Long-range tradition
NDP leader Tom Mulcair is raising red flags after reports a Canadian sniper in Iraq broke the world record for the longest confirmed kill. National Defence says the sniper is a member of the ultra-secret Joint Task Force 2 unit deployed as part of Canada’s mission against ISIL, and that his target was more than 3.5 kilometres away. That is more than a kilometre farther than the previous record, which was held by a British sniper who shot a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan in 2009.
MISSION CONCERNS
Mulcair has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raising concerns about what the shot means for Canada’s mission in Iraq. In particular, Mulcair says the incident raises fresh questions about the Liberals’ promise that Canadian soldiers would not be involved in combat with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The government has maintained that Canadian soldiers in Iraq are not in combat, even though their so-called “advise and assist” mission allows them to shoot and kill ISIL fighters.
LONG-RANGE TRADITION
The shot fits a long tradition of expert marksmanship among Canadian soldiers. During the First World War, Canadian snipers were celebrated for their deadly accuracy on the battlefield.
FIRST NATIONS
Among Canadian legends is the late Francis Pegahmagabow, a First Nations sniper from Ontario who fought in Europe with the Canadian Expeditionary Force from 1914 to 1918. He was credited with 378 kills before he was dis- charged the following year, and as of 2014 he remained the most decorated First Nations soldier in the country’s history. “Canadian snipers were arguably the bestequipped Allied soldiers in the early year of the war,” wrote military historian Martin Pegler in a 2011 history of sharpshooters. He called Pegahmagabow “arguably the finest sniper Canada fielded.” “Most of the finest Canadian snipers proved to be Natives, whose backwoods skills, patience and acute eyesight made them ideally suited to the task,” Pegler wrote. “Canadian soldiers provided some of the best snipers of the war. Their kill rate was extraordinary.”
‘COUNTRY BOYS ’
One of Canada’s most iconic photos from the Second World War shows Sgt. Harold A. Marshall, a sniper from the Calgary Highlanders, posing with his rifle. “The best snipers were usually country boys who knew how to hunt,” Mark Zuehlke, author of a dozen books on Canada’s military history, told the CBC. “They knew how to handle a gun and handle a gun well.”
THREE OF TOP FIVE
If Thursday’s account of the sniper’s fatal shot is true, Canadian soldiers hold three spots in the top five longest recorded sniper kills. In 2002, Canadian Master Cpl. Arron Perry shot and killed an Afghan insurgent from 2,310 metres, resetting the bar for a confirmed kill. Just weeks later, during the same operation, Canadian Cpl. Rob Furlong killed an insurgent at 2,430 metres. That record held until 2009, when British Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison shot and killed a Taliban gunner from 2,475 metres.