MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 27 Jan 12

• Where do we move those search-and-rescue planes?  (BTW, no sign of the Toronto Star sharing the “obtained” report)  “The military’s response to search-and-rescue calls could be improved by moving aircraft out of Canada’s largest East Coast base, according the air force’s most recent performance analysis. But the study finds little reason for a dedicated Arctic rescue team, despite high-profile disasters last year that led to renewed calls for a more robust northern presence. The report, obtained by the Star under the Access to Information Act, proposes moving two Hercules more than 600 kilometres north from their Nova Scotia home to Stephenville, N.L. The Greenwood, N.S., transport and rescue squadron has been based there since 1968, responsible for distress calls over an almost 5.2 million-square-kilometre area stretching from Quebec City east to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and from Nova Scotia north to Iqaluit. Using a formula that weighs geographic coverage of Canada with response times to distress calls, the 2011 report says the move could provide a substantial improvement in performance.  An RCAF spokesperson said that the study, along with ongoing plans to purchase new search-and-rescue airplanes when the current fleets are removed from service between 2015 and 2017, will be used to determine the best locations for Canada’s search-and-rescue crews. “This study will be used with many others to inform future decisions on SAR basing,” Maj. Sonia Dumouchel Connock said in an email ….”
• Libya  New tyrants, same as the old tyrants?  “The new leaders of Libya, helped to power by an air war waged by Canada and major allies, were denounced as torturers Thursday by major international groups. The Canadian leader of Amnesty International called on the Harper government to use its influence with Libya’s new transitional government to put an end to the abuse of prisoners, documented by the organization in a new report. And Doctors Without Borders said it was suspending its work in Libyan prisons because of rampant torture of detainees. The group said it was pulling out of the city of Misrata because some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation. Amnesty said several detainees have died after being subjected to torture in recent weeks and months, and cited wide-spread, ill-treatment of loyalists of deposed dictator, Moammar Gadhafi ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (1a)  “U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed Thursday that $488 billion U.S. in Pentagon budget cuts will affect his country’s plans to purchase the troubled F-35 joint strike fighter — which likely will threaten Canada’s timeline for acquiring the stealth fighter as well ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (1b)  “The federal government is reviewing Canada’s planned purchase of up to 65 F-35s after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed Thursday his country will be slowing production on the troubled stealth fighters. Associate Defence Minister Julian Fantino said in a statement the government is still committed to the F-35 program, but that he had ordered defence department officials in Ottawa to investigate what implications the Pentagon’s decision would have on Canada ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (1c)  Associate Minister Fantino’s update: “…. We continue to monitor the progress of the multinational Joint Strike Fighter Program closely and exercise responsible stewardship of taxpayers’ hard earned dollars. “That is why I have instructed officials to review the implications of the United States’ announcement on Canadian Forces’ readiness so that they may be incorporated into preparations for the replacement of our aging CF-18 fleet. “Information we have received indicates that the impact on Canada’s procurement plans is minimal at this stage. As has been the case up to the present, we will continue to monitor developments closely ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  “…. With U.S. defense budget cuts looming and many critics of the program still unconvinced, foreign support is a make-or-break issue for the program, which has been described as too big to fail. It could become the cornerstone of global air strategy for the next few decades, or a trillion-dollar bust. “The U.S. fighter jet industry has all of its eggs in this one basket,” said Richard Bitzinger, a security expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. So many countries have bought into the program, he said, there is now no realistic choice but to forge ahead with it. “It would be almost impossible for the U.S. to cancel the F-35, since the repercussions would be global,” he said ….”
• “The manufacturer of the air force’s new maritime helicopter has told National Defence it will deliver only five test aircraft this year — opening the door to tens of millions of dollars in fines on a project the auditor general has said is late and over budget. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. is supposed to deliver a “fully mission capable” version of the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter by June, or face a further $80 million in contract penalties on top of $8 million the federal government has already levied. Senior defence officials say safety certification of the aircraft is still ongoing and it’s highly unlikely the giant U.S. aircraft-maker will meet its target, even though the program is years behind schedule. “Sikorsky are only committing to deliver five by this year, which will be training aircraft,” said a high-level defence source, who spoke to The Canadian Press on the condition of anonymity. The Cyclones are the highly touted replacement for the CH-124 Sea Kings, which will mark a milestone 50 years in service in 2013 ….”
• What’s Canada Buying?  Someone to carry out “analysis and software development in order to prototype a system that makes use of various COTS and OEM software used in mine countermeasures (MCM) operations …. to demonstrate ene-to-end MCM operation with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles …. ” and someone to “…. design and fabricate an underwater magnetic signature collection system which is essentially the array and the associated interface components and connecting cables …. in support of the Halifax Class Modernization Project (to) be used to measure the magnetic signature of Canadian warships when they are deployed on operations around the world ….”
• Happy 50th, Canadian Coast Guard, from the PM and the Defence Minister!
• “The family of a woman murdered by convicted sex killer Russell Williams is suing the former military commander and his estranged wife. Williams, who was once a rising star in the Canadian Forces, was sentenced to life in prison in October 2010 after pleading guilty to the murders of Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau. Lloyd’s brother, Andy, says he and Lloyd’s mother, Roxanne, have filed a statement of claim in Belleville’s Ontario Superior Court of Justice which, among other details, seeks damages for the mental suffering they say they’ve had to endure. Andy Lloyd, 31, says the family wants a fast resolution to the suit so that they can put the experience behind them and move on with their lives. He says the last two years have been “quite a struggle” and both he and his mother are seeing counsellors for the depression they’ve had to deal with ….”  More on this here.
• “Five years after Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a historic apology to Chinese Canadians, a new photo exhibition opened today in Vancouver honouring the history of World War II veterans of Chinese heritage. Nearly 100 people packed into the exhibit launch of the multi-room archive of photographs, anecdotes and documents – titled Chinese Canadian Veterans: Loyalty to Country – today at the Chinese Cultural Centre. Roughly a quarter were veterans themselves, many of whom guided visitors around the exhibit and shared their stories of both heroism and discrimination ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 26 Jan 12

