OTTAWA – The Opposition NDP is urging the Conservative government to be more transparent about Canada’s military mission in Iraq following the death of a Canadian soldier on the weekend.
READ MORE: ‘There was a mistake’: Canada will get to bottom of friendly fire death, Lawson says
The party’s deputy leader, Megan Leslie, says there have been varying accounts of the circumstances of Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron’s death by friendly fire and wants the facts of the mission cleared up.
Leslie says it’s vital information for Canadians and their elected members to have before deciding whether the six-month combat mission should be extended.
Both Defence Minister Jason Kenney and a senior official are adamantly rejecting a Kurdish account of the incident that saw peshmerga fighters kill Doiron and wound three other Canadian soldiers.
Kurdish officials said Sunday that their soldiers opened fire on the unsuspecting Canadians after they showed up unannounced at the front line to call in airstrikes against Islamic State fighters.
A senior Canadian defence official strongly refuted that narrative and was confident the investigation would show the Canadians were not at fault and had taken every necessary precaution.
WATCH: Defence Minister Jason Kenney explains what the government believes led to the death of Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron
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