By Scott Taylor
Last week the Canadian Press reported on a memo which they had obtained from the Department of National Defence under the Access-to-Information law.
The memo was dated January 16, 2020 and was written by Lt-Gen Mike Rouleau who was the commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command at that time. The recipient of the memo was then Chief of the Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance.
The gist of Rouleau’s message to Vance was that the ‘identifying and vetting’ of Iraqi recruits to participate in the Canadian-led NATO training mission in Iraq “lacked the sufficient depth required.”
Taken in isolation this warning from Rouleau may seem at first glance to be rather innocuous. However, it is important to note the timeline here.
Earlier this month, David Pugliese at the Ottawa Citizen broke the story of Canadian military trainers in Iraq having witnessed video evidence of war crimes committed by the very Iraqi soldiers whom they were sent to train.
That incident occurred back in September 2018 and according to the internal report, the Canadian trainers immediately informed their superiors of these war crimes and requested guidance on how to proceed.
At least seven Canadian non-commissioned officers had viewed the videos. As professional soldiers they realized that the acts committed by their Iraqi recruits violated article 50 of the Geneva Convention which prohibits acts of “willful killing, torture, or inhuman treatment” of prisoners.
Included in the eagerly offered video evidence was footage of Iraqis “raping a woman to death; torture and execution of a line of bound prisoners whereby they were beaten to death with what appeared to be rebar steel bars; the execution of prisoners by shooting; and the execution of a man by hanging him from the barrel of a [Main Battle Tank],” according to a Canadian Forces briefing note.
Understandably the Canadian NCO’s had some serious qualms about teaching such sadistic killers in order to provide them with enhanced military skills.
Faced with this dilemma, the senior leadership in-theatre assured the NCO’s that this matter would be dealt with, but in the meantime, training of these war criminals was to continue unabated.
The Canadian trainers were also told that in the future, they should abstain from watching such videos, and for god’s sake, not to take possession of any such evidence.
When the mission concluded without the Canadian trainers having seen any action taken against the Iraqi perpetrators, the NCO’s continued to ask questions to their senior leadership after their return to CFB Petawawa, ON.
One of the Canadian witnesses wrote to his superior “we remain uncertain whether this appropriate action was effectively taken. I am an ethical man and I believe in our moral doctrine and the [Law of Armed Conflict]. I am bothered by the fact that my assigned duties allowed me to train and enable people who in my mind were criminals.”
More than three years later, and after the Ottawa Citizen broke the story citing 2018 DND briefing notes, we are told that the military police are conducting an investigation into the CAF’s leadership’s handling of this incident. Note that no one seems willing to pursue the original Iraqi war criminals.
Also important to the timeline of events are the statements made in August 2018 by Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin. He had just been appointed to command the overall Canadian led NATO training mission in Iraq.
When asked by journalists how Canadians could properly vet the Iraqi recruits, Fortin confidently replied, “I think we have a pretty good vetting process in place to screen out those potential [Iraqi] instructors to ensure we have quality people, that they the Iraqi government feel confident with.”
One month later our trainers on the ground in Iraq viewed the video evidence of war crimes and reported it up their chain-of-command. From this latest memo released to the Canadian Press news service we now know that more than one year after the top brass knew that our troops were training war criminals, they still lacked the ability to properly screen any incoming Iraqi recruits.
On September 4, 2018 I wrote a column about the then impending training mission entitled “Clueless in Iraq.” I included a side note to Maj.-Gen. Fortin, which read: “I cannot wish you success in your mission because you are embarked on a fool’s errand. Training more Iraqis to kill in the name of a corrupt regime is insane.”
Little did I know that our soldiers would be knowingly training war criminals how to better kill in the name of a corrupt regime.
Fool’s errand indeed.
