Canadian Special Forces Looking to Recruit more Women

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

Canada's special forces hope to recruit more than just a few good women in the coming years, says the commander of the elite force.

Maj-Gen. Mike Rouleau said the special forces, the highly trained military units that hunt terrorists and conduct covert operations, are considering how they can recruit more women.

More than just a nod toward society's growing demand for gender balance, having more women in the unit would make it more effective, he said.
'This is the future, and it is a bit of James Bond, but if you want to defeat a [terrorist] cellular-based network, you need to be in front of that cell'- Steve Day, former commander of counterterrorism unit

"Having female operators would allow us to be more flexible in the battlespace," Rouleau said in a recent interview. "It would allow us to be more under the radar in certain cases."

In certain countries, two men walking down the street might draw attention, but having a man and woman conduct the same mission might be less noticeable, Rouleau suggested.

A former commander of the country's elite counterterrorism unit, JTF-2, which is part of the special forces command, said the need for such mixed gender teams is something Canada's allies have already recognized.

The more special forces are called on to fight terrorists, the more they will have to act and fight like intelligence agents, rather "door-kicking" commandos, said retired colonel Steve Day, who is now president of Reticle Security.

"Our closest allies routinely deploy male and female alongside each other to do the softer, intelligence-gathering, sensor-type operations," he said.

"This is the future, and it is a bit of James Bond, but if you want to defeat a [terrorist] cellular-based network, you need to be in front of that cell, and at the moment, we're not there."
Clear criteria

Up to 14 per cent of the more than 2,200 Canadian special forces personnel are women, a percentage Rouleau said he wants to increase to 25 per cent.

That figure would be in line with the overall direction of the Canadian military, which has set the same goal.

"We're an equal opportunity employer," said Rouleau. "We'd love to have more women in the force."

It is, however, easier said than done.

Rouleau noted a handful of women currently serve in both the special forces command and the unit that responds to chemical, biological and radioactive incidents.

A few have even tried out for JTF-2, but none have gone on to take the training course, because they failed to qualify, he said.

In order to be successful, Day said, a cultural change is needed within the special forces that recognizes not only the value of women in the field, but the fact that the elite troops are capable of doing more than assaulting a target.

The very first introduction of women into the special forces ranks in 2003-2004 "didn't go over that well because organizationally we were quite immature when it came to understanding what the selection process would be," said Day.

"There was a lot of pushback and no end of short-term grief."

The problem is not simply gender bias, he added.

The selection process of an "assaulter" — a soldier well-suited to combat — is well documented, he said, but the criteria for choosing the best people for more intelligence-based operations is not as well defined. That needs to change, Day said.

Rouleau acknowledged his organization can do more to get out the message that "female operators are not only welcome, but in many cases, they would make us operationally more successful."
Army under strain

The Liberal government's defence policy, released last spring, mandated the expansion of special forces by up to 605 personnel, presenting all sorts of challenges beyond the gender issue.

At the moment, troops can only join the elite unit through the regular forces, and up to 94 per cent of those transfers come from the army.

The wider military is having its own problems.

The army currently sits at 47,000, which includes regular and reserve soldiers, as well as Canadian Rangers, who patrol the Arctic. But the regular force is short up to 1,500 troops from its allotted strength of 23,100, according to Department of Defence statistics.

Members of Canadian Forces Special Operations JTF-2 unit storm a ship during a training mission off the shores of Churchill, Man. in 2012. The nature of operations for special forces is changing to include more intelligence gathering. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Senior defence officials insist they're hitting recruiting targets, but retention of highly skilled members is a problem.

Drawing from an army that is struggling to keep qualified soldiers "is a concern," said Rouleau, who acknowledged he and his staff are looking for a direct-entry model similar to a program introduced by the U.S. Army, known as 18-Xray.

"You can't come from the street to be a special forces operator," said Rouleau. "But that doesn't mean in the future we won't have a model that you can come from the street.

"I'm not saying that's where we're going. I'm saying we're looking at alternate options to today's model to make sure that we're both capturing the talent that's out there, but also try, if we can, to alleviate some of the pressure from the services."

The American system gives recruits the opportunity to "try out" for special forces right away.

U.S.officials say it does not guarantee a recruit will be accepted, only that they will be given the opportunity to demonstrate they have "the right stuff."

Canadian Special Forces Dismantling Chemical Weapons in Iraq

By: Robert Fife, The Globe and Mail 

Canadian special forces have played a central role in hunting down, detecting and dismantling stockpiles of chemical weapons used by Islamic State militants in Iraq, according to sources with knowledge of the top-secret operations.

Some of these highly trained soldiers have advanced scientific degrees and used their specialized skills to decontaminate Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers affected by mustard gas.

Canada's special forces are made up of the elite JTF-2 counterterrorism force, regular commandos, a special helicopter detachment and the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit (CJIRU), which is responsible for responding to nuclear, chemical and biological attacks.

Soldiers with the CJIRU are among about 200 Canadian special forces deployed in northern Iraq focused mainly on training Kurdish fighters. Some of them recently helped in the battle to reclaim the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State, including a small number of CJIRU soldiers whose job was to search for and destroy chemical weapons.

Mosul was at the centre of the Islamic State's chemical-weapons production, mostly small batches of low-quality chlorine and sulphur mustard agents, but the hardline Sunni militants also had control over radioactive material at the city's university.

Sources, with knowledge of the activities of Canada's special forces in Iraq, but who were not authorized to speak on the record, have told The Globe and Mail that CJIRU soldiers detected and dismantled weaponized chemical components and hazardous material in Mosul between March and August of this year.

"It is a very, very highly capable organization that deals with very, very ugly situations," said retired lieutenant-colonel Steve Day, the former head of Canada's secret JTF-2 special-operations unit who worked alongside CJIRU soldiers.

"They have got both tactical training, so they can operate alongside special forces, but they also have technical training in their ability to handle biological, chemical or radioactive agents."

For security reasons, the sources would not discuss the exact nature of the operations that were conducted in eastern and western Mosul.

Major Alexandre Cadieux, who speaks for Canadian Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) in Iraq, said the military has a policy of not commenting on its special-forces activities and the role of CJIRU soldiers.

"The Canadian Special Operations Forces Command does not discuss the specific composition of its task forces … [and] does not discuss the exact threats that the SOTF detects against its personnel," Major Cadieux said in an e-mail.

