His Moral Compass

"As noble as it seems for these Canadians to volunteer to combat ISIL, their presence on the battlefield only further underscores the lack of professionalism of the Kurdish peshmerga."
Scott Taylor, editor, Esprit de Corps

"There's still a need for people to fight over there. Going over there we definitely did contribute. ISIL is just such a massive step backwards in humanity. They're f------ crazy ... "
"It should be an obligation for us to intervene if we can, when we can. I've just got my own moral compass to depend on. I've got to do what I think is right."
"I would do it again, and I plan to."
Brandon Glossop, Sidney, British Columbia

Courtesy of Brandon Glossop   Brandon Glossop fighting in Syria against ISIL.

He fought for three months in northern Syria with Kurdish forces against Islamic State. He's not the first, and certainly not the only former Canadian soldier who decided that he'd heard enough about the atrocities committed by Islamist jihadis, and that it was up to him to decide to do something to aid the militias fighting against Islamic State. "I haven't had a single person come up to me face to face and say, 'It was stupid what you did'."

At 26, after serving for six years  with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry, and a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009 as part of his experience, Brandon Glossop went on to work in the oilsands at Fort McMurray Alberta. Other former army personnel were working alongside him, and one of the things they spoke about together was why not drop everything and go along to Syria or Iraq to fight ISIL.

Then came the killing of two Canadian Forces members in Ontario and Quebec last October. And news that another former member of the Canadian military, Randy Hillier, and also with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry had gone to Iraq to fight. "He basically showed that it can be done", Brandon Glossop said, in an interview. Viewing the video of Muslim convert John Maguire inciting jihadi attacks on Canada for Islamic State, helped firm up his resolve.

Intending to travel to Iraq as Randy Hillier had done, it was no longer possible; Hillier left because the Iraqi peshmerga militias had succumbed to U.S. pressure not to continue deploying foreigners on the front lines, and that new reality left Glossop out in the cold as well. Alternately, a Western fighters group in Syria made arrangements for him to meet up with a volunteer in Munich. And from Germany Glossop flew to Iraq, meeting a British ex-serviceman with whom he would partner.

Crossing into Syria, the YPG Kurdish militia issued them M-16 rifles and they were soon seeing action, helping to rout Islamic State fighters out of a number of towns. He came across Frenchmen, Spaniards, another few Canadians, Americans and other volunteers fighting with the Kurds. He returned eventually to Canada, bringing back with him an ISIL flag, as vile a symbol of totalitarian brutality as the Nazi flag; one he hopes to sell.

"It think it would be kind of hilarious if an ISIL flag funded me to go back again. That would be sweet irony", he said of his intention to return to the front lines in northern Syria to fight once again with the Kurds.

Courtesy of Brandon Glossop