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Ottawa Says It’s Not Involved in the Iran War. It Might Be Lying

The trail of evidence linking Canadian forces to the conflict keeps growing

Since the first American–Israeli airstrikes on Iran in late February, Ottawa’s message has been muddled at best. Prime Minister Mark Carney shifted from supporting the campaign to calling it likely “inconsistent with international law” to being unable to rule out Canadian involvement.

Canada’s military is deeply integrated into American command structures, raising questions about its involvement in Iran

Canada supplies a range of military goods to US forces through the Canadian Commercial Corporation

Previous US missions saw Canadian forces in active intelligence and combat roles despite messaging of non-involvement from Canadian officials

This equivocation points to a hard truth: for decades, the Canadian military has been embedded with its much stronger, well-funded brother to the south. This includes co-operation in the Middle East that effectively positioned our forces as a plug-and-play partner within United States–led coalitions. From maritime surveillance and intelligence support during the Iran–Iraq War in 1980 to major deployments in the 1990 Persian Gulf War under operations like Vagabond, Scimitar, and Friction, Canada has integrated its naval, air, and medical units into American command structures when needed.

That integration deepened after the September 11 attacks, when Canada joined the war in Afghanistan. In Kandahar, we conducted counter-insurgency operations alongside American units. Even without formally joining the 2003 Iraq invasion, Canada is widely believed to have contributed through embedded personnel and naval deployments. More recently, under Operation Impact, we help train, advise, and assist Iraqi and regional forces to prevent an ISIS resurgence. There’s also Operation Amarna, which among other broader US and coalition objectives, provides diplomacy protection and supports missions in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon.

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Our country also has a long history with Iran—a much tenser one. In the lead up to the revolution in 1979, Canadian officials in Tehran operated in an increasingly volatile environment, with military police attached to the embassy as conditions deteriorated. During the hostage crisis, Canada helped facilitate the escape of six US diplomats in 1980.

From that point on, tensions stayed high. Flashpoints include the death of Iranian Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in Tehran police custody in 2003, which prompted tougher Canadian sanctions. In 2012, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada severed diplomatic ties, closed its embassy, and expelled Iranian diplomats. The rupture deepened in 2020 with the downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing all 176 people on board, including fifty-five Canadians.

Taken together, these episodes might help explain the careful distance Ottawa is now trying to maintain. Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita........

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