MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – May 18, 2013
- Afghanistan It appears Canada’s CDS did attend the big meeting in Belgium “The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, joined his North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) counterparts this past week for the 169th meeting of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting provided the Chiefs of Defence of NATO and its Partners with an opportunity to review and discuss updates on a number of issues relevant to the Alliance …. The two-day conference focused on NATO Transformation and the progress made in its Connected Forces Initiative and Smart Defence projects. Discussion also covered NATO’s current major operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as the planning for NATO post the 2014 mission in Afghanistan ….”
- “All charges against a Nova Scotia woman in the Royal Canadian Navy who is fighting cancer, and who was charged with being absent without leave, have been dropped, the woman and her lawyer say. “I feel fantastic, I feel vindicated, it’s been a long 11 months. Between having to face a court martial and fighting cancer, some days I didn’t know which one was more difficult. But now I can just focus on getting better,” said Able Seaman Carol Anne Deyoung. Both Deyoung and her lawyer, Maj. Sarah Collins, said the charges were dropped Friday afternoon. The Department of National Defence confirmed Friday evening that all charges against Deyoung have been dropped ….”
- “Lights, action, weapons free. Canada’s special operations forces soldiers have produced a slick sales video showcasing their fighting skills — on water, in the air and room-by-room in the close confines of a building. At a time when special forces soldiers are in the limelight with movies like Zero Dark Thirty, which tells the tale of the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden, the video gives a brief window into Canada’s cadre of shadow warriors. The three-minute video begins showing six soldiers climbing aboard a Griffon helicopter, flying low, and then rappelling to a rooftop. It goes on to highlight soldiers parachuting from a C-130J Hercules transport at high altitude, speeding along the water in rigid-hull inflatable boats, and driving in what appear to be specially equipped Humvees ….” You can check out the video here.
- Meanwhile, a less-than-desirable video pops up …. “A stolen iPhone and a sex tape that’s been circulating for three years has left a young woman’s military career in ruins. Alexandra-Kim Martin-Roberge joined the Canadian Forces in May 2009, dreaming of serving in the infantry. One of only two women in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Quebecer had planned to join the combat mission in Afghanistan. But one indiscretion destroyed her reputation, her self-esteem and her integrity in the eyes of comrades. In 2010, while on a 12-month assignment in Alberta, a fellow soldier stole her smart phone and copied a 13-minute clip that depicted her having sex, her face clearly visible. “He managed to take my phone during a patrol,” Martin-Roberge told QMI Agency. “Ten days later I found out all the guys were swapping it. It was like an atomic bomb. For a woman in the infantry, this is the worst thing that can happen.” ….”
- “By the shore of Hudson Bay (background), just south of Churchill, Man., Cpl Réjean Lefebvre (middle-ground) and Sgt Steven Amos (foreground) prepare to drop rescue equipment from the back of a CC-130 Hercules to Royal Canadian Air Force personnel who had already parachuted to the ground to help mock victims on the frozen tundra. They are members of the 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron’s search and rescue team, based at 8 Wing in Trenton, Ont., who participated in TigerEx 2013, a week-long exercise to hone their Far North lifesaving skills. The annual search and rescue exercise took place May 13-17 ….”
- From the RCAF Info-machine: “Therapy on wheels: healing the wounds of war through art“
- F-35 Tug o’ War Mark Collins on “Will the Canadian Government Keep the RCAF’s Hornets Buzzing?”
- DND Info-machine’s latest Backgrounder on Aboriginals in the Forces
- From the Halifax Shipping News blog: “Work is continuing on HMCS Athabaskan, though it appears they are only tending to her holes now ….”
- “On behalf of the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister for La Francophonie, the Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State (Western Economic Diversification) and Member of Parliament for Blackstrap, will pay tribute to Canada’s Veterans by participating in a ceremonial puck drop during the Memorial Cup tournament (tonight)….”
- “The Honourable Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas and Consular Affairs), (yesterday) announced increased support for regional security projects in the Caribbean that well help to improve security in the hemisphere and fight the problem of organized crime. Canadian support will help to equip the Regional Security System (RSS), a collective security organization for the eastern Caribbean, with new radar, infrared scanners and avionics for its air wing. Minister Ablonczy made the announcement at the E.T. Joshua Airport in Kingstown and was joined by partners including Ralph Gonsalves, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, National Security, Grenadines Affairs and Legal Affairs, and Grant Watson, Executive Director of the RSS ….”
MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – May 17, 2013
- “Peruvian Defence Minister, Pedro Cateriano, met Ambassador of Canada to Peru, Patricia Portier, to further strengthen defence and security cooperation. The meeting was attended by Peru’s Interior Minister, Wilfredo Pedraza; Minister of Energy and Mines, Jorge Merino; official of Canadian Commercial Corporation, Stan Jacobson, commercial counselor, Sandra Shaddick and business consultant, Katia Rivadeneyra. This year, Cateriano paid an official visit to Canada from February 28 to March 2, to deepen bilateral ties in security and defence ….”
- “Some Canadian Forces members and veterans say the military culture needs to accept the usefulness of service dogs for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many former soldiers are now acquiring specially trained dogs to help them manage anxiety, anger and stressful situations. Jocelyn Boucher, who served as a warrant officer doing military intelligence in the Canadian Forces for three decades overseas, said he began taking his support dog, Spirit, to his part-time job only to be told a short time later his services were no longer needed. Boucher was under doctor’s instructions to limit his work to two half-days a week. He and his wife were surprised at his release, as he had recently signed on for three more months at two half-days a week. “I said, ‘Is this about my dog?’ He said, ‘No, no it’s not about your dog. It’s about the hours,’” Boucher said. His wife Theresa said she’s convinced he was let go because of the dog. She said the military culture needs to change ….”
- “A sailor in the Royal Canadian Navy says she’s fighting two battles right now — one against breast cancer and another against the navy — over a disputed sick day last year. “I can’t put into words how it feels,” said Able Seaman Carol Anne Deyoung. “I feel somehow betrayed.” Deyoung said she felt a growing lump in her breast last June and called in sick. She was then ordered to go to a military hospital on Canadian Forces Base Stadacona in Halifax. She said she followed orders, but it took her two hours to get there. A month later, she was told she was being charged with two counts of disobeying a lawful command and one count of absence without leave ….” - more discussion of the case (or at least what we’re able to read of it to this point) at Milnet.ca here
- “Charges of committing a terrorist hoax have been dropped against four people arrested last year when Montreal’s subway system was paralyzed at the height of rush hour by smoke-bomb attacks. Jean Pascal Boucher, a spokesman for the director of criminal and penal prosecutions, says the Crown decided there was insufficient evidence to support the charge. Three woman face charges of mischief and conspiracy while a man faces an additional charge of possession of a prohibited weapon. The four accused are free on bail pending their next court appearance on Sept. 3. At least three smoke bombs were tossed into several subway stations in Montreal on May 10, 2012, shutting down the entire system for hours during the key morning commute period ….”
- “More Canadians say they are seeing unidentified flying objects than ever before, with 2012 numbers nearly doubling the record number of sightings recorded in previous years. In 2012, there were 1,981 sightings, nearly doubling the previous annual record of 1,004 sightings recorded in 2008. There were record numbers of UFOs reported in every province last year except for Saskatchewan and P.E.I. ….”
MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – May 16, 2013
- Afghanistan Canada officially declares Taliban, Haqqanis terrorists - more here and from the Public Safety Canada Info-machine here
- Chris Karigiannis, 1975-2007, R.I.P. “It began as a touching gesture, with a group of students planting a tree at their school in memory of an alumnus, a Canadian soldier who had been killed in Afghanistan a year before. It was Nov. 11, 2008. It could have stopped there. Such well-meant tributes, born in the emotion of tragedy, often do. But in the years that followed, something absolutely remarkable happened at Laval Liberty High School in Laval. “The kids got it,” is how Daniel Johnson, a behavioural technician at the school, puts it . “They got that it was important what he (the soldier) did, that he had committed himself to a higher cause. “The kids said it can’t end there,” Johnson says. “They said we can’t care for him, but we can care for his friends. And that’s when everything changed.” The soldier was Sgt. Chris Karigiannis of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton. He had graduated from the school, when it was called Chomedy Polyvalent High School, in the early 1990s ….”
- Way Up North (1) “The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council, (yesterday) assumed the chairmanship of the Arctic Council for a two-year period, 2013-2015. The Arctic Council is the leading body for international cooperation in the Arctic region. “I am honoured to chair the Council at this important time in the history of the circumpolar region,” said Minister Aglukkaq. “Canada’s chairmanship theme of Development for the People of the North will put the interests of Northerners first.” Minister Aglukkaq thanked the Indigenous Permanent Participant organizations and Arctic Council states for their support for the program to be undertaken during the Canadian chairmanship and Sweden, in particular, for its strong guidance over the last two years. “Canada is determined to see Arctic communities benefit from the economic boom that is unfolding in the region,” said Minister Aglukkaq. “The Arctic Council will establish a circumpolar business forum to foster sustainable circumpolar economic development.” Following today’s signing by Arctic states of the Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic, the Council will focus during Canada’s chairmanship on actions to prevent oil spills in the Arctic marine environment ….” - more on the Arctic here, here and here.
