From Steven Chase, Les Perreaux, and Oliver Moore, the Globe and Mail:  Canada is ready to assist an international military intervention in Syria should sanctions and diplomacy fail, but the United Nations authorization that Ottawa says it would first require is neither imminent nor inevitable.

From Canada's Ministry of Defense:  Operation Nanook commenced today when a combined Naval Task Group set sail from St. John’s, Newfoundland, towards Canada’s Eastern and High Arctic, where other personnel and equipment from the Army, Air Force, and Canadian Rangers will converge over the month of August.

From CBC News:  The government of Canada intends to cut its participation in a NATO air surveillance program, CBC News has learned.

From the AP:  A Canadian general will take over command of the NATO mission in Libya.

From Tobi Cohen, the Montreal Gazette:  Days before the country may be plunged into a federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he has committed Canada to a combat mission in Libya in an effort to enforce a no-fly zone approved Thursday by the United Nations.

From Rob Gillies, the AP:  Canada will keep between 900 and 950 troops in Afghanistan in a noncombat training role after Canada's combat mission ends in 2011, a senior government official said Monday.

Just when it seemed that things could not get worse, they do. One would have thought that given the ongoing catastrophic floods, conditions in Pakistan were at a nadir. But last week, several incidents lowered even that bar regarding U.S.-Pakistani ties.

From Brian Lilley, the QMI Agency:  Canadian fighter jets scrambled to repel Russian bombers that made several attempts to probe Canadian airspace on Wednesday.