Although the incident took place Sept. 18, 2018, the troops from Garrison Petawawa continued to voice their concerns last year about whether their complaints about the training of potential war criminals were ever acted upon.
“These acts included violence pertaining to rape, torture and execution,” said a September 2020 briefing to the commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment at Garrison Petawawa.
Later, back in Canada, the soldiers who reported their concerns tried unsuccessfully to find out if their complaints had prompted any action. The incident in Iraq was reported three times to military leaders. “We remain uncertain whether appropriate action was effectively taken,” stated the briefing sent by one soldier through his chain of command.
But a source familiar with the military’s response noted the soldiers were told the matter was mentioned in an after-action report and they shouldn’t have been surprised by the situation they faced in Iraq. One month before the Canadian soldiers reported their concerns, Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, then Canadian commander of the NATO training mission in Iraq, told journalists he was confident the alliance would be successful in screening out any war criminals. Military personnel would teach Iraqi military instructors various skills under the program and they would in turn pass on those skills to other Iraqi troops.
Operation Impact started in 2014 with the Canadian military at first contributing fighter jets and special forces to the war against ISIL. The Liberal government later withdrew those aircraft, but expanded the training mission by special and regular forces.
Send in JustinTrudeau for another military photo-shoot ... that will scare them out of the Iraqi ranks!
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