Stephen Harper misled Canadians about Iraq role, opposition says

Bruce Campion-Smith & Tonda MacCharles
The Star: January 20, 2015

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.

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.

(read the full article at The Star)

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