executive news summary/sommaire des nouvelles nationales
N ATIONAL N EWS E XECUTIVE S UMMARY / S OMMAIRE DES NOUVELLES NATIONALES
ADM(PA) / SMA(AP)
April 1, 2011 / le 1 avril 2011
CDS / CEM
Military Reorganization and Provost Marshal Authority
A military reorganization will increase the authority and power of the CF provost marshal. Critics say the reorganization should have been done long ago and could have prevented the Afghan prisoner issue from becoming a scandal. Changes were ordered by CDS Gen. Walt Natynczyk last summer. All military police will now report to the provost marshal, instead of a local commander. Col Tim Grubb, the current pr ovost marshal, said: “What it will do is allow us a bit more oversight on general policing duties in a place like Kandahar Airfield or Kabul to identify something that is more serious that needs to be examined and reach in with a bit more agility .” Col Grubb said he could not speculate on whether the new system would
have prevented the prisoner issue (M. Brewster: CG A7 ).
M ILITARY P OLICE C OMPLAINTS C OMMISSION / C OMMISSION D ' EXAMEN DES PLAINTES
CONCERNANT LA POLICE MILITAIRE
Election and Afghan Detainee Issue: Comment
Chris Selley: Among the issues that could make the election exciting is the Afghan detainee matter.
Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc says we may soon be treated to a significant document dump pertaining to
Afghan detainee abuse. It would allow the Liberals to focus on government bumbling and would allow the
Conservatives to call opposition politicians Taliban-lovers ( NP A12 ).
Kate Heartfield’s column about the Afghan detainee issue was reprinted ( VTC A10 ).
C ANADA IN A FGHANISTAN / L E C ANADA EN A FGHANISTAN
Police Training in Afghanistan
A group of Canadian police chiefs has just wrapped up a short visit to Afghanistan to help prepare for
Canada's upcoming training mission. The training mission, which will involve both army and police, is to
RLP C11, NBTJ A8).
An RCMP deputy commissioner in Afghanistan said the greatest challenge for police participating in
Canada's upcoming training mission in Afghanistan will be building trust between the Afghan police and
locals (T. Brautigam: HCH B5 ).
Injured
Soldier’s Recovery
Coverage profiled the recovery of Cpl Jared Gagnon, who was seriously injured in Afghanistan (N. Lees:
CF Operations in Libya / Opérations des FC en Libye
NATO Operations in Libya
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told U.S. lawmakers about 20 to 25 per cent of
Gadhafi's military had been knocked out by NATOled bombing, but “that does not mean he's about to break from a military standpoint.” U.S., British, French, Canadian, Danish and Belgian jets have attacked
Gadhafi's ground forces since Marc h 19 under a UN mandate to use “all necessary measures” to protect
civilians. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out arming the rebel forces ( Reuters
Rebels in Libya welcomed the possibility that they could be provided with weapons by the US. However, a spokesperson said too big a foreign role could be damaging to their efforts. NATO also said it is
investigating a report that bombing killed as many as 40 civilians (A. Dziadosz: Gaz A19 ).
NATO said it had assumed full command of military operations over Libya. Canadian LGen Charled
Bouchar d said: “The transition has been seamless, with no gaps.” NATO officials say alliance planning foresees a 90-day operation, but the timetable will depend on the United Nations ( Reuters
LGen Bouchard warned that Libyan rebels will be subject to NATO bombing if they attack civilians. NATO
spokesperson Oana Lungescu noted that the issue was hypothetical (D. Melvin and S. Lekic: SJT C8 ,
HCH B2).
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff both agreed that Canada should not send ground troops into Libya. NDP Leader Jack Layton expressed concern that the mission is
moving toward the use of ground troops (M. Dunn: ESun 22
Bouchard prend les rênes
Le nouveau commandant des opérations militaires en Libye a averti, jeudi, que quiconque s'en prendrait
à des civils serait mal avisé de continuer. Le lieutenant-général canadien Charles Bouchard a ajouté qu'il allait s e pencher sur des informations voulant que des frappes de la coalition aient fait 40 victimes à
Tripoli. Quelques heures après que l'OTAN eut pris les rênes de la mission, le lieutenant-général
Bouchard a indiqué que plus de 100 avions de combat et appareils de soutien avaient été déployés pour s'assurer du respect de la zone d'exclusion aérienne décrétée en Libye et pour éviter la mort de civils. Le lieutenantgénéral Bouchard a affirmé que le transfert de la responsabilité de la mission s'était effectué s
ans l'interruption des opérations ( Qt 24 ).
CF Operations in Libya: Comment
Saskatoon StarPhoenix editorial: There are good reasons for Canada to be involved in the NATO mission over Libya. But any time Canada is dropping bombs, killing people and endangering its military personnel, it deserves more than off-the-shelf statements from its political leaders on the campaign trail. The West badly needs this little adventure to end soon, in its favour. It is ironic that Canada's newest war seems to
Election and Operations in Libya: Comment
Dan Gardner: One of the most difficult and important problems confronting the international community is what to do when a government turns its guns on its own people. In Libya, Canada and other countries chose military intervention. Yet, the hardly anyone on the election trail has said a word about Libya or anything beyond our b
orders. There’s little chance that anyone will ( Ctz A11 ).
O THERS / A UTRES
Amnesty International Criticism of Canada
Amnesty International says Canada has lost its standing as a world leader in pressing for human rights, in part by taking a one-sided view on Middle East rights issues. Among the concerns raised was a reluctance to sign new UN rights declarations, avoiding accountability for the treatment of detainees in
Afghanistan. Fen Hampson, a foreign policy analyst at Carleton University, thinks Amnesty is exaggerating Canada's global loss of reputation, he said, but at least until the Libya mission it was not
seen in recent years as a leader on human security issues (C. Clark: G&M A6 ).
Section: Canada
Byline: Murray Brewster
Outlet: The Guardian (Charlottetown)
Headline: Military's top cop gets more clout in aftermath of prisoner scandal
Page: A7
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: OTTAWA -
Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS
The military's top cop will gain greater authority and power in a quiet reorganization that takes effect today, The Canadian Press has learned.
The changes will see all military police report directly to the Canadian Forces provost marshal in a shuffle that critics say should have been done long ago and could have prevented the Afghan prisoner controversy from becoming a scandal.
At the heart of the abuse debate was the question of whether military police should have investigated reports that Afghan jailers might have tortured prisoners handed over by Canadian troops.
Critics said repeatedly throughout public hearings into the abuse allegations that military police in Afghanistan, who reported to the local commander, were in a conflict of interest and should have had more independence.
There were also complaints that the provost marshal did not have the overall authority to direct all military cops.
Changes were ordered by Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk last summer. All military police will now report to the provost marshal, instead of a local commander.
"What it will do is allow us a bit more oversight on general policing duties in a place like
Kandahar Airfield or Kabul to identify something that is more serious that needs to be examined and reach in with a bit more agility," said Col. Tim Grubb, the current provost marshal.
