DND reported Saturday that a Canadian Special Forces Member, Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron was killed on Friday when members of the CAF Special Forces that are training Kurdish fighters were mistakenly engaged by Iraqi Kurds.
Three other members of the CAF were injured in the friendly fire incident, and are receiving medical care.
The Prime Minister, Defence Minister, and Chief of Defence Staff all provided their condolences to Doiron's family, friends, and colleagues.
Doiron's death has critics calling for the government to label the Iraq mission as a Combat mission, claiming a death would not have come on a non-combat mission. That is just not the case - Friendly fire accidents happen on many other training missions, including here in Canada, the United States and numerous other locations around the world.
Threats exist everywhere the CAF deploys - last month CAF personnel were in the town attacked by Boko Haram, and have relocated as part of further safety measures, as Canada does not want to become engaged in a firefight with Boko Haram.
Many critics are saying that if the CAF is not in a combat mission, why are we paying "danger pay?"
The answer to that questions is easy - its "Hardship" Pay - and the soldiers who guard our embassies in hard parts of the word - who are not in combat - receive similar "Hardship" pay. That includes CAF Special Forces training in Nigeria, and everywhere else around the world they are currently operating.
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