• Afghanistan (1)  A more complete explanation of a YouTube video that isn’t what some nut job says it is.
• Afghanistan (2)  A Canadian officer on why it’s important that Afghan troops being trained need to be able to read and write, even just a bit.  “…. Imagine what happens when a soldier who cannot read or count gets an order to collect 20 boxes of ammunition from a truck with the plate number AB55519Q. Unable to recognize letters and numbers, the bewildered soldier would not be able to complete this basic task. Barely 15 percent of ANA recruits can read or write at Grade One level. By the time they have completed eight weeks of BWT, nearly 90 percent have learned to read and write at that basic level. This may not seem like a great achievement by Canadian standards but, considering where these soldiers begin, it is significant. Literacy training is also a recruiting tool, attracting Afghans who want an education that is not readily available outside the Army ….”
• Afghanistan (3)  The story behind one of the medals being awarded at the G-G’s place today – well done all!
• Afghanistan (4)  Orchestral music (and words) to honour the Afghan mission. “It’s the Calgary Philharmonic’s biggest commission so far: a war requiem aimed at capturing some of the drama, heartbreak and profound loss that is the Canadian battle for peace in one of the most wartorn areas in the world. When completed, the hour-long piece, provisionally entitled Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, will embrace the combined musical forces of the orchestra, the CPO Chorus, the Cantare Children’s Choir and four soloists. It’s set to debut Nov. 10 …. The words of inspiration for Ryan’s music come from poems, diary entries and blogs written by established Vancouver writer Suzanne Steele, one of five Canadian artists — and the first poet — to be chosen as an official “war artist” in the Canadian Forces Artist Program ….”
• MORE Canadian sanctions against Syria!
• Naval Espionage Case  Ya think?!?  “Expert: Spy case worries military”
• One former officer’s opinion:  “…. Canada’s regular army is currently too small to carry out assigned domestic and overseas tasks. Not to have any mobilization capability to expand it in time of crisis or emergency would thus be strategic folly …. The history of increasing army reserve strength has also been marked by foot-dragging. The current government must now recognize that regular forces are too small to achieve its domestic and international goals and embrace the concept of a strategic reserve as the only affordable option.”
• More on Canada-U.S. co-operation deals:  “Canada and the U.S. have finalized one agreement and renewed another to better co-ordinate civilian and military forces against threats. Defence Minister Peter MacKay, speaking Tuesday night to a group of defence officials, diplomats and civil servants, said the two countries were expected Wednesday to renew the Civil Assistance Plan and sign off on the Combined Defence Plan. His office confirmed Wednesday they had been signed. The civil assistance agreement lets military personnel and equipment deploy rapidly to humanitarian events, MacKay said in notes prepared for his speech to the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. “In the event of floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, or to assist in the aftermath of a terrorist attack — military members from one nation will be ready to support the armed forces of the other, all supporting lead civilian agencies,” he said. The defence agreement sets out the authority and means for the two countries to approve homeland military operations against threats, as well as the process for sharing information ….”  More here.
• Way Up North  “Firefighters at Canadian Forces Station Alert in the Arctic are anxiously awaiting a special delivery. On Tuesday, Jan. 31, Sgt. Steve Lewington — the fire chief there until Feb. 15 — will receive the first of three brand new KME Force air-deployable crash trucks (or aircraft rescue fire fighting trucks) being delivered aboard either a C-130J Hercules or C-17 Globemaster to the Arctic station to replace the current Oshkosh T-1000 trucks that were delivered to the northern military station in March 2010 ….”
• What’s Canada Buying?  Someone to provide “remediation activities at the FOX-E Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line Site on Durban  Island and the former US Coast Guard Weather Station on Padloping Island, Nunavut.”  Previous MERX listing (July 2011) here.
• F-35 Tug o’ War  F-35 sales team shares small-town paper’s coverage of all the benefits of the program.
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• Former African AQ prisoner Robert Fowler speaks to the BBC (.mp3, first 10 minutes) about being held hostage for about five months.  Fowler on his kidnappers/AQ:  “It’s all about religion.  I think among ‘securocrats’, there’s somewhat of a debate about whether these guys are bandits flying an Islamic flag of convenience or rather, they are some kind of twisted, latter-day Robin Hoods doing a little banditry and kidnapping to fund their jihad.  I think a lot of people would like to believe it’s the former, but I know it’s the second.”
• Minister MacKay:  Way to go CF blood donors!
• “On a spring day in the hills near Valencia, Jules Paivio stood before a firing squad. The young Canadian was a long way from home, the woods of Northern Ontario, but he was ready to meet death. He had known when he volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War, in the fall of 1936, that he probably wouldn’t return alive. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, Mr. Paivio and several fellow prisoners raised their fists in a show of defiance. But a sudden stroke of luck saved his life. In fact, Mr. Paivio came out of the war unscathed. Today, he is the last surviving Canadian brigadista – one of the men and women who came from around the world to defend Spain’s fledgling republic from the fascism of General Francisco Franco. More than 1,500 Canadians joined these International Brigades, but for decades they received little recognition. They had fought in a conflict in which their government took no part, and most were committed socialists, viewed with suspicion during the Cold War. Even today, their contributions to one of the 20th century’s great battles against tyranny is often overlooked here. But Spain has not forgotten. On Thursday, it will honour Mr. Paivio by granting him citizenship at a ceremony in Toronto ….”  More on the man here and here, with a bit of a documentary on him here.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 25 Jan 12

