Canada's ISIS fight must factor in 'ripple effect,' Harjit Sajjan says

Canada must factor in the "ripple effect" new decisions could have on security around the world as it considers future contributions to the fight against Islamic extremists, says Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who is conducting a full review of the country's defence policies.

"When we look at the decisions we make, the policies we create, we have to figure out what ripple we're creating," Sajjan said at a foreign policy event in Ottawa on Friday.

"We may not be able to control all the ripples that are out there, but we can control the ripples that we create."

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Prime Minister JustinTrudeauhas pledgedto withdrawing Canada's fighter jets from the U.S.-led bombing mission against ISIS, but has yet to say when theairstrikeswill wind down.

With Canada's commitment scheduled to end at the end of March, Sajjan is under increasing pressure to provide details of the government'snext steps in the effort to counter the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

"I get questions a lot about operational impact, and 'Why aren't you coming up with a plan?'"Sajjansaid in Ottawa on Friday.

"I want to make sure that I have a good understanding of the situational awareness of what we'regetting into, so that our contribution to the coalition is meaningful."

"And sometimes the contribution may not be with a stickbut that stick will only buy you time to figure out the real problem," he said.

Harjit Sajjan on defence policy 'ripple effect'

9 years ago

Duration 0:25

In a speech in Ottawa Friday, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Canada and its allies must be aware of "ripples" caused by defence and development policies in unstable regions.

Afghanistan offers cautionary tale

Sajjan, whoserved as a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Armed Forcesbefore entering politics, said "a hard assessment" of the past 10 years was needed before moving forward.

Some of our development strategies of the coalition partners early on in Afghanistan helped create the corruption that fuelled the insurgency.Harjit Sajjan, minister of national defence

In his opinion,some of the decisions made by the U.S., Canada and other coalition partners involved in the mission in Afghanistan are partly to blame for global security getting "worse."

"Some of our development strategies of the coalition partners early on in Afghanistan helped create the corruption that fuelled the insurgency," Sajjansaid on Friday.

The minister of national defencesaid a surge of U.S.troops in Afghanistancould have been unnecessary if action had been taken at the "first clues of corruption."

Sajjanrecounted what a ground force commander in Iraq once told him to illustrate why theWest must avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

"Today, we are dealing with the son ofal-Qaeda. If we don't get the next piece rightand the next piece is not the militarypiece, it's that political piece we will be dealing with the grandson of al-Qaeda."

Sajjan has beentasked by the prime minister with conducting a thoroughreview of Canada's defence policy, which he hopes to have completed by the end of 2016.

"It needs to be credible, it needs to be relevant," he said on Friday at anevent organized by Canada 2020 and the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Sajjansaid he wants to make sure the review is "broad and comprehensive" and not conducted "in a silo."

On Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Stphane Dion said Canada would not be able to accommodate every request made fromour allies in the fight against ISIS.

"We cannot say yes to everything," Dion said.

Approximately600 Canadian Armed Forces members have beendeployed as part of Joint Task Force-Iraq,as well as 69 special forces training Kurdish fighters.