Now we learn that JTF2 personnel are in Mali to … no, actually we don’t learn whether they’re in Mali or not, let alone why. A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird merely notes cryptically that

Steps have been taken to ensure our mission and Canadian personnel are protected. We cannot comment on security specifics.

Connoisseurs of government-speak will savour the passive voice. And it’s fair enough that we aren’t given operational details that might assist the bad guys. But from no mission to a week of transport to a month of transport to JTF2 and all the while Canada is not contemplating a military mission to Mali.

No. We’re just undertaking one. And at the risk of seeming hopelessly quaint, in a self-governing Parliamentary system ought citizens not to be given some information on it? The true kind, I mean?