• Naval Espionage Case  Another “routine posting change” for another Soviet military-diplomatic official in Ottawa.
• Fixing an oopsie.  “Work is proceeding on the submarine HMCS Corner Brook after some highly visible manoeuvring last week to get it positioned for repair. The vessel, one of the Royal Canadian Navy’s four Victoria-class submarines, was damaged last June when it hit bottom during a training session off Nootka Sound, B.C. The results of a naval inquiry, released last month, said the incident was caused by human error. Lack of training and experience were cited as factors. Capt. Luc Cassivi, deputy commander of Canadian Fleet Pacific, said moving the submarine was a necessary step to allow an overview of engineering requirements and cost estimates related to its repair. “We needed to get her high and dry to be able to make all of those assessments.” ….”
• Canada’s Defence Minister talks to people about the Canada-U.S. relationship. “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, will today deliver a keynote address in Ottawa to members of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD), the highest-level bilateral defence and security forum between the United States and Canada. Addressing an audience of prominent senior military officers, government officials and diplomats, Minister MacKay will speak about the importance of the PJBD forum for Canada’s defence relations with the United States. This unique forum, created in 1940, has examined virtually every important joint defence measure undertaken since the end of the Second World War. Today, it continues to serve as a strategic-level consultative body on matters affecting the defence and security of the northern half of the Western Hemisphere ….”  More on Canada-U.S. military links here, and more from the media here.
• “Canada and the U.S. are set to finalize a new Combined Defence Plan on Wednesday to defend North America from outside threats. Defence Minister Peter MacKay delivered the news Tuesday evening to a high-level meeting of Canadian and American military officials behind closed doors in Ottawa. “This agreement provides a framework for the combined defence of Canada and the U.S. during peace, contingencies, and war,” said MacKay in his prepared remarks to the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. “The plan describes the authorities and means by which the two governments would approve homeland military operations in the event of a mutually agreed threat, and how our two militaries would collaborate and share information.” ….”  More on this here.
• Speaking of the U.S., some say it’s time for allies of the Americans to step up – and some doubt this’ll happen.
• Governor General giving out military awards at Rideau Hall tomorrow – congrats to all recipients!
• “The Canadian Paralympic Committee is looking forward to an exciting week as Canada is hosting a group of 16 ill and injured military personnel from across Canada and Great Britain together in British Columbia to take part in a pioneering winter multi-sport introduction program. The program has been created for ill and injured military personnel from the organizations Battle Back in the UK and Soldier On in Canada. Eight Canadian and eight British service personnel arrived in Whistler, B.C. on Sunday and are participating in an eight-day program that introduces them to a range of adaptive winter sports and recreational activities ….”
• Again with the Canadian Officer Training Corps in universities?  “The time is right to re-establish the Canadian Officers Training Corps program at universities, according to defence experts. Lee Windsor, deputy director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, said the program came across with good benefits for a comparatively small investment …. The Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) recently commended the Senate standing committee on national security and defence for its interim report on the future role of Canada’s Primary Reserve. It recommended the Department of National Defence/Canadian Forces consider re-establishing a military presence on the campuses of educational institutions …. Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s director of communications, Jay Paxton, said the Canadian Forces maintain a presence at Canadian universities similar to that provided by the cadet officer training corps in forms more suitable to today’s environment. One plan allows local reserve units to engage full-time university students as officers in the primary reserve, he said. “During the academic year, these officers parade or train with their units and, in summer, they undertake full-time military training and employment,” Paxton said. “Another plan, called the regular officer training plan, is designed to support officer cadets at university. Under this plan, officer cadets train in the summer, study during the school year and, upon graduation, transfer to the regular force.” ….”
