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Noting that he agreed with their insistence on the need for more humanitarian aid, that the campaign will be long and difficult and that the long-term solution lies with the Iraqis themselves, Mr. Hawn asked Mr. Mulcair: “What’s [your] solution to stopping ISIL beheading people tomorrow?”

Mr. Mulcair didn’t answer, demonstrating an ability to dodge difficult questions that matches any on the government benches. Instead he launched into a denunciation of Syria’s President Bashar al Assad. “He’s a genocidal maniac and we should not be giving him any credibility at all.”

No one disputed that point. Probably because no one is proposing to give Mr. Assad any credibility. If the NDP wants to offer a private members bill declaring the Syrian strongman a menace to democracy, he’d probably have little trouble getting unanimous consent. But in ducking the question he underlined the weakness in the position taken by both the NDP and the Liberals.

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The House of Commons stands poised to approve a motion, likely on Tuesday, that would deploy six fighter-bombers, two CP-140 surveillance planes and one refuelling aircraft for coalition air strikes in Iraq for up to six months.

Tuesday’s vote comes as the Pentagon warns that extremists with the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham have “gotten better at concealment” since the U.S., Britain, France and key Arab countries began air raids.

U.S. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the assistant secretary of defence for public affairs, told reporters in Washington that extremists who rode around in the open have now dispersed and are hiding among the civilian population, forcing allied air forces to change their own strategy.