- Way Up North (2) “The Relay for Life is an international event that takes place each spring to raise funds and awareness for the Canadian Cancer Society. More than 20 countries from across and the world will participate this year. Last year, there were more than 17,000 teams across Canada and the Frozen Chosen are now, for a second year in a row, proud to be part of this global movement. Fundraising for The Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life has been enthusiastically embraced by all station personnel at Canadian Forces Station Alert. Throughout the spring months of 2013, the Alert family has come together in a unique show of solidarity to support this great cause. The Relay for Life in CFS Alert will take place on May 18 and 19 as a 12-hour fundraising event ….”
- “On a windy hilltop, Don Tremblay was watching soldiers through binoculars and thinking back to another hilltop 60 years ago where a few young Canadians fought a desperate battle. wednesday was a chance for modern soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment to remember what Canadians went through in Korea, in what they now call the Battle of Hill 187. It began in the dark, when a Canadian patrol ran into a much larger group of Chinese soldiers in the valley between their two fortified hilltops ….”
MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – May 15, 2013
- I’m back.
- “The federal search and rescue system is back under the microscope after three military helicopters were unable to help rescue an Innu Nation leader who went into the water in Labrador on Wednesday because they were grounded for repairs. This comes one week after an auditor general’s report warned federal search and rescue (SAR) capabilities are at the break-i n g point, and after Newfound-land and Labrador’s emergency services minister said the feds weren’t doing enough. Former Innu Nation grand chief Joseph Riche was hunting with three other men on Park Lake about 80 kilometres southeast of Happy Valley-Goose Bay on Wednesday evening when the canoe he was in overturned, spilling him into the water. The Happy Valley-Goose Bay RCMP detachment was called, which kicked off a series of events that included National Defence being called upon to assist. But while there were three Griffon helicopters at nearby Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay, which CFB Goose Bay spokes-man Capt. Dave Bowen estimated as being about a 40-minute flight from Park Lake, all three were grounded for repairs. Bowen said one was going through a midterm refit, the second was undergoing modifications, and the third had been deemed unsafe to fly only a few days earlier because of a cracked windshield ….”
- Shortly after the AG’s report…. “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Lead Minister for Search and Rescue, today welcomed new funding for the Newfoundland and Labrador Search and Rescue Association as part of an $8.1 million federal investment in search and rescue prevention and response in Canada, through the Search and Rescue New Initiatives Fund ….”
- Liberal Senator: “If Defence Minister Peter MacKay sometimes appears to be sleepwalking when addressing problems within Canada’s military infrastructure, I can assure you he has been incredibly active. MacKay has been busy perfecting a strategy called “the Nod-and-Dodge Defence.” It has nothing to do with defending the country and everything to do with defending himself. The minister’s black belt mastery of Nod-and-Dodge was front and centre earlier this month, as he defended the federal government’s continued neglect of Canada’s search and rescue capacity. Effective search and rescue (SAR) is vital in a country with a huge expanse of rough, remote terrain and frigid waters. About 20,000 people a year in Canada depend on quick and capable responses — from foundering fishermen to lost children, from downed pilots to missing boaters to avalanche survivors ….”
- Afghanistan Australia’s CDS is in Brussels talking about the future of the AFG mission – wonder if our’s is too?
- Mali “Canada will contribute an additional $10 million to help stabilization efforts in Mali. The new funds were announced as international donors prepare to meet this week in Brussels on how to rebuild the North African state. Mali fell into turmoil after a 2012 coup led to Islamic fighters taking over wide swaths of the north, prompting an international military force to intervene ….” More from the info-machine here.
- Syria (1) “A coalition of aid groups launched a public campaign Tuesday to raise money for Syrian refugees, saying demand for assistance far outpaces global government donations. The Humanitarian Coalition said they believe Canadians want to support the estimated 6.8 million people affected by the ongoing civil war in Syria, but don’t know how. The Syrian-Canadian community has exhausted its resources to assist family members and churches and unions have tried to help as well, said Robert Fox, executive director for Oxfam Canada ….”
- Syria (2) “Why we need to stay far, far away from Syria“
- “Does A New Supreme Court Ruling Put Idle No More Protesters In Peril?”