Previously, Grubb only had direct authority over the National Investigative Service, which conducts criminal probes in the military.
Cops performing general police duties, such as prisoner management and security, reported to the task force commanders and could only receive "technical advice" from the provost marshal.
Grubb said he couldn't speculate on whether the new system would have prevented the prisoner scandal. He did say it would have provided "more clarity" for the police who were on the ground when the army began handing over prisoners in 2006.
"It certainly would have placed more emphasis on that particular issue," Grubb said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
The lawyer for Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, whose complaint prompted a public inquiry by the Military Police Complaints Commission, said he wonders why the changes are happening now.
"It's impossible not draw a direct connection between this and detainee scandal," said Paul
Champ.
Section: Editorials
Byline: Chris Selley
Outlet: National Post
Headline: Making the leaders squirm; Voter subsidies, Afghan detainees and polygamy should all be discussed
Page: A12
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: National Post
The first week of the federal election campaign has been a hodge-podge of predictable, inoffensive policy proposals. Things will naturally get hotter as May 2 approaches. But at least two very spicy issues that won't be in any of the platforms, and another that may or may not be in the Conservatives', could soon force their way into the discussion. Two will be dictated partially by events (more on those in a minute), while the third will only be talked about if the parties so desire. They should so desire, and the sooner the better -not just because it's important, but because when this particular issue arrives by stealth, Canadian politics goes cuckoo bananas.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he'll table the same budget to start off the 41st Parliament as he did to finish off the 40th, and Michael Ignatieff says he'll oppose it again. This fits well into the "OMG Coalition!" narrative -even if it is crumbling under the weight of the Conservatives' hypocrisy, and its own stultifying tedium. Tories win election, table budget; opposition gangs up to defeat it. It's December 2008 all over again.
But the best news about Mr. Flaherty's pledge, if we take it at face value, is that the budget won't contain a hastily added proposal to beggar the opposition parties by eliminating the per-vote taxpayer subsidy -which was, let's face it, the biggest single reason we got the coalition. That's good news, because it allows us to have a rational discussion -relative to the last one, at least about funding political parties.
Personally, I find the subsidy offensive. If I wanted to donate to a party, as opposed to hold my nose and mark an X beside its candidate for reasons that are entirely my own, I'd donate to the damn party. It's not hard to do. That said, I suspect few Canadians would wish a return to the era of big business and union donations.
Luckily, there are any number of possible replacement schemes, perhaps including a modest hike to personal donation limits and a donation opt-in box on our tax returns. In a study last year,
University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan concluded neither would be likely to make up the difference. But then, he also noted that the per-vote subsidy was supposed to be
"more or less revenue-neutral," and has instead left the parties "at least 50% better off than they had been in previous years." So how's that for an idea: If parties can't raise the money, they should spend less. Maybe they could consider spending an entire day campaigning in a single time zone, for example. Craziness, I know.
Two other issues that might help turn this korma of an election into a vindaloo are less about money, but no less existential. Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc says we may soon be treated to a significant document dump pertaining to Afghan detainee abuse -a file on which Conservative
defence ministers have a notable record of embarrassing themselves. If the documents land, and if they provide further evidence of prisoners captured by Canadians being abused, and if the
Liberals remember to focus not on the abuse itself but on the government's bumbling and mendacity, it will lend itself perfectly to a campaign about how we are being governed. It will also lend itself perfectly to Conservatives calling opposition politicians Taliban-lovers.
Then there's polygamy, an issue that politicians traditionally hope will go away if they're very, very quiet. Not anymore. By April 15, the British Columbia Supreme Court should have heard closing arguments in its landmark reference case considering the constitutionality of Canada's law against "any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time." Recently presented evidence suggesting at least 30 underage girls have been trafficked between polygamous communities in Canada and the United States have made for justifiably large headlines and visceral public disgust. Nobody has no opinion on polygamy, and those opinions do not divide predictably along ideological or political lines. If reporters travelling with Mr.
Harper and Mr. Ignatieff feel like throwing a curveball, they might ask if they'd invoke the notwithstanding clause to keep polygamy illegal and watch them squirm.
It's time to kick this campaign into a higher gear. cselley@nationalpost.com
Section: Comment
Byline: Kate Heartfield
Outlet: Times Colonist (Victoria)
Headline: Afghan detainees a bigger contempt issue
Page: A10
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: Times Colonist
The two findings of contempt against the government this spring don't bother me as much as the finding of contempt it managed to duck almost a year ago.
Remember the detainee documents? The ones that might answer the question of whether
Canadian officials knowingly sent Afghans to face a substantial risk of torture?
A year is a long time in politics. Memories are short. That's how politicians get away with stuff.
Here's a recap. In December 2009, after months of disturbing but incomplete information trickling out in a committee, the House of Commons passed a motion ordering the government to release uncensored documents on the handling of Afghan detainees. The government, arguing that releasing the documents would compromise national security, said no.
When the Afghanistan committee met on Dec. 15, the Conservative members just chose not to go, arguing the issue was not "urgent" enough to interfere with the Christmas season (a season that begins earlier for MPs than for most of us, apparently).
At the end of that month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for the second year in a row. MPs didn't get back to work until March, ostensibly so they could pay attention to the Olympics.
In a privilege ruling once MPs finally got back to work, Speaker Peter Milliken said it would be a "signal failure" if the two sides proved they lacked "the will or the wit to find a solution to this impasse."
So last May, the parties agreed to have a panel of three judges review the documents and advise a special committee, in secret, on how to disclose bits of them to the public. All involved agreed it was a great day for democracy. Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale called it "a victory for
Parliament and Canadians" and Harper said "it's a good day for Parliament."
The NDP pulled out of the special committee process early on, and have kept insisting the only way to get at the truth is to hold a public inquiry. Now, Gilles Duceppe has threatened to pull the
Bloc Québécois out of the process if there isn't a release of documents by April 15.
There are valid reasons why the process has taken this long. The stack of documents is enormous, and one of the judges on the panel, Donald Brenner, died recently.
But whatever the reasons and even if we assume, generously, that all parties involved in creating the process had the best of intentions, the fact remains that we are in an election campaign with the question of Canadian involvement in torture way, way off the agenda.
This lends some weight to NDP leader Jack Layton's assessment of the document-vetting process as a "charade." It was never the wonderful solution that the Tories and Liberals said it would be.
It only succeeded in shutting everybody up.
That could change before election day. Liberal defence critic Dominic LeBlanc has said he thinks there will be a release of documents on or before Duceppe's mid-April deadline. Liberal
Bryon Wilfert, a member of the committee, says, "I'm definitely feeling confident about the release of information. Conservative committee member Laurie Hawn agrees, calling the process
"enlightening."
Whether the documents come out or not, voters should consider how the parties have dealt with the question. The government barely bothered to conceal its contempt for Canadians' intelligence. (Christmas and the Olympics? Seriously? I mean, make an effort.)
It's quite possible the Conservatives have nothing to hide on the detainee issue. They've just got into a habit of secrecy and arrogance that might be the only thing standing between them and a majority.
