Liberal statesman Irwin Cotler says Canada has “defaulted” on the “Responsibility to Protect” principle his party once championed by not backing intervention in Syria to stop the slaughter of civilians at the hands of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. But Cotler believes it is the absence of intervention against Assad that has worsened Syria’s nightmare. Since then, Assad’s security forces have killed tens of thousands of civilians, including with poison gas and the indiscriminate bombing of neighbourhoods. And last year Russia joined the war on Assad’s side, mostly through the use of airstrikes. Everything that we were told would happen if we intervened, happened — in my view, because we didn’t intervene.”

Source: National Post July 13, 2016 12:56 UTC