The government’s declaration that they wouldn’t stand in the way of Canadians who want to head to Iraq to fight against ISIS with the Kurdish forces there is raising a lot of questions, and deservedly so. One Ontario MPP’s Afghanistan-veteran son is joining the fight, and while said MPP is making all kinds of noise about being proud about his son defending freedom and democracy, it does raise further complications to the notion that people are privately going off to fight a war. One supposes that there is a history of this, with people heading over to fight the Spanish Civil War, but we also have international treaties and rules of engagement that Canada has signed onto. One has to wonder what liability the country now will be in if one of these private fighters goes over and violates these conventions or codes because they’re not part of a command-and-control structure, and because our government has basically given them the okay to do so. I don’t know that there’s an easy answer to this, but we should be at least having the discussion – particularly as it is on the flipside of the coin about our attempts to keep those who would head over to fight on behalf of extremist groups from leaving the country.

Good reads:

• Possibly as pre-emptive damage control to Tuesday’s Auditor General’s Report, the government announced $200 million over six years in new spending for mental health services in the military.
• Julian Fantino insists that the lapsed Veterans Affairs money “wasn’t lost” and that it’s all just technical budget stuff, but he hasn’t answered how it could have been spent in places that are facing cuts.
• The youth wing of the Quebec Liberals has some positions that are contrary to the party’s current policies! OH NOES! Hey, can we stop pretending like policy debate within the party is somehow traitorous? Or that it isn’t the job of the youth wing to challenge the party’s ideas?
• Less than two weeks until Justice LeBel retires from the Supreme Court, and we have no idea what kind of process the government is undertaking to find his replacement.
• What’s that? This government’s inability to manage military procurements has burned out and demoralised DND staff? You don’t say!
• Two more former NDP staffers are coming forward to claim wrongful dismissal and being offered money from the “union” in lieu of dropping grievances.
• Hackers have been targeting the City of Ottawa, Ottawa City Police and the Supreme Court of Canada websites over the weekend.

Odds and ends:

Here’s an interview with the new Chief Librarian and Archivist after six months on the job in an organisation in turmoil.