• Royal Military College professor:  peacekeeping is really counterinsurgency.  “…. A Canadian professor who teaches a course on peace missions at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, (Walter) Dorn is the author of Keeping Watch: Monitoring, Technology & Innovation in UN Peace Operations.  Dorn intends with his new book to make UN peacekeeping operations “more effective”, in terms of offering security for civilian populations facing warring factions or humanitarian disasters in a country like the Congo. For instance, the modestly sized UN force of 22,000 uniformed personnel in the DRC “has been a very important stabilising force”, Dorn says. But he adds the UN soldiers’ failure to a stop a 2008 massacre of at least 150 civilians in the eastern Congo village of Kiwanja despite the presence of peacekeepers a kilometre away stems from a still existing failure by the contributors of United Nations soldiers to take full advantage of affordable surveillance and communication technology for ground operations. “In many of the developing countries where the majority of peacekeepers are today, they don’t have a familiarity with the technology,” Dorn adds. A Canadian military historian at the Royal Military College in Canada in the city of Kingston, Ontario, counters that UN military missions are really counterinsurgency operations. “In the Congo, the UN is not exactly neutral, going after militias on behalf of the government,” says Sean Maloney, a professor at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario ….”
• Russell Williams Saga (1)  “The wife of serial sex killer Russell Williams lost an appeal Tuesday to keep private personal information related to her divorce proceedings. The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned a number of non-publication and sealing orders issued by Ontario Superior Court Justice Jennifer Mackinnon relating to a divorce application to be filed by Williams’s wife. The sealing order and publication bans prevented the reporting of her name, address, contact information, the name of her employer, her income and expenses, medical information and her domestic contract with Williams. The judge also forbade publication of a photograph or likeness of Williams’s wife, who can only be identified as M.E.H. in relation to the case, and sealed a contentious domestic contract executed weeks after Williams was charged ….”
• Russell Williams Saga (2)  “The estranged wife of convicted sex killer Russell Williams plans to fight a decision by Ontario’s top court that would open up her divorce proceedings to public scrutiny. Mary Jane Binks, the Ottawa lawyer representing Williams’ wife, said her client will ask to take the matter to the country’s highest court. “We’re going to be seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada,” Binks told The Canadian Press ….”
• “An Ottawa man serving a life sentence for terrorism has been attacked in prison in Quebec. Momin Khawaja’s father confirmed reports that his son was scalded with hot water and further assaulted by a fellow inmate. Khawaja received burns to 60 to 70 per cent of his body. The attack took place at the federal Special Handling Unit, the super-maximum-security prison in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Que., the Ottawa Citizen reported. It happened Jan. 16 as inmates were preparing snacks before returning to their cells for the night. Khawaja’s father Mahboob told CBC News that his son told him his attacker was Zakaria Amara, another inmate convicted of terrorism in the plot to set off three bombs in Toronto. An Ottawa software developer and the first person ever charged under Canada’s anti-terror laws, Khawaja was found guilty of five charges of financing and facilitating terrorism and two Criminal Code offences related to building a remote-control device that could trigger bombs ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 24 Jan 12

