Sajjan admits Liberals are out of step with allies: Bezan and Paul-Hus

OTTAWA – National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s admission that withdrawing Canada’s CF-18s from the fight against ISIS is not something our allies want is an admission of failure, say Official Opposition Defence Critic James Bezan and Associate Defence Critic Pierre Paul-Hus. In a radio interview to be broadcast on Saturday, Minister Sajjan stated, in a response to a question regarding concerns of our allies, “Of course they want to keep our CF-18s there.”

“Minister Sajjan’s admission is just further proof that the Trudeau government is out of step with our allies in the war against ISIS,” said Bezan. “The Liberals have never been able to explain why withdrawing our CF-18s from the air combat mission is ‘responsible’ when our allies want us to stay.”

Next week, defence ministers from the coalition partners are meeting in Paris to discuss further efforts to degrade the ability of ISIS to spread its terrorism and genocidal ideology. Sajjan has said he will not be attending the meeting.

“Is Minister Sajjan skipping the meeting to avoid the ire of our allies?” asked Paul-Hus. “Or is the minister already accepting the Liberal government’s self-imposed diminished role and reduced influence in the coalition?”

As the Official Opposition, the Conservative Party has been calling on the government to keep the CF-18s in the fight against ISIS, as well as supporting a more robust training mission and increased humanitarian relief for the region.

“Unfortunately, the incoherent and contradictory messages coming from the Liberal government have only added to the confusion on the future of Canada’s contributions to the coalition,” said Bezan.