Deceit and Mendacity of Canada's Defence Minister

Peter MacKay, Canada's Minister of National Defence, has once again practiced deceit and mendacity with the Canadian people.

MacKay revealed on Sunday, 7 November 2010, that Canada would keep troops in Kabul as part of a plan to extend the country's mission in Afghanistan and convert it into a non-combat role after 2011.

MacKay said the government was contemplating transitioning from a combat role to a non-combat training role, but he did not offer exact numbers about troops to be involved.

Speculation is that up to 750 trainers and at least 200 support staff would work outside the combat zone at a training academy or large training facility for Afghan soldiers and police officers.

Canada's combat mission, which involves up to 3,000 troops, is due to expire in July 2011 in accordance with a motion passed in Parliament. But allies, including the United States, have pressured Canada to remain.
There has been intense pressure from other allied nations, in NATO in particular, to see Canada extend its combat mission.
NATO has said it will leave Afghanistan in 2014 and hand over all security to Afghan forces.

This statement of policy contradicts what MacKay claimed in April 2010.

As reported by Ethan Baron, Canwest News Service, Saturday 10 April 2010:

SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan -- Canada will continue to train the Afghan police force after the military mission in the war-torn country officially ends next year, says the federal defence minister.
Peter MacKay said Saturday that despite U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s urging that Canada keep soldiers in Afghanistan past 2011, the military mission will end.
“We will work within the parameters of the parliamentary motion, which states very clearly that the military mission will come to an end in 2011,” Mr. MacKay said from Kandahar while visiting Afghanistan with Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose.

Note in the statement attributed to MacKay in April that the parliamentary motion refers to military mission, not combat mission. MacKay is attempting to deceive Canadians about what Parliament has approved so that he can sneak through support for the continuing imperialist aggression by the US war criminal regime and its NATO flunkies.