Ottawa Bureau reporter, Published on Tue Jan 20 2015
OTTAWA—Revelations that Canadian soldiers in Iraq have seen front-line action is sparking renewed debate about the mission as opposition leaders say Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not come clean about the true role of the troops.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair on Tuesday point-blank accused Harper of misleading Canadians, saying the revelations that soldiers have been directing airstrikes and even exchanged gunfire with extremists calls into question the government’s promise of a “non-combat” mission.
“He told Canadians they would not be involved in combat. He did not tell the truth,” Mulcair said.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said the prime minister was not “forthright” about what the mission involved from the get-go.
“The prime minister made some statements in the fall around this mission that turn out today to not to have been entirely truthful,” Trudeau said.
NATIONAL DEFENCE
A photo released by National Defence shows Canadian special forces soldiers training an Iraqi soldier.
The two leaders were reacting to a Monday update by the Canadian Armed Forces that an elite team of soldiers on a training mission in Iraq have seen more front-line action than was previously disclosed.
This even though the soldiers were dispatched to northern Iraq last September on a mission to train Iraqi and Kurdish fighters with the pledge that they would not be involved in combat themselves.
Brig.-Gen Michael Rouleau, commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, told a briefing that Canadian soldiers have helped guide fighter jets to bomb targets, including using a laser to “designate” the target to ensure a precise hit.
“We are enabling coalition airstrikes within our area of operations,” Rouleau told a briefing Monday.
He denied that this role blurred the line of their non-combat mandate, saying the job of directing airstrikes was within their “advise and assist” role.
And he said the soldiers were forced to fire on extremists after being attacked during one of their forays to front-line areas.
Harper announced in September that a small team of 69 soldiers was being sent to Iraq for the non-combat mission. In October, the government extended that 30-day mission to six months and deployed aircraft to join the aerial combat mission.
“There will however be no ground combat mission which is explicitly ruled out in the resolution,” Harper said in the House of Commons on Oct. 3 as MPs prepared to vote on the mission.
Yet Mulcair suggested Tuesday that Canadian troops had crossed the line, given the previous assurances by Harper that the ground forces would not in “any way, shape or form” be involved in combat.
“Mr. Harper cannot get away with telling Canadians there will be no combat by our troops and then try to explain away the fact that they of course are being involved in combat,” the NDP leader said.
“Mr. Harper has not been honest with Canadians,” Mulcair said during a visit to Toronto.
Trudeau said the actual mission of special forces team is at odds with how it was laid out by the prime minister for Canadians last fall.
“The prime minister made assurances to Canadians and to the House that as we found out yesterday were not exactly the truth, and therefore the prime minister needs to come clean with Canadians on what’s going on,” said Trudeau, during a meeting of the Liberal caucus in London, Ont.
Harper’s office issued a statement Tuesday reiterating the government’s support for the multinational fight against the extremists.
“Unlike the Liberals and the NDP, who would prefer Canada sit on the sidelines while others do our fighting for us, we will continue supporting the international coalition in the fight against ISIL,” Harper spokesperson Jason MacDonald said in a statement, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
Both the Liberals and New Democrats voted against the parliamentary motion endorsing the deployment of troops and aircraft.
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