• Naval Espionage Case (1)  “A Canadian navy intelligence officer charged with giving military secrets to the Russian government is on the hunt for a new lawyer. Cameron MacKeen withdrew as Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle’s legal counsel Monday afternoon in Halifax provincial court. Delisle, 40, was not in the courtroom for the lawyer’s application, which was a last-minute addition to the docket. A bail hearing had been slated for Wednesday, but MacKeen told the court that Delisle wished to have it rescheduled for six to eight weeks from now. Federal Crown attorney Peter Chisholm objected to the matter being discussed without the accused in attendance, so the judge ordered a recess to see if Delisle could appear by video or telephone from the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth. An hour later, correctional officials permitted Delisle to phone the courtroom. After talking to MacKeen in private for a few minutes, Delisle took part in the hearing by speakerphone. MacKeen asked that the case be adjourned until Feb. 28 for the setting of a date for a bail hearing. The judge obliged after confirming with Delisle that he could hear things clearly and understood what was going on ….”  More here.
• Naval Espionage Case (2)  Only makes sense, right?  “The Canadian military has evacuated staff from the Halifax naval intelligence facility where a sailor accused of espionage was working before his arrest. The Department of National Defence said authorities are conducting a security sweep of HMCS Trinity to see whether this confidential communication centre has been compromised ….”  More here.
• Afghanistan  Knob on YouTube claims Canadians blow up Afghan house “for fun”, Globe & Mail shares minimalist denial from CF.
• Way Up North  On the road.  “Hundreds of military vehicles and personnel are beginning a three-day trek from CFB Edmonton to Yellowknife to test themselves and their gear in a harsh winter environment …. The training exercise called ARCTIC RAM 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group’s first to be conducted in the Northwest Territories. Exercise ARCTIC RAM, from Feb. 14 to 26, will re-familiarize soldiers with northern operations by assessing their ability to operate in a cold winter climate ….”
• “The Harper government has wanted the navy to play a bigger role in battling Somali pirates in the waters off East Africa, but has been stymied about what to do with potential prisoners, documents reveal. The international effort to contain the pirating of commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden and beyond is something Canada “strongly supports” and it provides the perfect, low-risk venue for the country to showcase its military ability. A series of briefing notes, obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information from Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office and the chief of maritime staff, show the eagerness over the last two years to take on a renewed mission. But the enthusiasm is tempered by the reality that once caught, there’s no place to try pirates. “While international law provides that any state may take jurisdiction over piracy in international water, counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia continue to be hampered by a lack of authority in domestic laws, as well as by questions concerning jurisdiction over apprehended individuals suspected of piracy and related crimes,” said Nov. 3, 2010 memo to Robert Fonberg, the deputy defence minister ….”
• A reminder: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Canada’s constitution, guarantees the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.  More charges laid against medic.  “The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS) charged on Friday a former Canadian Forces Medical Technician for incidents alleged to have occurred while he performed medical exams at a Naval Reserve unit in Thunder Bay and at the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre in London. Ex-Petty Officer, 2nd class (PO 2) James Wilks was charged with the following: four counts of Sexual Assault, contrary to section 130 of the National Defence Act, and pursuant to section 271 of the Criminal Code; and ten counts of Breach of Trust, contrary to section 130 of the National Defence Act, and contrary to section 122 of the Criminal Code ….”  More here and here.
• “The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Walt Natynczyk, joined his NATO counterparts for the 166th meeting of NATO’s Chiefs of Defence in Brussels, Belgium, last week. Immediately following the two days of NATO meetings and presentations he travelled to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg where he met with Mr. Jean-Marie Halsdorf, the country’s Minister of Defence and Minister for Home Affairs and the Greater Region, as well as General Gaston Reinig, its Chief of Defence ….”
• How one Canadian company’s faring. “Despite defence contractors’ fear that military budget cuts worldwide will sideswipe them, CAE Inc. appears to be holding its own so far. In fact, the St. Laurent flight-simulator and training services firm has announced three military orders since September valued at $325 million, including another one Wednesday for $100 million. The latter is to provide upgrades for simulators for Canadian Forces CC-130H, a military transport aircraft, and for the CH-146 (Griffon) helicopters; long-term simulator maintenance and support services for Malaysia’s AgustaWestland 139 choppers; maintenance trainers for Tornado attack jets for the German Air Force and Britain’s Royal Air Force; and CAE 3000 Series helicopter simulator and training services for undisclosed customers. CAE spokesperson Nathalie Bourque said that “armed forces are recognizing that we save them a lot of money on wear and tear. Training on a simulator is 10 times less expensive than training on an actual aircraft. So we are part of the solution to their problems.” Michael Willemse of Toronto brokerage CIBC World Markets agreed with that, adding that “simulation actually helps the military cut costs – it’s much cheaper.” He said that CAE usually generates about $250 million of orders per quarter on the military side. CAE’s $1.63 billion in sales last year were roughly divided equally between military and civil products and services ….”
• “Léon Mugesera, the long-time Quebec City resident accused of genocide in Rwanda, is expected to land in Kigali late on Tuesday, according to Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation Louise Mushikiwabo. Mugesera lost his final bid to avoid deportation on Monday when the Federal Court dismissed a motion for a stay of deportation, and by late afternoon, he was put on a plane headed for Rwanda’s capital city. “Léon Mugesera is now airbound for Kigali!” Mushikiwabo tweeted late Monday night, Kigali time. “Thank ordinary people in Canada who saw through confusion in [the] international legal labyrinth and said, ‘he must go.’” ….”  More here, here and here.
• “Chatter broke out as Kimberly Fawcett and Kathy Chase greeted each other in a crowded downtown restaurant Saturday. The women, both Canadian Forces soldiers, have a rare bond. Fawcett, 43, is a captain stationed in Ottawa and an accomplished tri-athlete and sprinter. Almost six years ago, Fawcett was preparing to leave for Afghanistan when tragedy struck. Stationed at CFB Kingston at the time, she was taking her infant son, Keiran, to a relative’s home in the city on Feb. 21, 2006. An accident on the icy road ahead of her forced her to a stop. Fearing another collision, Fawcett got out her vehicle with her son and climbed an embankment near the road. Moments later, a driver lost control of his vehicle and struck the pair, killing baby Keiran and forcing the amputation of her right leg up to the hip. Using physical sport to deal with the grief and stress in the aftermath, she soon excelled as a world-class parathlete …. The pair, along with eight others, are set to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in February in support of the ParAthletes of Canada Foundation, which supports athletes, including those who have had a limb amputated, who are in need of an assistive device to enable them to participate fully in competitive sport ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 23 Jan 12