As with nearly every challenge this government has faced, it's not the allegations themselves that are so damaging to its credibility, but its reaction. If Canada, under Liberal or Conservative prime ministers, made mistakes in its treatment of detainees, we'll deal with that and learn from it. If individuals need to be held to account, so be it. And if we did everything perfectly, great.
Let's get that onto the record and clear our country's name.
And if there is something in those documents that suggests either Liberal or Conservative indifference or incompetence on the detainee-transfer file, the voters need to know that, and know the reactions of the party leaders -especially the supposed human-rights expert Michael
Ignatieff -before they go to the polls on May 2. kheartfield@ottawacitizen.com
Section: News
Byline: Keith Gerein
Outlet: Edmonton Journal
Illustrations:
Keith Gerein, The Journal, Postmedia News / Commandant Mario Fournier, left, of Montreal,
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair, Assistant RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson, Ontario Provincial
Police Commissioner Chris Lewis, and Durham Regional Police deputy chief Sherry Whiteway head the training mission.
Headline: Canadianpolice fill the bill; Dozens of officers training Afghan counterparts
Page: A3
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan
Source: Edmonton Journal
A group of Canadian police chiefs has just wrapped up a short visit to Afghanistan to help prepare for Canada's upcoming training mission.
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said he came to visit some of his officers already in the country, and to learn more about what will be required of police trainers when Canada's combat responsibilities wind down in a few months.
Blair has nine officers in Afghanistan, but said he would be open to sending more if required.
"At any given time we have approximately 10 officers on the mission here and right now that's the right number," he told reporters at Kandahar Airfield.
"I have to tell you I have no shortage of volunteers. If the RCMP came to us and said we need more from you, I think we can increase our contribution."
"We've got great people who want to come, but I think we need to look closely at the mission and figure out what skill sets are required to make the greatest contribution."
On their trip, the group of five officers visited Kabul, the Panjwaii district and Camp Nathan
Smith on the outskirts of Kandahar City.
The federal government has called for the country's combat role to end this summer, to be replaced by a mission of about 950 Canadians teaching Afghan forces behind the walls of training centres. The new mission, which will involve both army and police, is to be centred in
Kabul, but could see Canadian trainers spread around a few different locations such as Mazar-e-
Sharif in the north, Herat in the west and Jalalabad in the east.
Blair listed some of the things he believes Canadian police officers will continue to teach.
"There are the basic skills of polic-ing -defensive tactics, handcuffing, forensic sciences, criminal investigation -and those are all very important things," he said. "But I think something that is uniquely Canadian is the relationships we have been able to build our communities right across the country. It's part of the Canadian policing tradition to do communitybased policing, where we work not in isolation from the people we serve, but in partnership."
Blair was joined on the trip by Montreal Police Cmdr. Mario Fournier, assistant RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson, Durham Regional Police deputy chief Sherry Whiteway and Ontario
Provincial Police Commissioner Chris Lewis.
The current training effort has the authority to use up to 50 police officers from across Canada, including 17 from the RCMP, which administers the program.
Paulson offered no indication if that number will increase, but said future training may evolve into more high-level skills such as management of police forces. Like Blair, he said communitybased policing will be a key concept in the battle to get Afghan people to trust the police. kgereinedmontonjournal.com
Section: Canada
Byline: Tara Brautigam
Outlet: The Chronicle-Herald
Illustrations:
Bob Paulson, RCMP's deputy commissioner overseeing international policing, and Durham
Regional Police deputy chief Sherry Whiteway finish a tour of Afghanistan on Thursday. (TARA
BRAUTIGAM / CP)
Bob Paulson, RCMP's deputy commissioner overseeing international policing, and Durham
Regional Police deputy chiefSherryWhiteway finish a tour of Afghanistan on Thursday. (TARA
BRAUTIGAM / CP)
Headline: Challenge of Afghan mission called trust; Canadian police start training program in
July
Page: B5
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The greatest challenge for police participating in Canada's upcoming training mission in Afghanistan will be building trust between the Afghan police and locals, an RCMP deputy commissioner said Thursday after touring the war-torn country.
Several senior police commanders wrapped up a weeklong visit of Kabul and Kandahar in a bid to better define what their officers will be teaching their Afghan counterparts once the training mission, Operation Attention, begins this summer.
RCMP deputy commissioner Bob Paulson, who oversees federal and international policing, echoed the sentiment of military commanders when he said strengthening the links between the community and Afghan police will be a major goal.
"Getting to establish that trust with the local communities is the key and that's, I think, the biggest challenge," Paulson said at Kandahar Airfield.
The ranks of the Afghan National Police have grown in recent months. In the Panjwaii district, for example, there are about 500 registered ANP out of 700 allocated positions - an increase from 140 in the fall.
But the public perception of the ANP has sometimes struggled because of corruption and indiscipline.
This is something that Canadian police officers will strive to correct once the training mission begins in July, particularly at the senior management level, Paulson said.
"Now we're starting to get into the management of police forces, how you can be an executive and drive out a community-based policing philosophy, so I think that's where we're going to see the mission go," he said.
There are 17 RCMP officers among about 50 from city and provincial police forces across
Canada now serving in Afghanistan. It is unclear how many officers will be needed for the training mission and precisely where they will be based.
Federal officials have called the mission "Kabul-centric" and stressed that trainers would remain
"behind the wire" as they try to quell the concerns of Canadians back home who have grown tired of the nearly decade-long war.
After his visit two weeks ago, Defence Minister Peter MacKay acknowledged there was some urgency to define the details of the training mission. At the time, MacKay said he would make a recommendation to cabinet and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a final decision.
He said the mission would focus on security, medical and literacy skills.
Section: CityPlus
Byline: Nick Lees
Outlet: Edmonton Journal
Illustrations:
Supplied / Doctors didn't think Jared Gagnon, above and right, would survive a head injury when an armoured escort vehicle he was in was rammed deliberately by a semi truck during
Afghan convoy guarding duties on Aug. 6, 2006.
/
Headline: Soldier badly hurt in Afghanistan recovers with expert local care;Cpl. Jared Gagnon left paralyzed, unable to speak in 2006 convoy attack
Page: B2
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: Edmonton Journal
Doctors thought Cpl. Jared Gagnon's wounds were probably fatal after the armoured convoy escort vehicle he was in was rammed by a semi truck in Afghanistan.
He lost pieces of his skull and his scalp hung by a sliver of skin from the back of his head.
From the desert near Spin Boldak, a transportation and communications town on Afghanistan's southern border with Pakistan, Gagnon was helicoptered to the multinational hospital in
Kandahar and then airlifted to the American military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
His parents, Dennis and Linda Gagnon, and sisters Jenna and Jillian were rushed to his bedside to say what might be their last goodbyes.
Paralyzed, unable to speak
He woke up in the University of Alberta Hospital three days after arriving there and had no idea what had happened.
"I still have no recollection of being thrown from our vehicle or of spending nine or 10 days in
Germany," he said.
