Canada Joins-Up

From the BBC:
"Canada to join anti-Islamic State air strikes"

Canada plans to join the US-led campaign of air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, its government has said. A motion authorising the mission is expected to pass on Monday in the House of Commons. The six-month mission will include CF-18 fighter jets and refuelling and surveillance aircraft, but not ground troops. PM Stephen Harper said it was intended to "significantly degrade" IS.

Canada has more than two dozen military advisers already in Iraq.  The US has undertaken its own air strike campaign in Iraq for several weeks and in Syria for almost two weeks. The plan put forward in parliament by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird asks Canadian lawmakers to "recognise that the leadership of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has called on its members to target Canada and Canadians at home and abroad". Mr Harper said that if "left unchecked" IS could grow quickly. "As a government, we know our ultimate responsibility is to protect Canadians, and to defend our citizens from those who would do harm to us and to our families," he said, according to broadcaster CBC.  Such an air strike mission must be debated and voted on in Canada's Parliament, but Mr Harper's Conservative MPs have a majority of seats, so it is expected to pass. If the motion passes as expected, Canada will join a number of other countries that have joined the US in air strikes in either Syria or Iraq against IS, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UK and France. Australia and Turkey have recent authorised military force for similar missions.

^ It's good to see more and more countries coming together to fight ISIS. ^


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29483160