OTTAWA, Canada - As coalition forces intensify air strikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, the position of Canada’s Liberal Party appears to be changing in favor of the country’s involvement in the war.
Marc Garneau, a veteran Liberal Party politician and former runner for its leadership, told Canada’s CBC TV last week that his party supported sending 69 Special Forces soldiers to train the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi forces.
“The part we had a problem with was the involvement of the CF-18s, and the reason for that was we had nine other countries providing strike aircraft. It was overkill,” he said “There were better ways to use Canadian military resources.”
The Liberal Party voted against Canada’s involvement in the fight against ISIS last October. Party leader Justine Trudeau maintained at the time that Ottawa should focus more on providing humanitarian aid to refugees.
This subtle shift in the position of the Liberals comes at a time when a poll conducted by Ipsos Reid last week showed that 76 percent of Canadians “support the use of Canadian Forces fighter jets in the international coalition’s airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq.”
Last October Canada sent six F-18s plus air surveillance and a refueling aircraft to Iraq and was the first country to undertake the transportation of foreign arms supplies to the Kurdish Peshmerga in Erbil.
With Canada’s general elections coming up this October, leaders of the Liberal party want to keep on the side of public opinion.
One Canadian citizen privately supporting his country’s military involvement against ISIS is former soldier Brandon Glossop.
The National Post newspaper wrote on Monday that Glossop, 26, left his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta last week to join the Kurdish forces in the fight against ISIS.
“I can confirm that he’s over there somewhere,” the newspaper quoted his father as saying, without providing further details.
Glossop is now believed to have crossed the border from the Kurdistan Region to join the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syrian Kurdistan, known as Rojava.
Glossop is the second Canadian veteran to fight ISIS alongside the Kurds.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed a new anti-terror bill in parliament earlier this month that would extend the power of the country’s security police to track down suspected terrorists and Canadian citizens traveling abroad to join extremist groups.
However, Ottawa does not have any laws in place for citizens fighting against ISIS.
“We encourage Canadians who want to join the fight against genocidal terrorist organizations like ISIL to join the Canadian Armed Forces, who are having a real impact in degrading the capability of ISIL,” Jason Kenney who became Canada’s defense minister this month said in a statement on Monday.
“We discourage Canadians from traveling to the region themselves, and obviously cannot guarantee their safety,” he added.
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