"I had been placed in a medically induced coma to prevent my brain from swelling."
The right side of his body was paralyzed and he was unable to speak.
He was shocked to learn his friend Master Cpl. Ray Arndt had been killed in the attack and Cpl.
Ashley VanLeeuwen had suffered multiple fractures. Fortunately, their driver, Cpl. Adam Keen, had escaped without injury.
Gagnon spent a month in the U of A Hospital and another month as a patient at the Glenrose
Rehabilitation Hospital.
"I couldn't move unless I wore a helmet to protect my exposed brain," he said.
Gagnon had lots of time to think about how he had joined the Loyal Edmonton Regiment reserve unit at the age of 16, while a student at Sherwood Park's Archbishop Jordan high school.
He loved the military training courses and exercises and decided after completing two years at university in 2006, he would volunteer to serve in Afghanistan before finishing his degree.
"I was sent over with a platoon of guys to provide escort for convoys and for other minor security details," he said. "We were all over Afghanistan, driving day and night in Land Roverstyle vehicles equipped with bulletproof glass and armour."
The Spin Boldak area was considered no more dangerous than many others when Gagnon and his convoy headed out on Aug. 6, 2006.
But in January that year, the Taliban took responsibility for a suicide bomber driving a vehicle into a crowd watching a wrestling match, killing 20 people and injuring another 20.
In 2008, a suicide bomber killed 28 Afghans and injured several Canadian soldiers in another attack.
"There was absolutely no warning an Afghan driver was going to try to kill us with his semi," said Gagnon.
Compassion amazing
The soldier's family feared the worst when they arrived in Landstuhl and were taken to Fisher
House, a temporary, comfortable home for military families visiting injured loved ones in the hospital a five-minute walk away.
"My wife and I were given one room and our daughters another," said Dennis Gagnon, Jared's father. "The hospitality and compassion of the staff was amazing and being with families who were experiencing similar tragedies was comforting."
There was a stocked communal kitchen, television, phones, reading material and computer access that enabled parents to relay messages to other family members and concerned friends.
"We returned to Landstuhl the following year with Jared so he could see the house and meet the doctors and nurses who had helped save his life," said Dennis.
Brain protected by helmet
Under expert care in Edmonton, Gagnon regained his speech and the use of the right side of his body.
Neurosurgeon Dr. John McKean had placed what can only be described as a piece of art over the brain of the soldier.
"It was a precisely built acrylic plate, whose exact measurements had been taken from CT scans," says Gagnon. "I have a couple of scars and a bit of a speech fluency issue. But I feel great. "My plan is to finish a business degree at the U of A and article with a chartered accounting company."
Gagnon will walk with the Doughboys -CISN's Bowie Bowie, CBC TV's Mark Connolly, CBC
Radio's Mark Scholz and myself -on April 23 to help raise funds for Valour Place. "The model for Valour Place is Fisher House in Landstuhl, where my family stayed while visiting me every day," says Gagnon. "It will be built at 11009-111 Ave., providing good access to the Glenrose and U of A hospitals."
Some $6 million has been raised for the facility. "We need to raise another $4 million to create an endowment that will make sure the home is staffed in perpetuity," said honourary Lt.-Col.
John Stanton of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment.
The Doughboys will carry a ladder on a 1.5 kilometre or three-kilometre walk and are offering advertising space on it for $200 a rung. Call me at 780-429-5281 to book a spot.
Register for the walk at www.runningroom.com/walkforvalour.
Since 2002, some 1,859 Canadians have been injured in Afghanistan. The death toll stands at
155. nlees@edmontonjournal.com
Section: World
Outlet: Ottawa Citizen
Headline: Gadhafi forces shell rebels in heated battles; NATO chief rejects plan for West to arm insurgents
Page: A4
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: NEAR BREGA, Libya
Source: Agence France-Presse With Files From Steven Edwards, Postmedia News
The United States warned Thursday that forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were not about to break as his troops pursued rebels eastward amid reports that more of the Libyan leader's top aides had fled.
Running battles raged on the edge of Brega, with regime forces shelling the insurgents who replied with Grad rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told U.S. lawmakers about 20 to 25 per cent of Gadhafi's military had been knocked out by NATO-led bombing, but "that does not mean he's about to break from a military standpoint."
A day after Gadhafi's forces overran the key oil hub Ras Lanuf and neighbouring villages, the frontline ebbed and flowed on the outskirts of Brega, about 800 kilometres from Tripoli.
Experts said the opposition lacks anti-tank weapons, radios and other basics, but above all the disjointed, chaotic force needs rudimentary training.
As a debate raged over whether western powers should arm the insurgents, NATO chief Anders
Fogh Rasmussen ruled out such a move. "We are there to protect the Libyan people, not to arm people," he told reporters.
"As far as NATO is concerned, and I speak on behalf of NATO, we will focus on the enforcement of the arms embargo and the clear purpose of an arms embargo is to stop the flow of weapons into the country," he said, hours after NATO took full command of all Libyan operations on Thursday.
U.S., British, French, Canadian, Danish and Belgian jets have attacked Gadhafi's ground forces since March 19 under a UN mandate to use "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.
Wednesday's defection of foreign minister Moussa Koussa, the most senior figure to jump ship since the uprising against Gadhafi's iron-fisted 41-year rule erupted more than six weeks ago, was widely seen as a sign of a crumbling regime.
A government spokesman said Koussa's departure from the regime's inner circle would mean little to Gadhafi's overall battle to fend off his many domestic and international enemies.
"We are not relying on individuals to lead this struggle," said government spokesman Moussa
Ibrahim. "This is the struggle of a whole nation. We have millions of people leading this struggle."
However, Ali Abdussalam Treki, the former Libyan president of the United Nations General
Assembly, renounced the Gadhafi regime on Thursday.
Treki, who served twice as Libyan foreign minister, had been Gadhafi's first pick to take over as
Libya's new ambassador to the UN after the defection of the serving ambassador February 25.
DEFECTOR TO FACE QUESTIONS ON LOCKERBIE
Scottish authorities said on Thursday they wanted to interview defecting Libyan foreign minister
Moussa Koussa over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, pleasing victims' relatives.
Koussa, also the former spy chief for Moammar Gadhafi, fled to Britain Wednesday, parting ways with the Libyan leader.
Families representing some of the 270 people killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the
Scottish town of Lockerbie said no deals should be done to protect Koussa.
"This could be all the evidence that we wanted given to us on a silver platter," said Frank
Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am 103 group in the United States.
While British officials are hoping that he will provide vital military and diplomatic intelligence, campaigners want him to shed light on the bombing which killed 259 people, mostly Americans, on the plane and 11 on the ground.
"He was the head of the Libyan intelligence services, so if Libya is responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103 then Mr. Koussa is, too," said Pamela Dix, whose brother was one of those killed.
"He should not be a free man in this country."
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for his part in blowing up the airliner, but was released by the Scottish government in 2009. Koussa played a key role in the release.
