National Defence committee  Regarding the United Nations' mandate, the resolution states that we are authorized to undertake whatever is necessary to prevent Libyan forces from flying.

National Defence committee  Yes, that is correct. In order for the situation to be stable, for our aircraft and for that of the other allies, it is necessary that we do what is required. It is not a very clear explanation, but the idea is to do whatever is necessary in order for the Libyans to not be able to threaten our forces.

National Defence committee  There is a coordination centre in Ramstein. The Air Operations Centre in Ramstein is responsible for the coordination of the targets. The choice of a target can come from the Air Operations Centre in Ramstein, but Canada is free to accept or refuse it.

National Defence committee  As we have seen through the Afghanistan experience, the nature of a command and control regime evolves over time in a multinational environment. It can start in a coalition and it can then evolve to other organisms, such as NATO, as it did with ISAF. We're seeing a similar kind of thing occurring here.

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir.

National Defence committee  I think to some extent you can measure the effectiveness of the no-fly zone by the fact that the Libyan air force is not flying. We have effectively, to this point, stopped them from flying and conducting those kinds of missions--

National Defence committee  --that would allow them to use their air force against the population. On the section of the UN mandate that allows us to protect the people, again, there is that capacity. That is why this particular site was bombed today. It was a rearmament site for pro-regime troops who are rearming themselves to go back and attack the population, so it became a valid target.

National Defence committee  This is why, sir, we put so much effort into the training of our pilots. They go through the processes, they're briefed on the target, they launch, they understand their rules of engagement, they understand the guiding principles the Chief of Defence Staff has established. If the circumstances on the ground are different from what they were briefed, they will not engage.

National Defence committee  Thank you. With regard to that series of interrelated questions, let me tackle the first one: what are the goals. We're operating of course under the UN mandate, and the UN mandate's principal goal is the protection of civilians: the protection of the Libyan people from attack.

National Defence committee  I would like to come back to your question on judgment. Of course we train our pilots very well. In this particular case, I don't have the details to answer whether it was a pilot judgment or it was something done in the chain of command as information came forward, but their instructions....

National Defence committee  Monsieur le président, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to brief you today on Operation Mobile, Canada's military contribution to the international efforts to respond to the crisis in Libya. As you will recall, violent protests started erupting in Libya in the middle of February.

Afghanistan committee  As I said previously, there's no doubt that there's been an increase in the level of violence because of the surge that has caused us to find ourselves with troops, both Afghan and ISAF troops, in much larger areas across the country.

Afghanistan committee  It's not just because of the growth in the U.S. forces; it's also as a result of the growth in Afghan forces. While those statistics don't break it down, a lot of those initiated incidents by insurgents are actually IEDs.There are IEDs spread out across the country, so the more roads you patrol and the more ground you cover with foot patrols, the more you're going to encounter IEDs.

Afghanistan committee  It's true that they've focused on IEDs, but I think it's important to note that the reason they're doing it--putting more emphasis on it--is that they can't fight in the field against the number of forces that are there. If you look back to 2006, Canada went into Kandahar province in 2006.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sadly, there have been some examples of trained personnel who have been insurgents and who have infiltrated, but those are a very few and isolated cases and ought not to be the basis on which we judge what we're trying to achieve with the training. I understand your question.