Canadian Bombing Strikes in Iraq Likely Killing Civilians

Canadian Bombing Strikes That Appear to Have Killed Civilians Since Justin Trudeau Took Power in 

November, 2015.

Date	Location	Countries involved	Civilians Killed
November 19	Mosul	Canada/US/UK	10-13
December 3	Mosul	Canada/US/UK	2
December 9	Ramadi	Canada/US/UK	4
December 13	Mosul	Canada/US/UK	3-4
December 31	Mosul	Canada/US/UK	10
January 14	Tikrit	Canada/US/UK/France	Unknown number of  “friendly fire” casualties
January 15	Mosul	Canada/US/UK/France	36

Since Trudeau’s election, Canada has bombed Iraq on 52 separate occasions (including February 3, 2016). Canada's military has been dropping 500-lb. bombs on the Iraqi people (and sometimes in Syria) since November, 2014. Trudeau promised he would the bombing upon election. In the first week of December, Stephane Dion stated the bombing would end "within weeks." Two months later, it continues unabated.

Because there is no concern for civilian casualties amongst the bombing powers, there is no effort to link specific acts of bombing to those killed by them. In fact, most governments insist there have been no civilians killed.This chart is based on information provided by Canada's own War Dept. and airwars.org; it indicates which countries bombed the same location on particular days when reports of civilian casualties were gathered.

That stunning disregard for human life was illustrated perfectly by Canadian attempts to cover up the CF-18 slaughter of some 30 Iraqi civilians in January 2015, an air strike that only came to light eight months later when The Globe and Mail reported on documents released not by Ottawa but by the Pentagon. They indicated that:

"[t]he Canadian military made it clear to the United States shortly after the alleged incident that it felt no obligation under the Geneva Conventions to probe what happened, the Pentagon records show. 'It should be noted that Canadian Joint Operations Command [legal advisers] opinion is that, under the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) there are no obligations for the Canadian Armed Forces to conduct an investigation.'"

That work of documentation is left to groups like airwars.org. In any event, these are dates in which Canadians have bombed, often in conjunction with other countries, and civilians have been reported killed. This is likely a conservative estimate given limited reporting sources on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

Source: Homes not Bombs: Because Canada should build homes, not blow them up. tasc@web.ca