• Naval Espionage Case (1)  One should be careful about linking events that may have already been underway to stuff one knows about now.  “An unfolding spy drama involving a junior Canadian officer comes amid a determined effort by the Royal Canadian Navy to improve and expand its own intelligence capacity. Over the last two years, military planners working for the head of the navy have been drawing a “road map” in order to provide decision-makers and warships at sea with better information on possible threats to domestic waters and among international shipping lanes, a series of internal documents reveal. The strategy was widely circulated among senior echelons of the navy in 2010, according to a briefing list obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information laws. It could prove to be an intelligence bonanza in the wrong hands, providing insight into how Canadians gather their information. Neither the Harper government, nor National Defence will say whether Sub-Lt. Jeffery Delisle had access to the strategy — or early drafts of it. Just what a potential spy might have been after and for whom has been the subject of frenzied speculation. Officials have refused to discuss any and all aspects of the case ….”  1)  Correlation =/= causality  2)  If the strategy had any REAL secrets in it, it wouldn’t have been released under Access to Information legislation.  3)  No sign of CP sharing the “obtained” documents yet.
• Naval Espionage Case (2)  More on one of the non-expelled Russians, including something from someone who attended his going away party, and the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Twitter statement on the issue:  “Canadian media reports of Russian diplomats being expelled from #Canada are surprising, as they left in 2011 on completing their secondment”
• Naval Espionage Case (3)  Now some media are speculating about where the accused MIGHT have been?
• What Canada’s up to with the U.N. in Sudan – more on Canada’s Operation Soprano here.  Also, check out the second photo in the article in the first link.  Is “Major Ed Smith” the same guy who helped out some intern students in Cameroon during some unpleasantness there a few years ago?  A repeated “well done” on that.
• Way Up North  Northern Ontario troops get ready for working in the even-further north.  “As if January in Northwestern Ontario isn’t cold enough, two reserve soldiers with Kenora’s 116th Independent Field Battery have volunteered for Arctic Ram; a joint winter combat operations exercise taking place northwest of Yellowknife from Feb. 17 to 27. Bombardier Kyle Friesen and Bombardier Brandon Thompson prepared for the deployment by taking part in the Winter Warfare training course in Kenora this week. The course attracted 16 participants who practised with snowshoes and equipment sleds. Their training continues at CFB Shilo in Manitoba this weekend where they will earn their military snowmobile operators certification ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch  How the Taliban Info-machine takes a wacky story about ISAF troops in diapers from the Pakistani media and helps spread the (incorrect) word.