Reuters
Section: News
Lead: NAPLES, Italy -- NATO said it "seamlessly" assumed full command of military operations over Libya on Thursday, and warned combatants on the ground against attacking civilians.
Headline: NATO controls sky over Libya
Page: 20
Byline: REUTERS
Outlet: The Edmonton Sun
Illustrations:
photo of CHARLES BOUCHARD "Seamless"
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
NAPLES, Italy -- NATO said it "seamlessly" assumed full command of military operations over
Libya on Thursday, and warned combatants on the ground against attacking civilians.
NATO had agreed on Sunday to take over all operations from a coalition led by the United
States, France and Britain. The move puts the 28-nation alliance in charge of air strikes that have targeted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's military infrastructure, and of policing a no-fly zone and an arms embargo.
"The transition has been seamless, with no gaps," Canadian Lieutenant-General Charles
Bouchard, commander of NATO's Libya operations, told reporters at the military alliance's
Southern European headquarters in Naples, Italy.
"NATO is fully responsible," he said.
Since NATO assumed control Thursday, its aircraft had conducted more than 90 flights. The alliance has more than 100 fighter jets -- including six from Canada -- and support aircraft at its disposal as well as a dozen frigates to control the Mediterranean, he said.
NATO officials say alliance planning foresees a 90-day operation, but the timetable will depend on the United Nations.
NATO also said it was taking seriously, and investigating, a Vatican complaint about civilian casualties in Western air strikes in Libya.
A senior Vatican official in the Libyan capital, quoting what he called reliable sources in close contact with residents, said at least 40 civilians had been killed in Tripoli.
Section: National/World
Headline: Commander issues warning against attacks on civilians
Page: C8
Source: The Associated Press
Outlet: The Telegram (St. John's)
Byline: Don Melvin and Slobodan Lekic
Illustrations:
The new NATO commander of the international military operation in Libya, Canadian Lt.
Gen.-Charles Bouchard, meets journalists at NATO headquarters, in Bagnoli, Naples,
Italy,Thursday.
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: Brussels, Belgium
NATO made it clear Thursday rebel forces in Libya are not impervious to bombardment if they attack civilians.
Canadian Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of the NATO operation which assumed control of Libyan airspace Thursday, said anyone attacking civilians "would be ill-advised to continue such activities. I recommend that you cease such activities."
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said, "This applies to both sides, whoever targets risks becoming a target. We will apply the mandate across the board."
But Lungescu emphasized that the issue was hypothetical because the UN resolution mandating
NATO's intervention had been triggered by the systematic attacks of Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi's security forces against civilians, and not by any action of the rebels.
NATO said the allies had supplied a total of 205 aircraft and 21 navy vessels for the operation, which includes patrolling the seas off Libya to prevent the delivery of weapons to the warring sides.
The U.S. contributed 90 aircraft and one warship. Among the 14 nations listed, France provided
33 aircraft and one ship, and Britain 17 planes and two warships.
The hand-over from the U.S., which had been leading the impromptu group of countries bombing forces loyal to Gadhafi, "has been seamless with no gaps in the effort," Bouchard told journalists from his headquarters in Naples, Italy.
His remarks were transmitted by video link to other journalists in Brussels.
NATO aircraft had already flown more than 90 sorties since the alliance took over command at 2 a.m. EDT, Bouchard said.
Bouchard also said NATO would investigate a claim by the Vatican's envoy in Libya that airstrikes in Tripoli during the night had killed 40 civilians - though he noted that the alleged incident was said to have taken place before NATO took command.
"I am aware of this news report," he said. "I take every one of those issues seriously, but our mission began ... today."
The report by the Fides news agency quoted Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, as saying he had learned that a building in the district of Buslim had collapsed during bombing, killing 40 people inside.
Bouchard said the alliance had very strict rules of engagement, and was very careful in going after any targets.
NATO's assumption of command comes at a sensitive moment in the war between the rebels and loyalist forces.
Gadhafi's ground troops have nearly reversed the gains rebels made since the international airstrikes began. The battlefield setbacks have led to increased calls for the international community to supply weapons to the lightly armed rebels.
The latest fighting centred on Brega, a town important to Libya's oil industry on the coastal road that leads to Tripoli. Citizens also have fled Ajdabiya, a rebel-held city about 80 kilometres to the east of Brega, for fear that government forces are on their way. Speaking in Stockholm,
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday the alliance doesn't support
U.S. and British suggestions that the UN mandate for the international military operation in
Libya allows arming rebels.
Britain and the U.S. believe that existing UN Security Council resolutions on Libya could allow for foreign governments to arm the rebels, despite an arms embargo being in place.
In Brussels, NATO's top officer, Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, declined repeatedly to say whether the alliance would intercept any ship carrying weapons to the rebels, calling the question hypothetical.
Di Paola said about 20 of the alliance's 28 members had contributed military assets to the campaign, and that several other regional nations were joining them in the effort.
When asked whether the alliance would use intelligence collected by CIA agents in Libya - in the wake of new revelations that small teams of operatives are working there - Di Paola replied:
"We are collecting intelligence from our allies. We are not questioning which sources they are coming from."
Section: News
Outlet: Edmonton Journal
Illustrations:
Aris Messinis, AFP, Getty Images / Libyan rebels fire rockets against forces loyal to
Moammar Gadhafi about 20 kilometres from Brega on Thursday.
Headline: West avoids arms pledge
Page: A11
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: NEAR BREGA, Libya
Source: Agence France-Presse
Libyan rebels failed Thursday to secure control of the oil town of Brega from Moammar
Gadhafi's forces, as the West shied away from supplying arms to their outgunned ragtag army.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the rebels needed training more than guns but suggested other nations do that job, while French counterpart Gerard Longuet said providing weapons was not part of the UN mandate.
Gates said the military mission did not call for deposing Gadhafi and suggested ultimately it would be economic and political pressure and Libya's people -not coalition air strikes -that would topple him.
Grilled by U.S. lawmakers, the Pentagon chief described the rebels as a "disparate," improvised force that had a supply of small arms seized at regime depots but sorely lacked military leadership.
"What they really need is training, command and control and some coherent organization," Gates told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.
The day after the regime was rocked by the defection of Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, a report said British officials held confidential discussions in London with Mohammed Ismail, a top aide to Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam.
Citing a British government source, the Guardian newspaper said the meeting, one of a number between the two nations in the last two weeks, is believed to have addressed an exit strategy for
Gadhafi and his regime.
Britain's Foreign Office refused to comment on the report other than to say it would not provide a "running commentary" on contact between the two countries.
The U.S. military's top officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, said about 20 to 25 per cent of Gadhafi's military had been knocked out by NATO-led bombing but "that does not mean he's about to break from a military standpoint."
"The biggest problem the last three or four days has been weather," Mullen told lawmakers, explaining that an inability to identify targets had reduced their effectiveness and allowed regime forces to make gains.
But experts say the opposition lacks anti-tank weapons, radios and other basics, and above all the disjointed, chaotic force needs rudimentary training. Reporters said running battles raged on the edge of Brega, with regime forces shelling the insurgents who replied with Grad rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.
