W5 Delivers Exclusive Look at Canada’s Special Forces, Saturday, June 25 on CTV

TORONTO (June 22, 2016) – With ISIS controlling huge swaths of Syria and Iraq, threatening millions of innocent civilians, and inspiring a war of terror, Canada is playing a leading role in the war against The Islamic State. Premiering this Saturday, June 25 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV GO, and CTVNews.ca, W5 delivers CANADA’S COMMANDOS. In the late-season exclusive episode, viewers are taken on a behind-the-scenes look at Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) on the front lines in Iraq, and training at home, as Canada prepares to increase the number of troops deployed from 69 to 200 in the next few months. Also in this episode, W5 Co-Host and Correspondent Kevin Newman delivers HANI’S JOURNEY, an inspirational look at young Syrian refugee Hani Al Mouria. CTV News’ Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme is alongside CANSOFCOM in northern Iraq where Canada’s most elite team of special forces soldiers are advising and supporting the Peshmurga, the Kurdish army, in their fight against ISIS. W5’s report also offers Canadians an exclusive look at the training of Canada’s special forces “operators” at Ontario’s CFB Petawawa. Considered among the best in the world, the troops are trained to attack from the air and on land to neutralize foreign and domestic threats. <<NOTE TO MEDIA: Lisa LaFlamme is available for interviews. Please email patricia.garcia@bellmedia.ca>> By now, the whole world knows about ISIS and the organization’s fanatical brand of Islam: in Iraq, where Kurdish civilians have been uprooted to escape horrific violence – and abroad, through terror attacks such as those that unfolded in Paris and California, and inspiring attacks like the killing of Canadian soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, and the horrific massacre in Orlando, FL earlier this month. W5 investigates Canada’s military “advise and assist” mandate in action – with a promise of an expanded role on the ground when fighter jets were pulled from the skies of Northern Iraq. LaFlamme is on the front lines with Canada’s special forces troops in Iraq, where they are helping the Peshmurga army hone and sharpen their skills in everything from tactical marksmanship and battlefield communications, to combat first aid, and military strategy. LaFlamme is also on the ground at Petawawa, with an inside look at the grueling recruitment, selection, and training process of Canada’s most elite soldiers, as the country prepares to nearly triple its special forces commitment deployed overseas in the fight against ISIS. Also in this episode, W5 Co-Host and Correspondent Kevin Newman reports HANI’S JOURNEY, an inspirational look at young Syrian refugee Hany Al Mouria. His parents, along with his five brothers and sisters, are among the more than 27,000 refugees who fled the civil war in Syria and have since been accepted into Canada. W5 documents the challenges they face – learning a new country, new customs, a new language, and trying to find work in a tough economy. W5 follows the family from a refugee camp in Lebanon where Hani, who is legally blind, discovers a new talent – photography – through to their acceptance as refugees by Canada, and their early days in their new home in Regina.