Tuesday, February 9, 2016

February 8, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, February 9, 2016

ISIS airstrikes by Canada to end by Feb. 22, training forces to triple

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will cease all coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by Feb. 22, while it beefs up its military efforts, including the number of special forces deployed on the ground to train Iraqi forces for the next two years.

Interim Conservative Party leader Rona Ambrose said this is a “step backward.”

“It is important to understand that while airstrike operations can be very useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities,” Trudeau said during an announcement in Ottawa on Monday where he was accompanied by National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and the Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau.

“Canadians learned this lesson first-hand during a very difficult decade in Afghanistan, where our forces became expert military trainers renowned around the world.”

Harper’s retreat in 2009

Trudeau said while Canada will pull its six fighter jets from the bombing mission, it will also triple, from 69, the number of Canadian Forces members helping train local ground troops to fight ISIS in northern Iraq. It will also increase by 230 the 600 Canadian Armed Forces members deployed as part coalition mission.

Canada’s new contribution to the global fight against ISIS will also include:

Maintaining aircrew and support personnel for one CC-150 Polaris aerial refuelling aircraft and up to two CP-140 Aurora aerial surveillance aircraft.
$840 million in humanitarian assistance over three years.
$270 million over three years to “build local capacity” in Jordan and Lebanon, where there are a large number of refugees.
An increased diplomatic presence in the region.

In a written statement, Ambrose called Canada’s withdrawal from the bombing mission against ISIS a “step backward for Canada.”

“Today, in his first major foreign policy decision, the prime minister has shown that Canada is not ‘back.’ In fact, this prime minister is taking a shameful step backward from our proud traditions by pulling our CF-18s and Canada out of a combat role against the greatest terror threat in the world,” she said in the statement.

Ambrose said increasing the number of special forces in a training capacity and the additional humanitarian assistance “are only designed to distract Canadians from the withdrawal of our CF-18s.” (Source: CBC News)

Tuesday January 19, 2016

January 18, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 19, 2016

Trudeau’s silence on terrorism is deafening

It’s early still in the life of this government. Yet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Grits closing in on 100 days since their Oct. 19 electoral triumph, a pattern begins to emerge. It’s one that does the new regime and its leader little credit. It smacks of an inability or unwillingness to perceive sentiment beyond the urban Liberal echo chamber. It bespeaks a lack of imagination — including an inability to imagine threats to the government’s capacity to endure and succeed long-term. Tunnel vision and obduracy are not supposed to set in quite so soon.

Let’s begin with this: Trudeau’s Achilles heel. Every politician seems to have one. For this PM, for the longest time, it was his tendency to blurt silly things about serious geopolitical issues at inopportune times. There was his tone-deaf statement in an interview with the CBC that the Boston Marathon bombers must have felt excluded; his offhand praise of China’s system of government; his curious joke about the Russians invading Ukraine over hockey. Most memorably, there was the juvenile quip about former prime minister Stephen Harper whipping out Canada’s CF-18s to “show them how big they are.”

That series of gaffes, combined with Trudeau’s decision in the fall of 2014 to vote against Canadian participation in the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, was a factor in the collapse in public support that led to the Liberals entering last year’s election campaign an underdog. That they recovered and won resoundingly is a testament to Trudeau’s political skills and the quality of the campaign he ran. None of that mitigates that his perceived instincts and judgment about foreign policy — especially as concerns the war against Islamist, jihadist terrorism — are his greatest weakness.

Tonally this manifests as an inability, or unwillingness, to emit more than the minimum necessary wattage in public responses to terrorist atrocities perpetrated by ISIL and its fellow travellers. That was on display immediately after the massacre in Paris last November. It was on display again this past weekend, in the aftermath of Islamist killing sprees in Jakarta, Indonesia and Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso, that left seven Canadians dead. (Continued: Michael Den Tandt, Postmedia)

Thursday November 19, 2015

November 18, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 19, 2015

Fact Check: Will the return of the long-form census save money?

The voluntary process actually cost an additional $22 million. Making it mandatory will actually make it less expensive, (and) it will be on budget and on time.” — Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains

The Trudeau Liberals, in one of their first acts in government, brought back the long-form census.

Bains proclaimed the decision wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything more than what is already budgeted for the 2016 census. Indeed, the minister, who oversees Statistics Canada, said taxpayers are likely to save some cash with the return of the mandatory, long-form census.

Will Statistics Canada save money with the return of the mandatory questionnaire?

Spoiler alert: The Canadian Press Baloney Meter is a dispassionate examination of political statements culminating in a ranking of accuracy on a scale of “no baloney” to “full of baloney” (complete methodology through this link).