The Washington Post reported in July that two caches of the highly dangerous cobalt-60 isotope used in radiotherapy-treatment machines in medical facilities was discovered on a university campus in Mosul. It is not known whether the Islamic State knew that the cobalt-60 could be used to make a dirty bomb, or whether they did, but were afraid of being exposed to the lethally high levels of radiation.

The Canadian military would not say whether CJIRU soldiers were part of the U.S. operation to retrieve the cobalt-60 radiation machines. Asked if Canada played a role in finding the radiation machines, Major Cadieux said the armed forces "will not provide information that could jeopardize, even indirectly, operations by Iraqi security forces and the [U.S.-led] coalition."

U.S. officials have confirmed that the Islamic State had gained control of small quantities of natural or low-enriched uranium from the days of Saddam Hussein's rule, as well as some relatively harmless radioactive iridium used in industrial equipment.

The Canadians, often working alongside their secretive U.S. counterparts, have highly specialized sensor equipment that allows them to sample, identify and characterize chemical and hazardous material. They are assisted in their operations by U.S. airborne sniffers that can detect radioactive and chemical agents.

"They have got the ability, in very small numbers, to do the decontamination and containment of the site," Mr. Day said. "Some of the [chemical weapons] are lethal within metres, some of them are lethal within hundreds of metres and that is what these men and women are doing."

Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city, was captured by Islamic State fighters in 2014 but government forces – with the help of U.S. and Canadian special forces – retook the city in late July in an operation that lasted six months.

Iraqi police have accused the Islamic State of using chemical weapons against their forces in Mosul. Most of these involved either the use of chlorine or sulphur mustard agents, delivered with mortars, rockets and improvised explosive devices.

The Islamic State has used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria at least 52 times according to the IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based research and intelligence-gathering group. A report by IHS said at least 19 of 52 attacks took place in and around Mosul.

Canada's Armed Forces established the CJIRU team in 2006. Its principal focus – working alongside the RCMP and Health Canada – is protecting Canada from a nuclear, radioactive, chemical or biological attack.

Mr. Day said only a small number of CJIRU member are sent overseas on military missions, such as Iraq.

"Their number one priority is the domestic response. That domestic capability is fenced off and thou shall not touch that capability except in times of emergency," Mr. Day said.

Cost Concerns Stall JTF2's Planned Move to CFB Trenton

By: David Pugliese, National Post 

As Canada’s special forces prepares to increase in size, a planned move of its counterterrorism unit from Ottawa to a larger base has been stalled.

The cost to move Joint Task Force 2 to a new installation at CFB Trenton has tripled to more than $1 billion.

The Department of National Defence says it is now going back to the Liberal government for a decision on how it wants to proceed.

JTF2 had planned to leave its Dwyer Hill facility in Ottawa after 2019 for a new installation at CFB Trenton. The previous Conservative government had authorized $346 million for construction of the new JTF2 site and the move of the unit.

But the special forces command has significantly added capabilities to the proposed site, expanding it beyond its original scope. That has driven costs up to about $1.2 billion.

The Liberal government recently announced it was boosting the size of Canada’s special forces by 605 personnel, although it’s unclear how many of those would be for JTF2.

Still, the military has been warning for years that the counterterrorism unit has outgrown its Dwyer Hill installation.

Last year, the Department of National Defence told the Ottawa Citizen it would have a decision on the move by this summer. But it now acknowledges there are no clear timelines for the project, if it happens at all.

“Due to the complexity of the project, the scope continues to be developed to meet minimum operational requirements,” the DND stated in an email. “The Department will seek further direction from the government on the implementation plan as the project progresses.”

Jordan Owens, a spokeswoman for Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, said the request for direction has not yet arrived from the military.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance has been warned the project is facing major risk in “cost and scope,” according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through the Access to Information law.

The military has been talking about the need for a new base for JTF2 since 2005. Among the options considered was an expansion of the existing Ottawa site or moving the unit to Garrison Petawawa.

In 2008, the Conservative government announced JTF2 would be relocated to CFB Trenton, but in 2014, DND officials said the unit would remain at its Ottawa location at least until 2019.

In a controversial move, the Conservative government in 2012 expropriated a 90-hectare farm, near the Trenton base. The farm’s owner, Frank Meyers, made an unsuccessful bid to have the expropriation stopped. The farm had been in his family for more than 200 years.

The military took over the property, tore down barns, and built a berm and some access roads. Little else has been done with the land.

Due to the complexity of the project, the scope continues to be developed to meet minimum operational requirements

Meyers’ supporters have asked the Liberal government to return the property, but it has declined to do so.

There are currently around 1,900 personnel in Canadian special forces. That will be increased to 2,500, but the Liberal government has not detailed the time frame in which this will take place.

The Liberals have also pledged to spend $1.5 billion on new equipment for the special forces. That gear will include new vehicles, surveillance aircraft and boats.

Canadian Special Operations Forces Command or CANSOFCOM oversees Joint Task Force 2, in Ottawa; the 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron and the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, both in Petawawa; and the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit, a Trenton, Ont.-based organization that deals with weapons of mass destruction.

The Liberal government defence plan also calls for new infrastructure for the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit, which will see additional personnel added to its ranks. Some existing buildings will be remodelled while other new facilities will be constructed at Trenton.

If JTF2 vacates its Dwyer Hill installation, the site will be offered up within DND and then to other federal departments. After that it could be offered to provincial and municipal governments. “If there is no interest at these levels, the property will be sold on the open market through an open and fair process,” a DND spokeswoman has said.

Canadian Elite Special Forces Sniper makes record-breaking kill shot in Iraq

By: Robert Fife, The Globe and Mail

A sniper with Canada’s elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a staggering distance of 3,450 metres.

Sources say a member of Joint Task Force 2 killed an Islamic State insurgent with a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle while firing from a high-rise during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq. It took under 10 seconds to hit the target.

“The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces,” said a military source, who stressed the operation fell within the strictures of the government’s advise and assist mission. “Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening.”

The kill was independently verified by video camera and other data, The Globe and Mail has learned.

“Hard data on this. It isn’t an opinion. It isn’t an approximation. There is a second location with eyes on with all the right equipment to capture exactly what the shot was,” another military source said.

A military insider told The Globe: “This is an incredible feat. It is a world record that might never be equalled.”

The world record was previously held by British sniper Craig Harrison, who shot a Taliban gunner with a 338 Lapua Magnum rifle from 2,475 metres away in 2009.

Previously, Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong had set the world record in 2002 at 2,430 metres when he gunned down an Afghan insurgent carrying an RPK machine gun during Operation Anaconda.

