Canada's role in U.S. 'degrade and destroy' Iraq mission against ISIS: James Bezan
It was billed as a chance to provide Canadians with some clarity on our new military mission in Iraq. But after two hours, during a special hearing of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs walked away having revealed few details about what role Canada's special operations soldiers may play in the fight against ISIS.
What did become clear was that Canada came to be involved because of a request from U.S. President Barack Obama.
"There was a request and discussions between the United States and Canada about having Canadian participation in this military effort to bring increased security within Iraq and protect the ethnic and religious minorities," confirms James Bezan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, to Carol.
But will Canada eventually participate in a combat role in the U.S. "degrade and destroy" mission to defeat ISIS in Northern Iraq?
"We're there on our own military leadership," he continues. "We're there right now on a 30-day deployment, it's a non-combat role... after 30 days we will evaluate on how we're doing in meeting mission targets. But at this point in time, we're not committing to that type of military mission as what has been said that the American government is going to do."