This one receives a finding of “a little baloney” — it is largely accurate about the mandatory census costing less than the voluntary survey, but there are details missing that would help determine the actual savings figure.

The government will save money because the mandatory survey is less costly to administer than the voluntary version, experts say.

“There are at least a couple of significant reasons why there would be savings” Fellegi said. “I mean, not gobs of money, but savings.”

The savings start with the number of people hired to help with the census. For the 2016 census, Statistics Canada is hiring 1,400 people for the data centre that processes responses.

Statistics Canada needs all those bodies to handle answers and followup with Canadians who don’t fill in the form either because they didn’t want to, forgot to, or misplaced it. Doug Norris, who spent nearly 30 years at Statistics Canada, said the agency will need fewer bodies with a mandatory survey going to fewer homes.

“Followup is extremely expensive,” Norris said.

The return of the mandatory long-form census is likely to cause some savings over at Statistics Canada. Just how much is tough to say. For that reason, the statement of savings has “a little baloney” — the statement is mostly accurate, but more information would be helpful to determine how much the agency will save.

There could also be wider economic benefits from the return of the long-form census: Better quality data could reduce costs for municipalities and school boards, for instance, when it comes to planning for future growth, said Kevin Milligan, an economist at the University of British Columbia.

And Charles Beach, a retired economics professor at Queen’s University, said that kind of data is worth it even if the 2016 census ends up costing more than the 2011 version. (Source: CTV News)

Tuesday November 17, 2015

November 16, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 17, 2015

Justin Trudeau says Canada will ‘do its part’ in anti-ISIS coalition

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will “do its part” in the military fight against ISIS, but remains committed to withdrawing warplanes from the mission.

During a news conference at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, Trudeau said Friday’s attacks in Paris will not prompt the government to reverse course on a plan to pull out Canada’s fighter jets.

Instead, Canada will step up training of local troops, he said.

“I know that Canada will continue to, and be seen to be continuing to, do its part in the fight against this terrorist scourge,” he said.

The Liberal platform during the campaign for the recent federal election committed to end the combat mission and “refocus” on training local forces in Iraq.

Trudeau said that commitment remains, but he has not set a timetable for when Canada will withdraw from the U.S.-led air combat mission.

“We made a clear commitment in the campaign to stop the bombing mission by Canadian jets and replace it with a role for Canada that is still a serious military role, but leaned more towards training of local troops to be able to bring the fight directly to ISIL,” he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “That’s the commitment we made very clearly throughout the campaign and we have a mandate to do that.”

On Sunday, two of Canada’s fighter jets were involved in a strike against an ISIS fighting position in Iraq, according to the Department of National Defence.

The G20 leaders released a joint statement at the G20 summit, calling the attacks in Paris “an unacceptable affront to all humanity” and reaffirming solidarity in the fight against terrorism as a major priority.

The statement says counterterror actions must be part of a comprehensive approach that includes fighting radicalization and recruitment, hampering terrorist movements and preventing terrorists from exploiting the internet.

“The direct or indirect encouragement of terrorism, the incitement of terrorist acts and glorification of violence must be prevented,” the statement reads. “We recognize the need at all levels Justin Trudeau says Canada will ‘do its part’ in anti-ISIS coalitionto work proactively to prevent violent extremism and support civil society in engaging youth and promoting inclusion of all members of society.” (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday April 1, 2015

March 31, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 1, 2015

Is Canada’s ISIS mission ready for Syria’s moral maze?

In all of Canada’s long military history, we’ve likely never known less about a territory we are about to attack than the Syria we’re going to bomb from on high.

We’re not alone in that ignorance as virtually no one today can figure out the full scale of the explosive, antagonist-rich tinderbox and moral disaster zone that is present day Syria.

Certainly not the U.S., nor the few Arab countries that will be our sole allies in bombing the ISIS operations there.

Our normal Western allies in these kinds of operations, including the British, French, Dutch, Danes and Australians, fear Syria is an impenetrable maze of horrors and want nothing to do with such attacks.

When British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to lead his country into bombing Syria in 2013, the U.K. Parliament acted as if he’d lost his marbles. A free vote of MPs roared a resounding “no way.”

To put it squarely, there is a democratic and Western world consensus — minus only the U.S. and Canada — that feels military attacks on Syria are far too risky for military, political, legal and, yes, even moral reasons.

The moral objections may seem surprising at first, for surely there is “moral clarity,” as Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson puts it, in attacking the murderous ISIS regime almost anywhere you find them.

The problem, however, is that it is not at all clear that Canadian attacks inside Syria won’t make a chaotic situation even more deadly for innocent civilians.

For example, many argue that Western airstrikes would only help and embolden the Assad dictatorship, whose crimes against humanity probably surpass even ISIS itself. (Source: CBC News)