Prime Minister Trudeau to announce details of Iraq mission on Monday

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this morning that the jets will end their fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria by February 22nd. “The lethal enemy of barbarism isn’t hatred, it’s reason”. “We can’t do everything”, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

Canada currently contributes six CF-18 fighter-bomber jets to the counter-ISIS campaign and has 69 special forces based in Iraqi Kurdistan who are helping train Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers who have been holding a lengthy front against ISIS for almost two years now.

Monday’s announcement should include additional funding for humanitarian aid.

Trudeau was flanked by Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.

That, in order to provide more assistance in the training and planning of Iraqi security forces. Ottawa will earmark $840 million over three years to provide shelter, food, health care and other essentials.

Trudeau promised during last fall’s federal campaign the Liberals would withdraw Canada’s fighter jets from the air campaign in northern Iraq and Syria.

Canada has already committed $650 million in humanitarian aid for people affected by the Syrian civil war and $233 million for longer-term development.

The announcement will be made at 10:30 a.m. Monday. But the Americans decided not to invite Mr Sajjan two informal meetings of the coalition in Paris, a decision whose scope has been minimized by the Minister of Defence.

That did not stop the conservative opposition to criticize the Liberals for their intention to withdraw combat aircraft, which had been deployed in the Middle East while the Conservatives were in power.