Weeks before, Canadian Master Cpl. Arron Perry briefly held the world’s best sniper record after he fatally shot an insurgent at 2,310 metres during the same operation. Both soldiers were members of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

JTF2 special forces are primarily tasked with counterterrorism, sniper operations and hostage rescue. Much of the information about this elite organization is classified and not commented on by the government. The unit’s snipers and members of Canadian Special Operations Regiment, who are carrying out the main task of training Kurdish forces, have been operating in tough conditions in Iraq.

The Trudeau government pulled CF-18 fighter jets out of Iraq in 2016 but expanded the military mission, which will see the number of Canadian special forces trainers climb to 207 from 69 in an assist, train and advise mission. Canadian commandos are not supposed to be involved in direct combat, but are authorized to go up to the front lines on training missions with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and to paint targets for coalition air strikes.

For operational security reasons, sources would not reveal the names of the elite Canadian sniper and his partner, nor the location where the action took place.

A sniper and his observer partner are often sent to remote and dangerous locations to hunt down insurgents while having to carry heavy equipment. Once they have located the target, snipers follow the same methodical approach before each shot. Breathe in, out, in, out, find a natural pause and then squeeze the trigger.

Canada has a reputation among Western military forces for the quality of its snipers, despite the small size of the Canadian Armed Forces compared to the United States and Britain.

“Canada has a world-class sniper system. It is not just a sniper. They work in pairs. There is an observer,” a military source said. “This is a skill set that only a very few people have.”

The skill of the JTF2 sniper in taking down an insurgent at 3,450 metres required math skills, great eyesight, precision of ammunition and firearms, and superb training.

“It is at the distance where you have to account not just for the ballistics of the round, which change over time and distance, you have to adjust for wind, and the wind would be swirling,” said a source with expertise in training Canadian special forces.

“You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that. And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth.”

U.S. Sergeant Bryan Kremer has the longest confirmed sniper kill shot by a U.S. soldier. He killed an Iraqi insurgent with his Barrett M82A1 rifle at 2,300 metres in 2004.

Canadian Forces Studying Options for Potential Syrian Deployment

By: Matthew Fisher, The National Post

The Canadian military has begun to study options for an operation in Syria, for the Liberal government to consider as U.S. president Donald Trump hints he may expand the 16-year-old war on terrorism by sending more troops to that country after the offensive to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIL concludes.

Officers familiar with how the military does long-range planning said that offering such choices — as well as examining ways Canada might continue to contribute to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq after the war there ends — was standard procedure. It is prudent to constantly prepare and update options regarding potential overseas deployment to hot spots in case the government of the day asks for them, they said.

What comes next for Canada and its allies is an obvious question, with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant holding only a sliver of land in Iraq and a much larger swathe of territory in Syria. Lt.-Gen. Steve Townsend, the U.S. ground commander for the wars in Iraq and Syria, expects ISIL to be defeated in both countries within six months. But nobody expects that ISIL, or its rivals, Al Qaeda, will be entirely eradicated for a very long time. There are fears the terrorist groups will go underground in those countries, increase their activities in Somalia or northern and central Africa or take their war global, launching more terrorist attacks on soft civilian targets, particularly in Europe.

It is not publicly known whether the Trump government has asked Ottawa to contribute troops or assist in other ways in the war against ISIL in Syria, or to take on other roles in the war on terror. But if there is anything to be taken from the example of the war in neighbouring Iraq, where Canada has been a participant since August, 2014, such a request is possible.

Canada is one of 17 countries currently assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Iraq. About Canadian 800 troops now involved in what the Canadian Forces calls Operation Impact. About 70 are elite Special Forces from the Ontario-based JTF2. They train, advise and assist Kurdish fighters and when at risk themselves, have occasionally joined the fight.

Other Canadians are targeting experts, based in Kuwait and Qatar, or work with Kuwait-based reconnaissance aircraft which help identify ISIL targets. A small team of Canadian doctors, nurses and technicians also runs a military hospital in the Kurdish city of Erbil, about 70 kilometres east of the front lines around Mosul.

The U.S. already has 500 Special Forces soldiers in Syria and has been preparing the American public for the possibility that more troops may soon be headed there. Gen. Joseph Votel, the U.S. commander responsible for overseeing military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, took journalists with him on a secretive tour of northern Syria last week. At an undisclosed location he told his media entourage that “take-no-prisoners fighting” was in the offing to capture ISIL’s Syrian hub, Raqqa, and that more troops may be needed to accelerate the war against ISIL there.

Any expansion of the coalition war in Syria is complicated by Russia’s political and military support for the government of Syrian President Bashir Assad. There remains confusion over to what extent Trump’s professed admiration for Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, will play a role in decisions made in Washington, particularly as the U.S. president’s top security advisers regard the Kremlin with deep suspicion. Turkey, which is a member of NATO that has improving ties with Moscow, also does not want Syrian Kurdish forces allied with the U.S. to become more powerful.

Canada is already indirectly involved in the war in Syria. Since December, JTF2 has been advising Iraqi Kurds deployed near the Syrian border in northwestern Iraq, in an attempt to prevent ISIL forces escaping from Mosul and reaching Syria. It had been involved in the air war in Syria until the Liberals ordered home the RCAF’s F-18s.

If Canada were to become involved militarily in Syria again it could send a small number of JTF2 troops there in an advisory role. Another possibility is that Canada could be asked to provide “boots on the ground” to help protect civilians from violence in safe zones that Trump has said he intends to establish to prevent the Syrian refugee crisis from worsening.

Canadian Brig.-Gen. Dave Anderson, who heads the coalition’s strategic advisory team in Iraq, told Postmedia in an interview late last year that discussions were already taking place then about how “we — that is, the Iraqi security forces — can not only take Mosul but hold it afterwards.” According to Trump’s most senior general, Joseph Dunford, the U.S. and NATO are considering a long-term military commitment to assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces who will be responsible for trying to prevent ISIL or other terrorist groups from regrouping. Canada’s Iraq mission could be extended indefinitely as part of that effort.

The potential ask for Canada to extend or expand its role in the region comes as Ottawa undertakes an open-ended commitment to lead a NATO battalion in Latvia from this June, and continue training missions in Poland and Ukraine.

Federal Government Does Not Understand CAF Special Forces

By: David Pugliese, Defence Watch 

Canada’s special forces aren’t being used enough because federal government officials don’t understand such units or have the structure to make the best use of them, according to a recently released report.

