You may recall, on Friday last week I sent a letter to all of the opposition party leaders asking them to use their upcoming opposition day motions to prompt a debate on the military mission in Afghanistan. The NDP called for an emergency debate on Monday, but it was rejected unfortunately by the speaker. Today, […]
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RSS feed for this sectionRevealed: the Military's Draft Counterinsurgency Operations Manual
You may have heard last month that a draft version of a Canadian military counterinsurgency operations manual, obtained by NDP defence critic Dawn Black, drew a connection between First Nations groups and other counterinsurency groups faced by the military. It went on to describe how the military needs to influence public opinion at home in […]
NDP calls for Emergency Debate on Afghanistan
In light of the terrible events last week in Afghanistan that saw eight Canadians killed and the government spending more than a half billion dollars on Cold War-era tanks, I wrote to opposition party leaders uging them to bring in a motion to the House calling for a debate on this mission that is going […]
My letter to Opposition Party Leaders
In light of this week’s events, today I sent a letter to opposition party leaders appealing to them to raise the issue of the Afghanistan mission in Parliament when it resumes next week. Specifically, I am suggesting that the parties devote an opposition day motion to spur such a debate. It is my understanding that […]
A Sorrowful Prediction
As I write this, word that two more Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have been killed by roadside bombs, and several badly injured. This brings to eight the number of Canadians killed by “IED’s” in less than a week. In February I predicted that insurgent IED’s would lead to many casualties, just as they have among American forces in Iraq. I also tried […]
The militarization of Canadian culture
By MURRAY DOBBIN It is stunning how quickly the Canadian military can be recast as a key part of Canadian culture, especially now that we have abandoned our historic peacekeeping role. With no public debate, we now have a war-fighting military taking up more and more political space in Canada’s constellation of defining institutions. The […]