ABSTRACT
Prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, the Canadian government and parliament had little experience of dealing with foreign military commitments and the complexities of terrorism at home or abroad. Canada had not committed ground troops to a conflict since the Korean War, and had few encounters with domestic terrorism. Consequently, while Canada has committed itself to key aspects of the US-declared ‘war on terror’, including significant military intervention in Afghanistan (but not Iraq), neither the Canadian Government in launching its antiterrorism initiatives nor the parliament in overseeing the subsequent ‘war on terror’ nor Canadians themselves had a clear road map, based on previous experience, to guide them in the new ‘war’.