The eight-page report written by Queen’s University defence researcher Christian Leuprecht and H. Christian Breede, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, looked at the capabilities and future of Canada’s special forces.

“Canada currently lacks the policies, national security culture, mechanisms, processes, and methods to optimize the use of SOF,” Leuprecht said in a statement. “As a result, Canada’s SOF is undersubscribed and under-utilized.”

The authors recommend that defence decision-makers develop a more thorough understanding of the capabilities of Canadian special forces. They suggest, in particular, more knowledge is needed by decision-makers in how special forces differ in training and skills from conventional forces.

To maintain the capabilities of Canadian special forces, the authors also argue against the rapid or large-scale expansion of these units. That could water down capabilities, they add. “Given the CAF’s authorized troop strength and the qualities of an operator being as unique as they are, a rapid expansion would necessitate recasting the combination of desirable characteristics,” the report added.


In addition, the authors recommend only select and targeted collaboration with conventional force units.

The government also needs to decrease the amount of time it takes to make decisions on the use of special forces, which, in turn, would allow for the greatest number of options for the use of such units, the report suggests.

The publication of the document comes as the Liberal government conducts a defence review, expected to be completed in early 2017.

“With large-scale deployments of conventional combat forces improbable in the foreseeable future, SOF has emerged as the force of choice,” the report noted.

The Department of National Defence did not comment on the report.

Quagmire: Iraq could get messy for Canada

Adnan R. Khan, Maclean's 

Canadian Special Forces are in the thick of the battle around Mosul. What comes next?

The way the commander of the Canadian-trained Zeravani forces in northern Iraq describes it, the scene could have been lifted out of Mad Max. On Oct. 17, as a coalition of Iraqi army and Kurdish fighters launched the long-awaited offensive into ISIS-controlled Mosul, Iraq, Canada’s JTF2 Special Forces did what elite fighters are wont to do: they joined the fight. But according to Col. Majid—a veteran of the Zeravani, a commando unit linked to the Interior Ministry of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region—the Canadians didn’t simply roll in riding armoured vehicles alongside their Zeravani counterparts.

“They were smart,” says the 52-year old veteran soldier, clearly impressed by the Canadians’ bravado. “The six or seven of them that I saw rode in on those four-wheeled motorcycles. They were quick and mobile. They pushed forward with us. They fought the battle with us. They fired missiles and destroyed suicide vehicles.”

Over the two years that around 70 of Canada’s JTF2 Special Forces soldiers have been deployed to Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, their role has morphed from what Stephen Harper first described as a backseat “advise and assist” mission, to one in which the Liberal government has conceded Canadians would be near the frontlines but only engaging in “defensive” actions, to what today appears to be direct participation in offensive operations.

Defence Department officials in Ottawa are typically vague on the specifics. “To ensure the safety and protection of our deployed personnel, the exact details of ongoing operations will not be disclosed,” an email response to a Maclean’s query read. “Our mandate has not changed. We are there to train, advise, and assist.”

Colonel Majid, the deputy commander of the Zeravani frontline position in Khorsebat village at the Nawaran frontlines, north of Mosul. (Photograph by Adnan R. Khan)

But according to numerous interviews with Kurdish forces, conducted as Maclean’stoured the frontlines of the Mosul offensive last weekend, the Canadians played a significant role in the northern and eastern fronts led by the Kurds. The quad-riding commandos were perhaps the most dramatic example. But on other fronts near Mosul, Canadians were also in the thick of battle, helping the Kurds drive back Islamic State fighters and targeting suicide vehicles with anti-tank missiles.

The results have been impressive. Islamic State has collapsed on the fringes of its self-declared Iraqi capital. Village after village has fallen to the advancing Kurds, known as the peshmerga, paving the way for the Iraqi army to enter Mosul, which it did for the first time on Oct. 31, weeks earlier than expected.

Meanwhile, the Zeravani, which has been the main focus of Canada’s training mission in Iraq so far, has stopped its advance, digging into its positions, in some cases less than a kilometre from territory still controlled by Islamic State.

The Canadians have since pulled back as well, reverting to their advisory role. They can be seen driving around frontline positions in SUVs to consult with their Zeravani counterparts, though they refuse to speak to journalists. Unlike the U.S., Canada does not allow the media access to Special Operations soldiers. Here in Iraq, even the Zeravani joke about “Canada’s secret mission”—though there now appears to be nothing particularly secret about it.

The Canadian forward operating bases that dot the Zeravani-controlled fronts maintain the charade: concrete walls and razor wire surround the unmarked compounds. At one base, a group of soldiers, some shirtless in the 30° C heat, gather on a rooftop for some kind of meeting. A call to their translator requesting an interview produces a predictable, emphatic “no.”

It’s difficult to gauge what the danger might be, especially considering locals are perfectly aware Canadian soldiers occupy these compounds, and access to the fronts where they are located is strictly controlled by the Zeravani.

Smoke rises at Islamic State militants’ positions in the town of Naweran, near Mosul, Iraq on October 23, 2016. (Azad Lashkari/Reuters)

Back on the Zeravani frontline, despite a lull in fighting, the situation remains volatile. In Nawaran, 10 km north of Mosul’s outskirts, the Zeravani are in the process of fortifying their positions. ISIS was pushed out of this area on Oct. 20 but they have not gone far, in some places occupying villages less than a kilometre away. Armoured backhoes rumble over the reddish-brown earth, kicking up clouds of dust as they set up fresh berms and observation posts. Zeravani soldiers, mindful of Islamic State fighters nearby, lounge in the shade of concrete bomb shelters. Their nonchalance is not so much heroic as it is fatalistic: the only real danger here is mortar rounds, and mortar rounds are notoriously inaccurate. If one hits you, it is because the universe wishes it.

As if to make the point, a mortar lands with a dull thud not more than 400 m from the unfinished post, producing a telltale narrow plume of smoke. The Zeravani soldiers look on languidly. A few minutes later, a second round lands less than 200 m away. A few minutes after that, the Kurds respond with artillery fire. Then all falls silent again.

Related: Inside the mission to unite a country after ISIS

This is the back-and-forth poking and prodding that is typical to static frontlines. Earlier that morning, Col. Hussein Rashid, a deputy commander of the outpost, told Maclean’s that ISIS fighters had attempted to shift positions from a mosque in Derk village, a kilometre from his position, to a cluster of homes a few hundred metres away.