A day after Gadhafi's forces overran the key oil hub Ras Lanuf and neighbouring villages, the front line ebbed and flowed on the outskirts of Brega, about 800 kilometres from Tripoli.
Section: News
Byline: ALEXANDER DZIADOSZ and ANGUS MACSWAN
Outlet: Montreal Gazette
Illustrations:
FINBARR O'REILLY REUTERS / A rebel sits on the front line looking down the road in the direction of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi near Brega in eastern Libya, Thursday. Experts believe U.S. special forces are in the country, identifying targets for air strikes, even though U.S.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says"there will be no boots on the ground."
Headline: U.S. covert operations buoy rebels; Gather for counterattack in east; Special forces on ground identifying targets for airstrikes, experts say
Page: A19
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: NEAR BREGA/BENGHAZI, Libya
Source: Reuters
Rebels massed for a counterattack against Moammar Gadhafi's forces in eastern Libya on
Thursday, encouraged by news of covert U.S. support and the defection of Tripoli's foreign minister.
News that U.S. officials told Reuters President Barack Obama had authorized covert operations in Libya raised the prospect of wider support for the rebels.
Experts assume special forces are on the ground identifying targets for airstrikes.
Public confirmation from Washington may indicate a willingness for greater involvement.
But the rebels, whose main call is for weapons - not authorized yet by Washington because of a
UN arms embargo which NATO says it is enforcing - said that too big a foreign role could be damaging.
"It would undermine our credibility," Gheriani said.
Obama's order is likely to further alarm countries already concerned that airstrikes on infrastructure and ground troops by the United States, Britain and France go beyond a UN resolution with the stated aim only of protecting civilians.
"I can't speak to any CIA activities but I will tell you that the president has been quite clear that in terms of the United States military, there will be no boots on the ground," U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said.
"We are beginning to see the Gadhafi regime crumble," rebel spokesperson Mustafa Gheriani said in the eastern town of Benghazi.
Analysts agreed the defection of minister Moussa Koussa, who flew to London Wednesday, was a blow to Gadhafi, whose forces have gained ground in recent days.
But the top U.S. military officer told Congress Gadhafi was far from beaten.
"We have actually fairly seriously degraded his military capabilities," Admiral Mike Mullen said. "That does not mean he's about to break from a military standpoint."
Despite almost two weeks of Western air strikes, Gadhafi's troops have used superior arms and tactics to push back rebels trying to edge westward along the coast from their eastern stronghold of Benghazi toward the capital Tripoli.
The top Vatican official in the Libyan capital cited witnesses on Thursday saying at least 40 civilians had been killed in Western air strikes on Tripoli.
NATO said it was investigating but had no confirmation of the report. Libya's state news agency, citing military sources, said Western air strikes had hit a civilian area in the capital overnight, but did not mention casualties.
Rebels said Gadhafi loyalists had killed 38 civilians over the past two days alone in Misrata, the only town in western Libya still under rebel control.
"Massacres are taking place in Misrata," a rebel spokesperson called Sami said by telephone.
Britain said it was focusing airstrikes around Misrata, which has been under siege from government forces for weeks.
Rebels say snipers and tank fire have killed dozens of people.
About 1,000 people are believed to have been killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of Gadhafi since the uprising against his 41-year-old rule began Feb. 17, the British government said.
The forces fighting Gadhafi say they desperately need arms and ammunition to supplement supplies grabbed from government depots.
The U.S., France and Britain have raised the possibility, but say no decision has been taken.
NATO, which took over formal command of the air campaign Thursday, said it would enforce a
UN arms embargo on all sides: "We are there to protect the Libyan people, not to arm the people," NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Stockholm.
Section: News
Lead: OTTAWA -- The two frontrunners for the keys to 24 Sussex Dr. treaded cautiously
Thursday on Canada's role in Libya following reports the Americans have begun covert operations that could lead to arming rebels fighting to oust bloody dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Headline: Canuck leaders careful on Libya
Page: 22
Byline: MARK DUNN, SENIOR NATIONAL REPORTER
Outlet: The Edmonton Sun
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
OTTAWA -- The two frontrunners for the keys to 24 Sussex Dr. treaded cautiously Thursday on
Canada's role in Libya following reports the Americans have begun covert operations that could lead to arming rebels fighting to oust bloody dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Both Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff were in lockstep over the United Nations-sanctioned mission to stop the massacre of innocent civilians at the hands of forces loyal to Gadhafi.
"My position is clear," the prime minister said on the hustings in Atlantic Canada. "We will not have soldiers on the ground. That is not part of our mission."
Harper said Canada is working closely with its allies to enforce the UN resolution that calls for an arms embargo, a no-fly zone and the protection of civilians from slaughter.
Ignatieff said the mandate the Liberals supported to send Canadian military planes, naval support and more than 400 personnel didn't include an armed ground intervention.
"Our party supported the use of Canadian air power for one purpose -- to keep Col. Gadhafifrom massacring his people," he said, adding he is opposed to arming rebels.
Their comments came the same day Canadian Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard took over command of the NATO mission -- a day fraught with disappointment as air strikes failed to stop
Gadhafitroops from shelling the rebel-held city of Mistrata. Unconfirmed estimates put civilian deaths in the dozens.
Harper and Ignatieff walked a political tightrope as pressure mounted to broaden the UN mandate after reports out of Washington said President Barack Obama has signed a so-called presidential finding that allows for covert operations and other measures such as arming rebels.
NDP Leader Jack Layton expressed concern the mission is creeping into the use of ground forces and other kinds of military engagement outside of the UN mandate.
Section: Canada
Outlet: The Chronicle-Herald
Headline: No ground troops in Libya, Harper says
Page: B1
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper stressed today that there will be no Canadian boots on the ground in Libya, but he would not say whether he believes allies should arm rebels to overthrow dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Harper says contributing ground troops was never part the mission authorized by Parliament before his minority government was defeated in a confidence motion last motion last Friday.
Gadhafi's forces have reversed almost all the gains rebels made since international air strikes began earlier this month and the setbacks have prompted the United States and Britain to consider supplying weapons.
NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance doesn't support the suggestion and that the UN mandate for the international military operation in Libya does not allow for the arming of rebels.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Canada should be working the diplomatic backrooms to get Gadhafi to leave.
Harper, at a campaign stop in Halifax, said the federal government's position has always been that the dictator has lost all legitimacy and should step down.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said he's already warned the prime minister that he's concerned about mission creep and his party would oppose the inclusion of ground troops.
None of the party leaders addressed the issue of the mission's unknown cost.
A U.S. Congressional Research Service report, released Wednesday, pegged Washington's cost for the air war at up to $1 billion thus far. The financial toll is one of the reasons the Obama administration was anxious to hand over control of the UN no-fly zone to NATO allies, including Canada.