TALIBAN PROPAGANDA WATCH: Timeline of “NATO in Diapers” Claims

You’ve read about the Taliban bodies that don’t decay – now we have ISAF troops in diapers.

Here’s how the latest nose-stretcher got rolling:

• 6 Jan 12:  Pakistani media carry goofy story about NATO troops wearing diapers in Afghanistan, and how convoys being stuck in Pakistan are delaying the Papmers deliveries.
• 8 Jan 12:  U.S. officials deny the troops need diapers.
• 9 Jan 12:  Blogger dissects how Pakistani “journalist” may have found the diaper info before he shared it with the world.
• 22 Jan 12:  The Taliban Info-machine shares the latest on ISAF troops fighting in diapers!

You can download all the above-listed material here (15 page PDF) if any of the links above don’t work.

Keep enjoying the lies!

 

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 22 Jan 12

• Naval Espionage Case  Guess who’s NOT giving the story much coverage?  “Russian media has had next to no reaction to reports this week by Canadian news outlets that four Russian diplomats, all military attachés, were expelled from Canada as spies. Two days after Canadian media broke the news about the expelled Russian diplomats, not a single Russian newspaper or news agency mentioned the episode, other than to report the muted official response that the diplomats were, in any case, scheduled to return home ….”
• Afghanistan  One soldier’s story as his tour begins to wind down.  “…. I look back at my first days at Regional Training Centre – North and the slow, tentative steps taken to earn the trust and respect of the Afghans who I work with every day. Our first few conversations were just like starting a new job back home and meeting co-workers for the first time. I was reserved. I talked about where I came from and my experiences. I work with an ANA First Sergeant who worked with a Canadian Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team in Kandahar province in 2008, and I had experience serving with Afghans during my previous tours. This really helped break the ice for me and my team during our first days. I have learned that Afghans may not do things exactly like we would at home, but they still get results. They are masters of fixing immediate problems when they appear. The old saying that patience is a virtue is one of the truest things that can be said about working with Afghans. The ANA works at a different speed than we do at home and sometimes results are measured not in hours or days, but in weeks or months ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (1)  How’s it going in the U.S.?  “Now that the F-35 joint strike fighter program has gotten a pat on the back and morale boost from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, officials at Lockheed Martin hope to put their recent run of bad report cards and bad press behind them. All those problems with the F-35 that have been reported of late? They’re not that bad; they’re being fixed. Just watch, they say. “We’re starting to see a lot of good stuff happening,” Tom Burbage, Lockheed’s co-executive vice president and general manager overseeing the F-35 program, said in an interview last week. That view would seem at odds with recent Defense Department reports and officials’ comments. An internal Pentagon report leaked last month cited numerous shortcomings in the testing performance of the three versions of the F-35, some key components and the design of the aircraft ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  Associate Minister Fantino happy to see Americans go ahead with F-35 version Canada isn’t even buying – more here.
• Oopsie….  “It seems the Maltese revel in their peace and quiet — even when it’s at sea. A Canadian warship on its way to the eastern Mediterranean caused a bit of ruckus off the island nation. Earlier this week, the Halifax-based frigate HMCS Charlottetown conducted a small-arms firing exercise on the deck of the ship, which is routine training for the counter-terrorism mission the ship is about to begin. Sailors were firing 9 mm pistols towards the empty ocean when they were ordered to stop. Lt. Mark Fifield, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Navy in Ottawa, says Maltese Coast Guard officials hadn’t authorized the exercise and shut it down after being notified over the radio. Under international convention, warships conducting any firing drills in the waters of other countries are required to warn other vessels in the area and the host nation. Fifield said the skipper of the Charlottetown didn’t realize his warship had crossed into Maltese waters, but added that the radio warning had still been broadcast. “No other vessels were in proximity to Charlottetown at the time of the incident and there was no risk to public safety,” he said ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 21 Jan 12