“Probably they were trying to set up a sniper position,” he surmises. “We called in an airstrike. I think we got them because there has not been any sniping today.”

The Nawaran frontline was a brutal battle, he adds, dominated by coalition airstrikes. All that is left of the nearest “liberated” village, Khorsabad, is a post-apocalyptic tangle of rubble and rebar, bristling with the booby traps that Zeravani commanders warn the retreating Islamic State fighters routinely leave behind.

While describing the battle, Hussein points out the hum of a coalition bomber circling overhead. “Out here, in the abandoned villages and open terrain, the militants are vulnerable,” he says. “Without human shields and the cover provided by buildings, any movement that reveals their positions is a death sentence.”

During the height of the offensive, it was here that Canadian Special Forces soldiers joined the battle in an armoured Humvee, Hussein adds. They also took up positions on a ridgeline overlooking the battlefield, firing mortars and directing the Zeravani forces below. “The Canadians did a lot to make sure we would win this battle,” Hussein says. “This whole area has been liberated because of their contribution.”

A few kilometres to the east, the battle was much different. The residents of Fazliya, a small town of about 6,000 nestled into the base of the ridge occupied by the Canadians, were not given the opportunity to escape before the Kurds arrived, forcing coalition bombers to avoid the kind of indiscriminate airstrikes that leveled Khorsabad.

Fazliya was left relatively intact, but its liberation was a preview of the much more difficult fight to come in Mosul, a sprawling city where an estimated 1.5 million civilians remain trapped. Unlike Khorsabad, which fell relatively quickly in the face of coalition airstrikes, Zeravani forces only managed to roll into Fazliya on Oct. 27, after a one-week siege. Locals say Islamic State fighters had retreated three days before the Zeravani arrived but the liberators took their time moving forward, fearing suicide bombers and snipers.

In the interim, Fazliya’s residents took the opportunity to cleanse themselves of all things Islamic State. Signs were torn down and the black flags of the self-declared caliphate removed. Locals raised white flags over their homes to signal to the Zeravani that it was safe to enter the town.

“The first thing I did was shave my beard,” says Ahmed, a 27-year-old former English teacher who lived through every day of the Islamic State’s 27-month long rule, providing only his first name. “Then I waited for the Kurdish forces to arrive.”

Now, not a single beard can be seen in Fazliya, a telling feature in a part of the world where Islamic conservatism is common. Many locals say they are worried about what comes next in their town. Rumours are spreading that Islamic State loyalists have also shaved their beards and melted in with the population.

Islamic State fighters are the immediate fear in this warzone, but a host of tensions dog the entire Mosul offensive. On Oct. 29, Iranian-backed Shia militias joined the fight, advancing from the west on the ISIS-held town of Tal Afar, 75 km from Mosul, in a bid to cut off supply lines to Syria. The move angered other ethnic and sectarian groups who fear the Shia will attempt to annex Mosul, a mixed city of Sunnis, Christians, Kurds and ethnic Turks. The ethnic and sectarian mix that has been Mosul’s pride for centuries now threatens to tear it apart.

But for Canadians, who have thrown in their lot with the Kurds, still bigger problems loom. The Zeravani say they are done pushing forward. A deal signed between them and Iraq’s central government stipulates that the Kurds will not participate in the fight to take Mosul city. The agreement has broad support in Iraqi Kurdistan. Eliminating Islamic State outside traditional Kurdish territory has never been the prime objective for the Kurds. Over the last two years, they have steadily expanded their territory in northern Iraq, filling the political vacuum as their forces have liberated territory occupied by ISIS. Kurds now control Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 175 km southeast of Mosul. With the help of Canada’s elite soldiers, the Kurdistan Region has ballooned to the east and south.

Helping the Kurds claim land from the Iraqi government for a future independent Kurdistan was never Ottawa’s intention, but it’s looking increasingly like this is what has happened. Col. Hussein, the Zeravani commander on the Nawaran front, says the Kurds have no plans to retreat back to Kurdistan’s official border once ISIS is defeated. “Mosul is not a Kurdish city,” he says. “It’s for Arabs. But the territory we have liberated belongs to the Kurds. God willing, it will remain with the Kurds.”

Iraq’s central government is not, of course, on the same page. Prime Minister Haider al Abadi has repeatedly warned the Kurds not to use the fight against Islamic State as an excuse to annex Iraqi territory.

The first signs of future conflict have begun to surface in Khazer, where Canada helped the Zeravani push even deeper into Iraqi territory. The advance, which launched the Mosul offensive, was fast and furious, lasting only a day and coming to a halt near Tarjala, a village nearly 10 km west of Kurdistan’s official border. From there, Iraqi Special Forces took the lead, pushing further west toward Mosul.

The meeting point of the two armies has become something of a de facto border. A few short metres are all that separate a Zeravani checkpoint from its Iraqi counterpart on the east-west road between Mosul and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region. Villagers who have taken shelter at camps for the internally displaced in Kurdistan are given permission slips by the Zeravani to return to their liberated villages but are then, after walking a few steps, rejected by the Special Forces.

“Look,” says a captain manning the Special Forces checkpoint, who refused to provide his name, “this slip is from the Zeravani. We are Iraqi army. They have their rules; we have ours. Sometimes the rules don’t match.”

Indeed, there appear to be no clear rules for how Iraq will sort itself out once the Islamic State is eliminated, nor have the limits to Canada’s involvement in the fight been clearly identified. Defeating ISIS has underpinned Ottawa’s rationale for sending aid to the Kurds, but now that the Kurds have stopped fighting Islamic State, what comes next? The fight for Mosul itself is expected to take weeks, if not months. Canada, if its support remains firmly with the Kurds, will be spectators to that battle.

But Canada’s relationship with the Zeravani also appears to be on shaky ground. While Zeravani commanders laud the contribution Canadian soldiers made during the Mosul offensive, they criticize Canada’s failure to provide the training and materiel they were promised. “The training they gave us was nothing new,” says Ato Zebari, the deputy commander of the Zeravani forces in Khazer. “We went through it expecting they would also provide us weapons. Then they promised they would set up a commando brigade of Zeravani. They said they would equip it and train it. That never happened.”

Zebari’s gripe is not unfounded. During a visit to Khazer in April, Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance spelled out a plan to transform the Zeravani into an elite fighting force with “the weapons necessary to do the job they need to do.” The goal, he added, was to have the commando force ready for the Mosul offensive. That has not happened and no one knows exactly why, largely because of the secrecy surrounding Canada’s mission.