Section: Économie
Outlet: Le Quotidien
Headline: Bouchard sert un avertissement
Page: 24
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Dateline: BRUXELLES, Belgique
Source: AP
Le nouveau commandant des opérations militaires en Libye a averti, jeudi, que quiconque s'en prendrait
à des civils serait mal avisé de continuer. Le lieutenant-général canadien Charles Bouchard a ajouté qu'il allait se pencher sur des informations voulant que des fr appes de la coalition aient fait 40 victimes à
Tripoli.
Quelques heures après que l'OTAN eut pris les rênes de la mission, le lieutenant-général Bouchard a indiqué que plus de 100 avions de combat et appareils de soutien avaient été déployés pour s'assurer du respect de la zone d'exclusion aérienne décrétée en Libye et pour éviter la mort de civils.
Livraison interceptée
L'OTAN a par la suite précisé que les alliés avaient envoyé 205 avions et 21 navires pour mener à bien la mission, qui comprend des opérations de patrouille des eaux au large de la Libye pour empêcher la livraison d'armes aux parties belligérantes.
S'adressant par liaison télévisuelle à des journalistes présents à Bruxelles à partir de son quartier général
à Naples, en Italie, le lieutenant-général Bouchard a affirmé que le transfert de la responsabilité de la mission s'était effectué sans l'interruption des opérations.
Auparavant, les opérations pour attaquer les forces loyales au dirigeant libyen, Mouammar Kadhafi,
étaient menées par un groupe de pays dirigé par les États-Unis. Le commandant Bouchard a précisé que l'OTAN avait effectué plus de 90 sorties aériennes depuis que son organisation avait pris les commandes de la mission.
En ce qui concerne les attaques contre des civils, le lieutenantgénéral Bouchard a déclaré qu'"il serait mal avisé de continuer de telles opérations".
"Je recommande l'arrêt de telles opérations", a-t-il poursuivi.
Le lieutenantgénéral a affirmé que l'OTAN allait examiner des affirmations du représentant du Vatican en
Libye laissant craindre que des frappes nocturnes menées par la coalition à Tripoli avaient fait 40 victimes. Il a toutefois rappelé que ce présumé incident se serait produit avant même que l'OTAN ne prenne les commandes de la mission.
"Je suis au courant de ces informations, a-til indiqué. Je prends au sérieux chacune de ces questions, mais notre mission a débuté (...) aujourd'hui."
Le lieutenantgénéral Bouchard a expliqué que l'OTAN imposait des règles très strictes en ce qui concerne l'engagement, et manoeuvrait avec grande prudence en attaquant des cibles.
Section: Forum
Outlet: The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Headline: Mission in Libya must be justified
Page: A8
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: The StarPhoenix
Canada's second war -the NATO mission to enforce a UN-backed no-fly zone over Libya -finally popped its head up Thursday as an issue in the country's federal election campaign.
But it wasn't much of a showing.
NDP Leader Jack Layton was asked at a press conference in Quebec whether his party, which voted less than two weeks ago to support Canada's involvement in Libya, would allow the mission to expand.
Mr. Layton said while he supports the goals of the rebels fighting for democracy, he wouldn't tolerate Canadian ground forces in Libya or any formal push to change the regime.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper curtly rejected any thought of increased Canadian involvement: "We will not have soldiers on the ground," he told reporters in Halifax.
There are good reasons for Canada to be involved in the NATO mission over Libya. But any time Canada is dropping bombs, killing people and endangering its military personnel, it deserves more than off-the-shelf statements from its political leaders on the campaign trail.
Although Parliament unanimously agreed the country should take part in the NATO mission,
Canadians have yet to be told why.
Most Canadians undoubtedly would support protecting Libyans from the violence threatened by
President Moammar Gadhafi. However, Canadians also are likely to support protecting
Zimbabweans from the violence of Robert Mugabe, or the East Congolese from the rapes and murders being committed by rebel forces in their land.
Yet Canadians aren't flying any missions in those African countries.
In an emotional opinion piece in Thursday' Globe and Mail, Ottawa-based journalist Alice
Musabende stressed just how important is this debate, not only for Canadians but also for victims such as her of the Rwandan genocide.
What makes Libyan blood so much more important than that of others who are raped and murdered in numbers too high to imagine, she asked. Canadians deserve an answer to that question.
The Libyan action is the first time that the Canadianborn UN-backed "responsibility to protect" doctrine has been put into effect. Applying it is proving to be far more delicate than anyone imagined even a couple of weeks ago, when the Security Council was frantically struggling to find a way to mitigate the violence.
In spite of Mr. Harper's assurances that Canada will not allow the mission to expand, history has proven that once the bombs start to fall, it becomes increasingly difficult to control the fallout.
In fact, among the first things on the agenda for Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard upon taking over the mission for NATO from the U.S., which had been in charge until 6 a.m.,
Thursday, Brussels time, was to remind the West-supported rebels that they, too, were prohibited from killing civilians.
The next thing on the agenda was to answer an accusation by an Italian bishop that a NATO bomb had killed 40 civilians and flattened a building in Tripoli. Wars are rarely without complications.
Among the problems facing the West this week is the defection of Libya's foreign minister, an event some heralded as evidence of the imminent collapse of the Gadhafi regime but had others wondering if his early departure would absolve him of responsibility for events such as the
Lockerbie bombing.
The West badly needs this little adventure to end soon, in its favour. American military officials warn, however, that a no-fly campaign could drag on for a decade.
And The Guardian is reporting that both warring sides within Libya are running low on ammunition. A resulting stalemate could result in increasing fractures as other countries compete to provide material, expertise and support to both sides in seeking to gain an economic or political advantage.
Already the Chinese and Russians are expressing concern the mission has gone far beyond what condoned by abstaining rather than blocking the no-fly mandate.
It is ironic that Canada's newest war seems to be getting a better airing in Russia and China than in Canada during an election campaign.
Section: Arguments
Byline: Dan Gardner
Outlet: Ottawa Citizen
Illustrations:
Reuters / Canada has deployed six CF-18 Hornets to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.
Headline: Why no one's talking about Libya on the campaign trail
Page: A11
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Source: Ottawa Citizen
One of the most difficult and important problems confronting the international community is what to do when a government turns its guns on its own people. In Libya, Canada and other countries chose military intervention. Our jets are in the air at this very moment.
Also at this very moment, the man who ordered the military into action is seeking a mandate to form the next government. His opponent is a human rights scholar with special expertise in the very issue of international interventions to protect people from their own governments. It's hard to imagine circumstances more likely to produce a sustained debate about this engagement in particular and Canadian foreign policy in general.
And yet hardly a word has been said in the election about Libya or anything beyond our borders.
Nor is that likely to change.
For Stephen Harper, it would be risk without reward. He can't use Libya as a wedge because the
Liberals supported the intervention. Worse, talking about Libya would raise questions about
Afghanistan, and on that file the Liberal team of Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae have been far more principled and consistent. Still worse, it would resurrect Iraq, and Harper would prefer voters not remember that he was a passionate supporter of Canadian participation in that colossal cockup. And worst of all, any discussion of foreign policy would remind the electorate that his government was the first in Canadian history to try and fail to land a seat on the United Nations
Security Council.
