Stories by Scott Taylor
Sajjan must explain what’s next for Canada in Iraq
The defence minister’s elusiveness would appear to indicate that the Trudeau Liberals don’t have a clue what to do now that Canada’s allies are fighting each other. Canada had a hand in Mosul’s fall from Daesh, and it must now help in reconstruction.
The first Canadian contingent that had deployed to Latvia returned home last month. But without a real Russian threat, there’s not much point in sending more.
Canada is aiding Afghan security forces to the tune of $110-million a year, yet they have been implicated in child sexual abuse that is tough to fully stamp out.
The Americans risk NATO partner Turkey’s ire by keeping troops in northern Syria’s Kurdish separatist region to create a Kurdish security force. Many of the Kurds have links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey has focused on destroying.
OTTAWA—Whenever United States President Donald Trump hears facts and figures that he does not agree with, he simply dismisses them with his catch-all phrase “fake news.” This, of course, only serves to delight both the…
The only thing that is clear about the recent outbreak of civil unrest in Iran is that absolutely nothing is clear. The absence of foreign media outlets, the government crackdown on social media and, in…
On Dec. 13 Canada quietly undertook the decision to include Ukraine in our Automatic Firearms Country Control List. With all the news cycles focusing on Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the…
OTTAWA—Last week, there was a bizarre incident in the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Ukrainian security forces had descended on an apartment building with the intent of arresting Mikheil Saakashvili on charges of having taken…Author
OTTAWA—On Nov. 21, there was a Canadian Press story wherein Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi gave a warning to Parliament during his visit to Ottawa that Russian meddling in world affairs would have consequences for Canada.…
OTTAWA—At the recent Halifax International Security Forum, Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah echoed previous calls from NATO and the United States for Canada to return militarily to the international mission in Afghanistan. Abdullah likely laments…
OTTAWA—On Nov. 15, the Trudeau government used the backdrop of a United Nations peacekeeping summit in Vancouver to make what amounted to a non-announcement on Canada’s future role as a peacekeeper. This is something that…
OTTAWA—Last week there were all sorts of rumblings in Ottawa that Canada is considering a proposal to put in place a peacekeeping force in Ukraine. First, there was a statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia…
OTTAWA—In the wake of the Halloween day terror attack in New York City, we had the immediate media overreaction the minute it was gleaned that the alleged perpetrator, Sayfullo Saipov, was inspired by Daesh (the…
OTTAWA—A story last week in the National Post revealed the disturbing fact that there are actually monuments in Canada that glorify Second World War Nazi collaborators. There is no denying the truth of these allegations, as they…
OTTAWA—It has been six years since people involved in the NATO-supported Libyan uprising murdered President Muammar Gaddafi and toppled his regime. Canada was proud of the fact that the big boys—namely the United Kingdom, United…
OTTAWA—With more than 800 Canadian troops committed to be deployed in what is still recognized internationally as Iraq, one would think that there would be a lot more news about the ominous developments in that…
OTTAWA—There were news stories out of Afghanistan last week detailing how the United States is expanding and entrenching the so-called Green Zone in the centre of Kabul. An ambitious two-year construction project will bring together…
OTTAWA—One of the persisting myths in Canada is that we are a nation of peacekeepers. Hell, we practically claim that former prime minister Lester B. Pearson during the Suez Crisis in 1956 invented the concept…
OTTAWA—Last week there was a brief news release from National Defence entitled “Canadian Armed Forces now Advising, Assisting Iraqis near Hawija.” It garnered little media attention, as it seemed like a simple relocation of Canadian…
OTTAWA—A couple of related events last week were added together by the usual cast of fearmongers in yet another attempt to scare the bejeezus out of the Canadian public. First off it was North Korea’s…
OTTAWA—There is a controversial new video out on NATO’s official YouTube channel entitled Forest Brothers. The gist of the eight-minute film is to lionize the brave Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian fighters who took to the woods…
OTTAWA—I happened to catch a news item on the CBC’s The National last Thursday night that illustrates how modern Russian society celebrates its association with the world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifle. It is true that since it was…
OTTAWA—On Aug. 21, when United States President Donald Trump made his long-anticipated announcement about the war in Afghanistan, even he had to admit that he has his doubts about his chosen path. “My original instinct…
OTTAWA—In a scene from the 1980 classic comedy movie The Blues Brothers, the title characters are stuck in a traffic jam. The cause of the delay is a group of Nazis blocking a bridge while police restrain…
OTTAWA—With all of the fear-mongering going on these days, one could be forgiven for believing we are on the eve of a nuclear Armageddon between North Korea and the United States. Military experts are coming…
OTTAWA—While Canada may have concluded a 12-year military commitment to the war in Afghanistan back in the spring of 2014, few taxpayers realize that we continue to spend over $150-million there each year, some of…
OTTAWA—On July 26, United States President Donald Trump sent out a series of tweets to the effect that the American military would no longer “allow or accept” transgender personnel in its ranks. At the time…
OTTAWA—There has been a lot of controversy recently in Halifax over a statue of Edward Cornwallis, the city’s founder. On Canada Day, a crowd of Mi’kmaq people and their supporters gathered at the base of…
OTTAWA—Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared that the brutal nine-month battle to retake the city of Mosul was finally over. However, just four days later, explosions were still rocking the shattered rubble…
OTTAWA—The Liberal government certainly stirred up a flurry of emotion with last week’s announcement that Canada will pay out a whopping $10.5-million in compensation to Omar Khadr. Those who are firmly in the anti-Khadr camp howled…
OTTAWA—Last Thursday the Liberal government gave Canadians a pre-Canada Day gift in the form of an update on our military role in Iraq. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the…
OTTAWA—I recently had the opportunity to watch the new, made-for-Netflix movie War Machine, starring Brad Pitt. The subject of the film is the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, with Pitt playing the fictitiously named Lieutenant-General Glenn McMahon.…Politics This Morning
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