Defence officials in Ottawa are vague about exactly how that mission will evolve beyond defeating Islamic State. But based on its response to email queries, the emphasis on supporting the Kurds has changed.

“The Government of Canada is responding to the Government of Iraq’s request for military assistance in supporting their efforts to counter the threat presented by Daesh,” officials said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “We are continuing our planning efforts toward providing equipment to Iraqi Security Forces.”

The Kurds, front and centre during Vance’s April tour of the Zeravani frontlines, were not mentioned.

In the weeks and months ahead, some hard questions will need to be answered. What exactly was Canada’s goal in Iraq? Did officials know they were helping the Kurds build up an army for a future independent Kurdistan? Should that support continue post-ISIS? Canada’s elite soldiers have proven themselves on the battlefield, once again. Now it’s up to the politicians to prove it was worth it.

JTF2 Planned Move Triples in Cost; now over $1B

By: David Pugliese, National Post

OTTAWA — The cost for a new Canadian special forces base planned for the Trenton, Ont., area has more than tripled and is now estimated to be more than $1 billion.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance has been warned that the project to move the Joint Task Force 2 commando unit from Ottawa to Canadian Forces Base Trenton is facing major risk in “cost and scope,” according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through the Access to Information law.

The unit had planned to leave its Dwyer Hill facility in Ottawa after 2019 for a new installation at CFB Trenton. Whether or not that happens is now unclear.

The previous Conservative government had authorized $346 million for building of the new JTF2 site and the move of the unit.

But special forces have significantly added capabilities to the proposed site, expanding it beyond its original scope, which has driven costs up to about $1.2 billion.

Concern has been building inside National Defence headquarters about the growing cost of the facility.

The Liberal government is in the midst of a defence review, which is expected to shift money to top military priorities and new initiatives. There is concern that if the costly JTF2 base proceeds, then funding will be drawn away from the army, navy or air force, a government source said.


The project continues to refine the scope to meet minimum operational requirements within budget constraints.

Department of National Defence spokesman Evan Koronewski said the project, which is in the design phase with architectural and engineering studies underway, has yet to receive further direction from government. “The project continues to refine the scope to meet minimum operational requirements within budget constraints,” he said in an email. “Once the design is substantially complete, the department will seek further direction from Treasury Board on the implementation plan.”

“This decision is not anticipated until late summer 2017,” added Koronewski. “Unfortunately, there are no other updates available at this time.”

Rick Norlock, the former Conservative MP for Northumberland–Quinte West, also hinted at the cost issues last year while he was still in government. “It’s now hugely more expensive than originally” planned, Norlock told CJBQ, a Belleville radio station.

Last year DND spokeswoman Ashley Lemire noted the initial cost estimate for the special forces base was done in 2006.

The military has been talking about the need for a new base for JTF2 since 2005. Among the options considered was an expansion of the existing Ottawa site or moving the unit to CFB Petawawa.

In 2008, the Conservative government announced JTF2 would be relocated to CFB Trenton, but in 2014, DND officials said the unit would remain at its Ottawa location at least until 2019.

Last year the Citizen reported that DND was looking for a one-year extension. It wanted to spend $17 million to hire a contractor to provide maintenance and support services for JTF2 at Dwyer Hill from 2017 to 2020.

In a controversial move, the Conservative government in 2012 expropriated a 90-hectare farm, near the Trenton base, that was owned by Frank Meyers. The farm had been in the Meyers family for more than 200 years and a bid to stop the expropriation failed.

The military took over the property, tore down barns, and built a berm and some access roads. Little else has been done with the land.

Meyers’ supporters have asked the Liberal government to return the property but it has declined to do so.

Once JTF2 vacates its Dwyer Hill installation, the site will be offered up within DND and then to other federal departments. After that it could be offered to provincial and municipal governments. “If there is no interest at these levels, the property will be sold on the open market through an open and fair process,” a DND spokeswoman has said.

JTF2 is “jewel in the crown” of Canada’s Special Forces

By: BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH Ottawa Bureau Toronto Star

PETAWAWA, ONT.—They deployed to Vancouver in 2010, ready to intervene if terrorists took aim at the Winter Olympics.

When a gunman murdered a soldier at the National War Memorial and stormed Parliament Hill in 2014, these soldiers readied their gear and helicopters prepared to move the team into action.

They are Canada’s insurance policy against the worst-case scenario when a terror strike proves more than local police forces can handle.

At Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, members of the Canadian Special Forces go through a variety of training exercises, including a live-fire drill. (RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR)

Joint Task Force 2 is the oldest and most skilled of Canada’s special forces units. Its experienced members — the average age is 37 — are known as “assaulters” and if they’re coming in your front window, it’s a bad day for someone.

In April, the Toronto Star and CTV News were given exclusive access to Canada’s special forces mission in northern Iraq, where Canadians are training Kurdish peshmerga soldiers, and later to their training facilities at Garrison Petawawa.

With its counterterrorism mandate, JTF2 is at the heart of what Maj.-Gen. Mike Rouleau calls the “home game” for the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, which he heads.

JTF2, along with the unit trained to handle chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, make up the “national mission force,” to respond to a domestic terror incident.

“JTF2 is always on a pretty coiled spring to be able to respond,” said Rouleau, himself a former JTF2 member.

“We can see the nature of crises, the Paris attacks, what happened in Brussels. These things happen very quickly. The modus operandi of the terrorist is actually to kill as many people in as short a time as possible,” Rouleau said.

Yet Rouleau cautions that JTF2’s involvement in any crisis would come only after consultations with cabinet ministers and it was clear that the incident was beyond the ability of local law enforcement to manage.

“We’re not first responders,” he said.

“You don’t use military force of that description unless you’ve exhausted what’s available in the law enforcement portfolio. Clearly, using JTF2 in a counterterrorism sense means that the situation has gotten to the point where you need that level of tool for the problem,” Rouleau said.

He offered the example of a hijacked aircraft at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport as one scenario that might call for an intervention by JTF2.

“That is a very, very complex problem to go and rescue hostages in a structure like that. . . We train for that rigorously,” Rouleau said.

“We are capable of assaulting what we call any stronghold in Canada, whether it’s a train, an airplane, a ship, a building, moving vehicles,” Rouleau said.

“That’s the domestic counterterrorism mandate for that worst-case scenario, should it ever happen,” he said.

