Germany and Denmark repatriate women and children from Syria. Will Canada Follow?

An Access to Information request by CTV News shows that when Canada learned that Canadian women and children were being held in a Kurdish-run detention camp in Syria, the response was hesitant and minimal—and it appears little has changed, writes London Bureau Chief Paul Workman in an exclusive piece for CTVNews.ca.

That part of Syria is known as Rojava, the western homeland of ethnic Kurds. They first settled there in the 12th century as soldiers in Saladin's great Muslim army, defending the Holy Land against Christian Crusaders. Saladin was a Kurd.

War and the struggle for a homeland have been a constant in Kurdish history. In 2016, at the height of the Syrian civil war, Kurdish leaders took advantage of the chaos around them to proclaim their own quasi-independent region. Their well-armed militia, supported by the U.S., played a crucial role in defeating ISIS.

Within hours of the American plane landing in Rojava, it returned to Kuwait with 11 women and 37 children on board, removed from the misery of a Kurdish-run detention camp. All were the wives and children of alleged ISIS fighters or sympathizers.

It was a joint operation organized by Germany and Denmark, with moral and legal comparisons rippling well beyond their own borders. Yes, to Canada.