles.
The Canadian government says it will contribute more than $1.6 billion Canadian (about $1.15 U.S.) over three years “towards its new approach to security, stabilization, humanitarian and development assistance in response to the crises in Iraq and Syria, and their impact on Jordan and Lebanon”.
Trudeau’s announcement comes days before Sajjan is due to leave for Brussels for a meeting with his North Atlantic Treaty Organisation counterparts on February 10-11.
The size of the training team in northern Iraq will triple in size.
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“There is no reason why we can not maintain our combat mission and our air strikes while at the same time expanding our efforts in other ways”, said Ms. Ambrose, who spent much of the afternoon at a news conference and in other interviews, including a lengthy appearance on CBC Power and Politics.