Better to stick with funding for Quebec snowmobile clubs.
One might expect better of Michael Ignatieff, globe-trotting journalist, chronicler of war and nationalism, and international human rights scholar. But Ignatieff, too, would prefer to keep the campaign nice and parochial.
With a barrage of essays in the New York Times and elsewhere, Ignatieff put his words and his prestige as a liberal intellectual behind the invasion of Iraq. He was far from the only one.
Indeed, an entire cadre of liberal intellectuals supported the war. But when it went disastrously wrong, Ignatieff was estranged from his natural constituency and the humiliating mea culpa he published in the Times was a virtual precondition for taking the Liberal leadership. I suspect he would very much like to lie on his deathbed without ever having heard the word "Iraq" again.
But Iraq is only one pole of the debate. The other is Rwanda, an indescribable slaughter that could have been stopped by armed intervention but was not. And between those two poles are
many other points of reference. There's Afghanistan, the slow-motion failure. Kosovo, the limited success. And Britain's Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone, an intervention nobody knows about because it was a quick and complete triumph.
I'm sure Michael Ignatieff knows all about Operation Palliser since he worked with the UN on what is known as the "responsibility to protect." That's the duty of the international community to put a stop to war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity when national governments cannot or will not. It does not authorize interventions for oil or power or national security, and so it did not apply to the invasion of Iraq. It is only about stopping the strong from slaughtering the weak. What could be more Canadian? Two Canadians -Paul Martin and Lloyd Axworthy -were even instrumental in promoting the idea at the UN. And what could be more relevant? It's in the news right now.
But Ignatieff won't go there. And not only because of the spectre of Iraq.
Following the traditional Liberal strategy, Ignatieff's campaign is leaning left and while helping the world's downtrodden is a popular sentiment on that side of the spectrum the intervention envisioned in "responsibility to protect" must often involve military force. That's a problem.
Because much of the Canadian left believes in a "Pearsonian" fantasy.
Canada has traditionally been an honest broker, they say. A neutral party. We have
"peacekeepers," not soldiers. We do not fight wars. We're not like Americans.
This is mostly nonsense, but the silliest aspect of it is the adjective "Pearsonian." Lester Pearson despised witless anti-Americanism, he wasn't remotely "neutral," and he was a strong supporter of a Canadian military capable of fighting and winning wars. The contemporary leader he most resembles is Michael Ignatieff. Or to be more precise, Pearson resembles the Michael Ignatieff of
2005 -who gave a speech that condemned reflexive anti-Americanism, insisted "men with guns" were needed to protect vulnerable people, and condemned Canada for cutting military funding while coasting on an "entirely bogus reputation as peacekeepers." That is Pearsonian, ladies and gentlemen.
But the left clings to its myth and so, every election, when the Liberals lean left, they turn pacifist. In 2004, Paul Martin claimed the Conservatives wanted "invasion forces" when Stephen
Harper said he'd buy essentially the same troop ships Martin himself had promised to buy two months earlier. This is how it always goes. Now Michael Ignatieff is saying things like "we choose families, not fighter jets," even though the actual Liberal policy is to buy fighter jets -and despite the fact that "we choose families, not fighter jets" is precisely the sort of prissy sentimentality he so rightly condemned in 2005.
Add it all up and there's very little chance that Libya or foreign affairs generally will receive anything more than glancing attention. Which is hardly a change. Remember that in 2006, while the military was setting up for its toughest mission since the Korean War, we had an election campaign in which Afghanistan was almost completely ignored. Few noticed. Fewer cared.
Of course it would be satisfying to blame it all on politicians but this is a democracy. The politicians want our votes. They will give us what we demand.
If Canadian politics is parochial, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Dan Gardner's column appears Wednesday and Friday. E-mail: dgardner@ ottawacitizen.com
Section: National News
Outlet: The Globe And Mail
Byline: CAMPBELL CLARK
Headline: Amnesty International says Canada has lost its status as human-rights paragon
Page: A6
Date: Friday 01 April 2011
Canada has lost its standing as a world leader in pressing for human rights, in part by taking a one-sided view on Middle East rights issues, Amnesty International says.
That judgment, according to Amnesty's global secretary-general Salil Shetty, is the cumulative effect of several moves in recent years, including a reluctance to sign new UN rights declarations, avoiding accountability for the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, and a failure to stand up for the rights of Canadians accused abroad, such as Omar Khadr, the Canadian detained in Guantanamo Bay.
The report marks a shift: Groups like Amnesty, which once viewed Canada as a paragon of their rights agenda, pushing initiatives like an international criminal court and protections for child soldiers, now see it as lacklustre.
``Globally, Canada's reputation as a reliable human-rights champion has dropped precipitously,''
Amnesty concluded.
Among other things, Canada's shift in the Middle East has included ``unflinching refusal'' to raise concerns about Israel's rights records, and the government has stifled or defunded agencies that ``promote the rights of Palestinians,'' it said.
And Mr. Shetty said that shift led Canada to ``dither'' in supporting Egypt's pro-democracy movement, out of concern that the departure of Hosni Mubarak could lead to a government less friendly to Israel. ``I think it certainly blurred their thinking,'' he said.
The Conservatives have taken the position that there has been excessive criticism at the UN and elsewhere of the rights record of Israel, a democracy surrounded by repressive neighbours. But
Mr. Shetty said Canada has lost the reputation for evenhandedness because it refuses to take
Israel to task.
``Nobody's saying that therefore we should not be critical of Iran or other places as the Canadian government is,'' he said. ``Amnesty is very critical of the human-rights record of Saudi Arabia, of
Iran, of all the people who are very vocally against Israel. But we should call a spade a spade.''
Although Amnesty insists it doesn't take partisan sides, most of the steps criticized in the report came under Stephen Harper's Conservative government - with the notable exception of the longstanding criticism of Canada's failure to shrink the gap in standard of living between aboriginal
Canadians and most citizens. The Conservative campaign did not comment.
Fen Hampson, a foreign policy analyst at Carleton University, said Canada's approach on human rights has shifted. While the Liberal government in the 1990s pushed a ``humanitarian'' concept
of human rights, like the international criminal court and human security, the Tories consciously dropped that agenda and focused on criticizing autocratic regimes like Iran.
Canada's shift on the Middle East has changed the country's reputation and affected its failed campaign for the UN Security Council last year. But Mr. Harper would argue that's a principled stand, ``and they're prepared to take their licks,'' Mr. Hampson said. Amnesty is exaggerating
Canada's global loss of reputation, he said, but at least until the Libya mission it wasn't seen in recent years as a leader on human security issues.
In any event, reports like Amnesty's on developed democracies shape opinions more at home than abroad. ``Does the world pay attention to this?'' he said. ``Not really.''
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WSun (Winnipeg Sun)
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P&L Communications Inc.
95 Glebe Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1S 2C2
Phone: 613-231-5597 / Web Site: http://www.plcom.on.ca/
