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Then, of course, there was the minister’s embarrassing tweet on International Women’s Day. Mr. Kenney tweeted thanks to our soldiers for fighting ISIS, which is known for its barbaric treatment of women. The tweet included images of Muslim women, under niqabs, literally draped in chains. Problem: The images weren’t of prisoners of ISIS, but of a religious procession in Lebanon, commemorating an historical event from 1,300 years ago, anda recent anti-ISIS protest in London, U.K., where Kurdish women chainedthemselves. The credibility of a third image, purporting to show an ISIS soldier with his shocking young child bride, is also in question: The image appears to have been taken from an ISIS propaganda video from several years ago, but one that showed a Koran reciting event, not a child marriage. Again, ahem.

And then, last week, Mr. Kenney said that Canada must join the bombing campaign in Syria because only Canada and the United States have the precision-guided weapons needed to get the job done. Ahem, yet again: That’s simply false. Not only do Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates possess comparable weapons, they’ve already used them. Against ISIS, in Syria.

In these times of conflict, Canada needs a serious person at defence. Mr. Kenney is fully capable of being that person. Now would be a good time to start.

National Post