{"id":543480,"date":"2026-03-18T01:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543480\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:10:20","slug":"canada-knew-from-the-beginning-caf-wouldnt-help-attack-iran-minister-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543480\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada knew \u2018from the beginning\u2019 CAF wouldn\u2019t help attack Iran: minister – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defence Minister David McGuinty<\/a> said Tuesday that Canada\u2019s decision not to join the U.S. and Israel\u2019s military attacks on Iran<\/a> was clear \u201cfrom the beginning\u201d of the war more than two\u00a0weeks ago, while underscoring that position is not going to change.<\/p>\n

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During a press event in Brampton, Ont., highlighting Canada\u2019s military aid to Ukraine, McGuinty was asked about the resignation Tuesday of U.S. National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent<\/a>, who said he \u201ccannot in good conscience\u201d back the Trump administration\u2019s war because \u201cIran posed no imminent threat\u201d to the U.S.<\/p>\n

McGuinty told reporters he had not been aware of Kent\u2019s resignation but suggested he \u201cmade a principled decision, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, the United States is going to find its way forward on this with Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cIn terms of Canada\u2019s position, we\u2019ve looked at this very carefully. We\u2019re following it hour by hour. It\u2019s a very volatile situation, and so we\u2019re very, very careful in terms of taking steps in any direction.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut for us, from the beginning, it was clear that joining this in terms of the prosecution of the war offensively was not going to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

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McGuinty reiterated the federal government\u2019s position that Ottawa was not consulted before the U.S. and Israel launched military action in Iran, that Canada \u201chas not participated in this conflict, and Canada has no intention of doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have members of the [Canadian Armed Forces] in the region, but they are not involved in the prosecution of this war,\u201d he said when asked if any CAF members are currently deployed in non-combat or defensive roles, such as radar aircraft jointly operated with the U.S.<\/p>\n

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He said he could not reveal much more than that about Canadian military operations in the region for security reasons.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s very important that we, first of all, focus on Canadians in the region who want to leave that region,\u201d he said. \u201cSecondly, is very important for me as minister of defence to make sure that we protect,\u00a0that we keep our forces out of harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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McGuinty on Monday said Canada was \u201cleaving the door open\u201d to providing assistance to any Gulf nation that requires help in defending from Iranian attacks, but that so far it had not received any such requests.<\/p>\n

That assistance is not necessarily guaranteed, he said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf any neighbouring states might require assistance, we\u2019ll see,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to watch this hour by hour, day by day, and we will govern ourselves accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NATO allies, including Canada, were facing pressure this week from U.S. President Donald Trump to help the U.S. secure the vital Strait of Hormuz trade corridor from Iranian attacks on commercial shipping and oil transports.<\/p>\n

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said earlier Tuesday that NATO had not received a formal request for assistance<\/a>, and Trump said most NATO allies had rebuffed his public demands.<\/p>\n

Anand said she agrees with Prime Minister Mark Carney that the U.S. attack on Iran likely violated international law, but added that also applies to Iran\u2019s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

McGuinty on Tuesday also responded to Conservatives\u2019 criticism that the government and military did not disclose a strike<\/a> that damaged a Kuwait airbase used by the CAF until over a week later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all due respect to my colleagues in the Conservative party, we will take our lead from the operational experts, experts in the Canadian Armed Forces, who have a policy of being very careful about the security of our Canadian Armed Forces on the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s up to the Conservative party to explain why they might want to pursue information or reveal information that might compromise that security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative defence critic James Bezan told Global News in a statement that Canada should follow its allies in being transparent with Canadians \u201cwithout compromising the security of our troops in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Carney Liberals are clearly making excuses now because they know they were wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is time for this government to end their culture of secrecy. Canadians don\u2019t need special security clearances for the Liberal government to treat them with respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defence Minister David McGuinty said Tuesday that Canada\u2019s decision not to join the U.S. and Israel\u2019s military attacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,182557,35169,5897,204163,44,2845,3275],"class_list":["post-543480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-forces","tag-david-mcguinty","tag-iran","tag-middle-east-conflict","tag-news","tag-u-s-news","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}