Members of the Military Police practice shooting with the C8 rifle at a weapons range earlier this month.
Defence Minister Jason Kenney says Canadian jet fighters will face no greater risk waging war in Syria, home to the hostile Assad regime and headquarters of the Islamic State, than they encountered over Iraq.
The Harper government, buoyed by polls that suggest a majority of Canadians support this military campaign, is dismissing concerns raised by critics about the safety and legality of this chapter in the fight against Islamic State forces.
- Who are Islamic State? Get caught up with The Globe’s primer
- A visual guide to the Middle East’s shifting relationships
Debate begins Thursday in the Commons on a motion to endorse the Tory plan to begin air strikes in Syria, a second front for Canada in this war, but also a sovereign country that hasn't granted Canadians permission to enter its airspace. Both major opposition parties oppose the expansion and extension of the mission until March, 2016, and debate will continue until midnight ET. A vote follows Monday.
The motion will easily pass because of the Conservative majority in the Commons but questions linger about how Canada can justify this intrusion under international law and whether Canadian Armed Forces members face greater threats operating over Syria, where the Bashar al-Assad's regime possesses anti-air defences and the Islamic State is being backed into a corner.
The Assad government, a pariah in the international community for waging war against its civilians, reportedly shot down a U.S. military drone in northwest Syria several weeks ago, an act widely interpreted as signalling there are limits to what the Syrian government will accept in terms of violations of its airspace.
The U.S. and several Mideast allies have been bombing targets in Syria for months and a Jordanian pilot whose plane crashed there last December was taken hostage and burned alive by Islamic State militants. The jihadis said they shot down the Jordanian plane but Jordan blamed mechanical problems.
Mr. Kenney insisted the risk in Syria is "relatively modest" for Canada.
"The military advice I have received is that the Syrian government has no radar-detection capabilities in that part of Syria and that [the Islamic State] has no equipment that could reach aircraft operating at these altitudes," he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, meanwhile, when pressed by Official Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair on how Canada rationalizes entering Syrian airspace under international law, mocked the question.
"I am not sure what point the Leader of the NDP is ultimately making. If he is suggesting that there is any significant legal risk of lawyers from ISIL taking the government of Canada to court and winning, the government of Canada's view is that the chances of that are negligible," he said, using another name for Islamic State.
Hours after Mr. Harper's flippant reply, the government followed up with a more detailed accounting of how it will formally justify operating in Syria. Bernard Trottier, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced Canada will proceed on the same basis as the United States did last fall when it began bombing inside Syria.
Mr. Trottier and foreign affairs officials said Canada will notify the United Nations by letter – as the Obama administration did – and cite Article 51 of the UN Charter, the self-defence clause that says a country can take individual or collective action on behalf of a member under armed attack.
Mr. Kenney said he's obtained a legal opinion from the military's Judge Advocate General justifying this action under Article 51 as a measure in the defence of Iraq that requires entry into Syria, where the regime has been unable to contain the Islamic State.
"Iraq has asked Canada and allied countries to help them defend their innocent civilians from terror attacks being launched out of eastern Syria in a part of that country the Syrian government either is unwilling or unable to control."
Mr. Kenney said Canada's self-defence argument is bolstered by the fact Islamic State has made threats targeting Canada.
The Conservatives are leaving the door open to bombing affiliates of Islamic State forces as well – a further expansion of the mission. "There are other organizations operating in tandem with [Islamic State] in Syria in the same areas, committing the same crimes," Mr. Kenney said.
One defence analyst said it's hard to accept that Syria does not carry more danger for Canada than Iraq because Ottawa will not be actively co-ordinating operations with the Assad regime and its air defence assets. It's also farther for search-and-rescue teams to travel to reach downed planes.
"I find it implausible to say that [about] operating in Syria, a greater distance from friendly coalition landing sites," David Perry, a senior analyst with the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, said.
Roland Paris, director of the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa, said the legal questions Mr. Harper dismissed are serious.
"Most of our allies are not bombing in Syria, and some have openly questioned the legal basis for doing so," Mr. Paris said. After all, we expect other countries to respect international law, including our adversaries."
He said Canada's bombing in Syria will indirectly help Bashar al-Assad. "Whether or not bombing ISIS targets in Syria is justified, it will have the effect of reducing the military pressure on the biggest human rights violator in the region."
The extended mission comes as the Canadian military is strapped for resources.
The parliamentary budget watchdog will issue a report Thursday that calls into question the military's ability to implement Canada's defence plan at current funding levels.