Even as Rouleau took the wraps off some elements of special forces capabilities and personnel, JTF2 was kept firmly in the shadows. But in an interview, he offered some details about the unit, which he calls the “jewel in the crown” of the special forces command.

“It is the one that has the most highly specialized and precise skill sets in CANSOFCOM (the acronym for Canadian Special Operations Forces Command). Precision shooting, moving, communicating, intelligence support, sustainment. All of it is extremely precise. It has enormous value added in a non-lethal sense as much as a lethal sense,” Rouleau said.

“It’s a unit that can be deployed against a wide spectrum of issues or crises. It can be very low signature. It can be very clandestine in the way that it is used,” he said.

One source familiar with JTF2 said the skills of the unit’s members come from the time devoted to training.

“What makes JTF2 good is the training. The missions are demanding and the intensity in planning is much more demanding,” the source said. “When you’re not on mission, you train.”

Operating from their base in Dwyer Hill, just outside Ottawa, JTF2 dates back to the early 1990s, when the military took over the role that had been done by the RCMP’s special emergency response team.

In those early days, JTF2 had fewer than 100 people. By 2006, its capabilities and manpower had significantly expanded, primarily as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

Today, Rouleau describes it as a “very big unit” though he doesn’t disclose numbers. It’s organized into squadrons — several of them assault squadrons — while others provide support in areas such as technology.

From its original domestic mission, JTF2 has done missions abroad in places such as the Balkans and Rwanda. Its members protect the prime minister and other high-level VIPs when they visit hot spots such as Iraq.

JTF2 soldiers have also readied for potential rescue missions when Canadian citizens have been taken hostage abroad. Yet JTF2’s role, if any, in the release of kidnapped Canadians has never been publicly disclosed. Nor will the military discuss whether JTF2 troops were in the Philippines, where two Canadians were recently killed by their captors.

Rouleau says it was in Afghanistan that JTF2 proved its mettle and earned the respect of allies. JTF2 first deployed there in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks and remained for almost a year. During that first tour, the unit was largely unknown among other allied soldiers. “At the beginning, people said, ‘Who the f--- is JTF2?’ ” one soldier recounted to the Star’s Allan Woods in a 2010 interview.

JTF2 returned to Afghanistan in 2005. Their task was often what Rouleau describes as “kill and capture” missions.

“We would work essentially only at night, basically doing raiding on specific targets of interest, bomb makers, commander and control facilitators, key commanders with a view to capturing them so that they could be exploited for their intelligence value,” Rouleau said.

Similar raids by American special forces soldiers proved controversial at times when Afghan leaders complained that innocent civilians were being caught in the crosshairs.

Rouleau, who commanded Canadian missions in Afghanistan, said the work of special forces troops saved many Canadian lives by “chipping away at the IED networks and the command and control structure of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.”

“There’s no question about it that JTF2 really earned its international bona fides after 9/11,” Rouleau said.

10th Anniversary of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command

DND Press
Article / February 2, 2016

On February 1, 2016, the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) celebrated its tenth anniversary.

In 2005, General Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) asserted that “We need an integrated Canadian Forces that consists of maritime, air, land and special forces, woven together to make a more effective military.” Subsequently, he declared that he intended “on bringing JTF 2, along with all the enablers that it would need, to conduct operations successfully into one organization with one commander.” As result, on 1 February 2006, the CDS created CANSOFCOM as part of his larger transformation initiative. The Command included a headquarters, JTF 2, the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit (CJIRU), the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR), and 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron (SOAS).

CSOR Operators on Patrol in Afghanistan (Undated Photo DND)

Ten years into its existence, CANSOFCOM has proven itself as an integral national capability. It has conducted operations domestically and around the world, particularly in combat theatres and countries at risk. Throughout the past decade its members have demonstrated a high level of professionalism and expertise. Importantly, the Command has provided DND and the Government of Canada with a unique capability that is unmatched elsewhere in the Canadian Armed Forces or any other governmental department.

Canada’s history with special operations goes back to its beginnings as a French colony. Specifically, Canada’s SOF traditions can be traced back to la petite guerre conducted by the French-Canadian raiders during the struggle for colonial North America. Their daring and aggressive raids allowed the embryonic nation to punch above its weight in the battle for North America.

This tradition created a legacy that lives on to this day in the nation’s SOF forces. It was next resurrected in the Second World War as Canadians wrote a new chapter of national SOF history. Canadian participation in the British Special Operations Executive, responsible for sabotage and subversion in Occupied Europe, was the earliest example. Canada also created the Viking Force, its own version of the famous British Commandos, as well as the Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando “W.” In addition, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, which boasted a 30 percent selection rate, as well as the Canadian component of the First Special Service Force, also known as the “Black Devils,” were stood up. Notably, all contributed to a proud national record in the conduct of special operations.

The special operations mandate in the post-war era fell to the Canadian Special Air Service Company, which existed between 1948 to 1949 and then to the Canadian Airborne Regiment (Cdn AB Regt), which spanned from 1968 to 1995. The Cdn AB Regt’s mandate was to deploy into an operational theatre within 48 hours to provide “a force capable of moving quickly to meet any unexpected enemy threat or other commitment of the Canadian Armed Forces,” as well as “special forces types of tasks.”

In was not until the mid-1990s, however, that Canada’s modern SOF capability began to truly take shape. On 1 April 1993, the Department of National Defence (DND) took over the national hostage rescue / counter-terrorism responsibility when it created Joint Task Force Two (JTF 2) to replace the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Special Emergency Task Force (SERT).

The deployment of a JTF 2 special operations task force to Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 (9/11) terrorist attack in New York became a turning point for the unit, and for Canadian SOF at large. Much like many of its predecessors, JTF 2 carved its reputation in combat and earned its recognition internationally as a Tier 1 SOF unit. Continued combat duty in Afghanistan from 2005 to cessation of Canadian combat operations in 2011 simply reinforced its international credibility.

Cabinet Reviewing Options to Bolster OP IMPACT

Written by Robert Fife With a report from Campbell Clark, The Globe and Mail 

The federal cabinet is reviewing options to bolster Canada’s role in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State that run the gamut from maintaining surveillance and refuelling aircraft to clandestine operations, military and government officials say.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the election to pull Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets out of the bombing mission but pledged a more robust training mission for the Canadian military.

Military sources, speaking on background, say General John Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, has placed at least six options before the cabinet for vetting that include a substantial role for Canadian Special Operations Forces but also for the regular army.

Cabinet is expected to make a decision within the next 30 days.

