Yesterday, Jason Kenney went on a charm offensive to lay out the legal position on extending our bombing raids into Syria, most notably saying that we have authority under Article 51 of the UN Charter, with Iraq asking us to help them defend their borders while the Syrian government is unwilling or unable to. It’s pretty thin ice under international law, but if the Americans are doing it, apparently that’s good enough for this government. More dubious was Kenney saying that we’re acting in the “spirit of” Responsibility to Protect, to which Trudeau later made the point that one of the tenets of R2P is that you don’t make the situation worse, which could be the outcome if our bombing ISIS in Syria ends up solidifying Assad/ And what about Syrian air defences? Do we not need to coordinate with them so as to not get shot down? Kenney says there’s no ground radar in that part of the country, and that ISIS doesn’t have weapons capable enough of taking down our fighter jets. Kenney also made the claim that only the smart bombs that Canada and the US posses in the alliance are capable of doing the job, but experts are disputing that fact, pointing out that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also have the capability. In other words, this sounds like Kenney embellishing the truth again, which puts the veracity of his other statements into question as well. As for Harper, he started joking that we didn’t have to worry about ISIS’ lawyers taking us to court, when the bigger concern is actually other world leaders. You know, like Putin, for whom we are accusing of breaking international law for annexing the Crimea. Oh, wait a twisted little world it is.
Good reads:
- Yet more groups have testified that C-51 threatens to upset the balance between privacy and security agencies powers.
- Despite promising to keep up with humanitarian efforts in Iraq, the government is not promising any new aid money, saying it’s time other countries step up.
- The Chair of the CRTC slammed Bell Canada for their attempts to meddle with CTV’s news coverage on the pick-and-pay decision, and made compelling statements about the independence of the media.
- Christian “faith leaders” took to Parliament Hill to decry their religious freedom “under attack” because opposing religious-based homophobia is apparently “more rights” for gays and lesbians in their estimation.
Odds and ends:
Pierre Poilievre is digging in his heels on the Victims of Communism monument placement.
DND’s move to the old Nortel campus is facing even more delays, this time because of degrading seals on exterior windows on four of the buildings.
Patrick Brazeau’s lawyer kept up the attacks on the alleged victim’s credibility. The trial resumes April 2nd.