Harper describes expanded ISIL war motion, rejected by opposition parties
Posted Mar 24, 2015 01:52:46 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s proposal to expand and extend Canada’s war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been summarily rejected by both opposition parties.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says his party will vote against the government’s motion, which seeks to extend the Iraq mission by as much as a year and clear the way for airstrikes in Syria.
Trudeau says the Conservative government is proposing little more than a vague, open-ended war in both countries.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, whose party has long said it would oppose the motion, says the government misled the country about the mission from the outset last October.
Both Mulcair and Trudeau say expanding airstrikes across the border will only benefit Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime.
In a statement today in the House of Commons, Harper says the terrorist group’s power base, heavy military equipment and capital is located across the border from northern Iraq.
The new government motion detailing that proposed expansion also seeks Parliament’s blessing to extend the mission “to a date not beyond March 30, 2016.”
The motion is to be introduced later today by Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson.
Harper says ISIL’s hold on territory remains “substantial” and that it remains “far from an idle threat,” as illustrated by attacks in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
The motion, to eventually be voted on by members of Parliament, will be debated beginning on Thursday. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair responded to Harper’s statement by reaffirming that his party would vote against the motion.
Harper says Canadians did not invite the threat of “jihadi terrorism” but understand the importance of confronting it.
