In September 2001 after the 11 September terrorist attacks , Minister of National Defence Art Eggleton advised Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to authorize more than 100 Canadian Forces members serving on military exchange programs in the United States and other countries to participate in U.S. operations in Afghanistan . Eggleton summed up the dominant thinking in the government at the time when he said , " Any Canadian military deployment to Afghanistan may well be similar to a situation in Eritrea and Ethiopia where we went in on the first wave , we helped establish the stabilization , the basis for ongoing peace support operations that would come after ... but then turned it over to somebody else . " The operations were aimed at identifying and neutralizing al-Qaeda members in that country , as well as toppling the Taliban regime , which was supporting international terrorism
11 September terrorist attacks
September 11 attacks
Canada in the War in Afghanistan