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Mission creep-out

12 Months the operation will be extended, until March 30, 2016.

69 Canadian Special Operations Forces personnel involved as advisers on the ground in northern Iraq.

656 Sorties flown by Canadian aircraft over Iraq as of March 21.

120 Reconnaissance missions by Canadian aircraft. 

53 Canadian air strikes over Iraq, out of the coalition’s 1,631 so far.

$122 million Cost of deployment so far, though that number doesn’t include salaries of military personnel.

$67.4 million Humanitarian assistance provided by Canada to UN agencies.

5 million People displaced by war in Syria and Iraq 

Thousands Foreign fighters recruited by ISIS from Canada and other allied countries, according to the PMO.


The government’s rationale 

• “ISIS continues to present a serious threat to regional and global security, including a direct threat to Canadian citizens at home and abroad.”

• “ISIS’s barbaric actions in the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria…. It continues to target members of ethnic and religious communities, and has callously destroyed places of worship and irreplaceable archaeological sites.” 

• “Recent terrorist attacks in Canada, Australia, France and Denmark by radicalized individuals inspired by or suspected of having links to ISIS.”


Not mentioned in the government’s backgrounder 

• An operative with CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, in Turkey may have been involved in recruiting fighters for ISIS.

• We’re ramping up efforts, when experts agree that it’s time for diplomacy now that ISIS’s influence in Iraq is diminishing and the group is retreating into Syria. 

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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