“We have a lot of choices to make and we have our own means, and we must conduct a rigorous selection with the Minister of Defence, the Minister of International Development, the Prime Minister. We are looking at that very attentively,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, told The Globe and Mail Tuesday.

Canada has 69 special forces training Kurdish soldiers and 600 Air Force personnel in Kuwait, where six CF-18s are based along with two surveillance planes and one refuelling tanker.

Sources say the wide-ranging recommendations to cabinet include:

• Retaining surveillance and refuelling aircraft in Kuwait;
• Sending up to 150 special forces to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters;
• Using regular Canadian army trainers for Iraqi security forces;
• Training Iraqi troops in nearby Jordan;
• Training Iraqi police and increasing humanitarian assistance;
• Using elite Joint Task Force 2 commandos in black ops in Iraq and Syria like Canada did in Afghanistan.

Military experts say cabinet is almost certain to accede to the Pentagon’s request for Canada to continue to provide its refuelling tanker and Aurora spy aircraft.

Retired Lieutenant-General Ken Pennie, a former commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, said Canada’s refuelling aircraft allows coalition fighter jets to operate 24-7 while the Auroras are outfitted with sophisticated radar and optical systems to identify Islamic State militants on the ground.

“The enemy forces out there don’t present a really easy target. They are hiding in schools and in hospitals. They don’t move around in large concentrated groups … so the Auroras are really value-added because they can find these targets,” he said.

Retired Major-General David Fraser, a former commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said the proposal to conduct training exercises in Jordan would face opposition from the coalition and within Iraq.

“Politically, it makes a lot more sense to us because you don’t have to worry about Canadian Forces getting in firefights, but from an operational point of view the Iraqis and Kurds won’t like that at all.”

Mr. Fraser said Gen. Vance would almost certainly propose clandestine operations by Canada’s elite JTF2 commandos, although the Foreign Affairs Minister was quick to rule that out.

“We said very clearly during the election campaign that we wanted to end direct combat activities. So if that’s the question, it’s not part of what we are considering doing. But what is left to do is so enormous anyway, we won’t be short,” Mr. Dion said.

Mr. Dion said Canada can play a role in helping to stabilize liberated Iraqi towns and cities by helping to train police and local militias.

Regardless of what the government decides, Mr. Fraser said it’s unlikely to win Canada many accolades from the United States and Western allies whose fighter jet pilots are bombing Islamic State targets.

“If we don’t have our fighter jets, we are not going to have much of a voice,” he said. “We won’t get much recognition. Strategically, at the political level, we are going to lose here.”

Report: JTF2 Relocation Delayed

According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen published today, by Defence insider David Pugliese the Department of National Defence's planned relocation of the special forces JTF2 Unit from its Ottawa location at Dwyer Hill to CFB Trenton is facing at least a year delay and a significant increase in the cost required to move.

JTF2 is Canada's anti-terrorism special forces, and they have been looking for a new home since 2005. Their current facility, Dwyer Hill, just outside Ottawa is an 80-hectare site that was formerly a horse farm which was purchased by DND in 1993 with the creation of JTF2. The site is designed for counter-terrorism training and includes; a pool, multiple firing ranges, and a rappel tower.

In 2008 the Conservative government announced that it would relocate JTF2 from its Ottawa facility to CFB Trenton, which would grant it more access to military transport aircraft which are flown out of Trenton. It also places the team on the 401 Highway, allowing for rapid deployment to Toronto or Montreal if they are needed. Stationing JTF2 in Trenton also places them next to the Canadian Forces Joint Incident Response Unit - which are responsible for  nuclear, biological, and chemical incidents. The Canadian Special Forces Regiment, are currently stationed at CFB Petawawa, and will stay there.

The initial estimate to more JTF2 was $346 million, which included moving, decommissioning, and building a new facility. The amount of the increase has not been disclosed, but an increase has been discussed, as well as delays. JTF2 is supposed to be in Trenton by 2019, but current contractor documents suggest they will still be occupying Dwyer Hill until at least 2020. That extension from 2019 to 2020 is costing $17 million.

DND has announced they still plan to move JTF2 - and will offer the site to other DND units following its Special Forces decommissioning. If no one at DND wants the site, it will be offered to Federal or Provincial departments. Following that, if no one steps forward to wanting the site, it will sell it on the open market in a fair and open process.

Canada in Iraq: Possible Increase in CAF Deployment

Members of Op IMPACT carry the flag draped casket of Sgt. Doiron in Kuwait
on March 9 2015. Photo; CF Combat Camera

Canada's current mission in Iraq is set to expire April 7 2015, but no one expects Canada to withdraw from Operation IMPACT at that point. Defence Minister Kenney and Foreign Affairs Minister Nicholson both have said on the record that Canada is in the fights against ISIS for the long run. Even the Prime Minister has said Canada will not sit on the sidelines.

As the Conservative Cabinet gets to planning Canada's expected extension to the mission the consideration of deploying more Special Forces trainers to Norther Iraq is being considered. The Special Forces regiment in Petawawa has said they are ready for whatever the government asks of them, and are able to deploy quickly as the supply chain is already in place.

It was released yesterday that members of Canada's secret JTF2 group recently finished a tour in Northern Iraq before being replaced by the Special Forces Regiment out of Petawawa.

Col. (Ret) Day, former commander of JTF2, said yesterday that he wants to see an increase in the mandate of the mission, calling for Canada and other Western nations to allow their Special Forces to 'Manhunt' ISIS leaders, financiers, and supply coordinators.

Australia recently announced an increase of 300 soldiers headed to Iraq. So Canada might likely follow suit, or they could keep the status-quo.

Another option being considered is expanding the Air campaign into Syria, and the RCAF says they are ready for whatever the government asks them, but all decisions will be made by the government.

Canadian Spec. Ops wrap up in Malaysia

Canadian Special Forces members have been in Malaysia, helping train Malaysian special forces for a while, and the closing ceremonies for the training mission where held on February 19th 2015.

These training missions have been the go to for the Canadian Special Forces Regiment (CSFR) in recent years, training in; Mali, Niger, Jamaica, Belize, Kenya, Jordan, Afghanistan, and most recently in Iraq. The CSFR is considered one of the best in the world for what they do. CSFR included the Petawawa based regiment and JTF2 just outside Ottawa.

Malaysian forces have been invited, and are currently in Canada, training in Cold weather operations and techniques.

A rotation of training exercises between Canada and Malaysia will continue for the next two years.