• Naval Espionage Case (1a)  Gentle handling….  “…. political science expert at Royal Military College and Queen’s University …. Christian Leuprecht says the prime suspect in the espionage case, Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle, is a low-ranking individual – and even if allegations he leaked secrets are true – long-term surveillance would probably have kept really damaging from falling into the wrong hands. “We have a relatively small incident, so why would Canada be interested in blowing this politically out of proportion,” he asked. “If Canada had an official expulsion of these diplomats, you can be sure that Russia would have an expulsion of Canadian diplomats in return.” Leuprecht noted Canada needs its relationship with Russia, especially if it hopes to coax Moscow to take a tougher line on Iran and Syria. “If you want Russia on side, we’re not going to blow this out of proportion,” he said.”
• Naval Espionage Case (1b)  …. even if it’s still going on?  “Canada and Russia are waging a “Cold War lite” two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, experts say, following news that a Canadian naval officer was slapped with espionage charges and accused of selling top-secret information to a foreign entity. Professor Piotr Dutkiewicz, director of the Institute of European and Russian Studies at Carleton University, said the Harper government’s thinking toward Russia is outmoded. “The Canadian government is stuck in a Cold-War mentality,” he said. “We now have a Cold War lite.” …. “
• Naval Espionage Case (2)  Or, you could always get a former intelligence officer to SAY this so it looks like there’s some bad info fed to the bad guys – or maybe not.  “Authorities fed an alleged and unwitting Canadian naval spy fabricated information as part of a classic “sour milk” counter-intelligence ploy to taint the credibility of secrets the man is suspected of passing to Russia, Postmedia News has learned. “This was done by the book — sour the milk so that you confuse the other side,” Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former spy service counter-intelligence officer with sources close to the Halifax case, revealed in an interview Friday. Once naval officials suspected there was a spy in their midst, deliberately flawed information was baited and designed to eventually be discovered by its foreign recipients, casting doubt the usefulness of any other classified data related to the case ….”
• Naval Espionage Case (3)  More on those Soviet embassy staff leaving, uh, rotating out of their assignments, mmmm, being kicked out, uhm, whatever here, here and here.
• Afghanistan  “The government-wide task force overseeing Canada’s mission in Afghanistan is still working on a final report to Parliament until at least April, even as it loses another leader to the top floors of Canada’s aid agency. Greta Bossenmaier, currently the deputy minister of the Privy Council Office’s Afghanistan Task Force, is moving across the Ottawa River to become the senior executive vice president at the Canadian International Development Agency, the government announced Jan. 12. The PCO has not yet said who will replace Ms. Bossenmaier. The task force’s former assistant deputy minister, Sara Hradecky, left to become Canada’s ambassador to Mexico in October and was never replaced. Nor was former task force director general Steve Hallihan, who is now Canada’s high commissioner to Jamaica. But even though these senior positions are empty, the task force is still alive and kicking—at least until April. “The mandate of the Task Force…extends to the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year,” wrote PCO director of corporate and media affairs Raymond Rivet in an email. The coterie of Afghanistan-focused bureaucrats must still finish a final report to Parliament on Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2011, he noted ….”
• What’s Canada (No Longer) Buying?  Remember those 20,000 orange stress balls (to give away as promotional swag, of course)?  Well, the Defence Minister says “no way” to the purchase “ – more here and here.  Also, here’s a copy of the MERX listing (PDF courtesy of Army.ca) in case the MERX link stops working anytime soon.
• Way Up North (1)  “…. Canadian scientists have quietly accomplished something likely to prove far more effective than espionage or military posturing in affirming — and extending — Canada’s sovereignty in the North: They’ve published two academic studies about Arctic Ocean geology that lend solid support to the country’s ambitious claims for new undersea territory in the region. Canada’s formal bid to take possession of vast stretches of Arctic Ocean seabed isn’t due until the end of 2013, the deadline for this country’s submission to the United Nations agency responsible for approving new offshore territorial claims governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. And under rules agreed to by all five Arctic coastal countries — Canada, Russia, the U.S., Norway and Denmark — scientific evidence compiled from decades of mapping and analyzing the Arctic sea floor will ultimately determine who controls the rich oil-and-gas deposits and other resources believed to lie below the rapidly retreating polar ice ….”
• Way Up North (2)  From the Minister of National Defence’s speech on the subject earlier this week:  “…. Canada takes its responsibility for the North seriously – with all that means for the sovereignty, security, well-being and sustainability of Northern communities and their land. For that reason, the goal of our government is not just to assist in the management of this change… …but to work with Northern Canadians, and through their provincial, territorial and local governance structures, so that they can achieve long-term, sustainable improvements to their economic, environmental and social well-being… …and so that they can exercise the same kind of control over their own future as Canadians in any other part of this country ….”
• Way Up North (3)  A Russian editorial perspective on what our “northern neighbours” are doing (or not): “…. Russia enjoys the most advantageous geographical location of all Polar nations and has the largest territory bordering the region. It, however, gives no grounds for not bothering to replace wornout infrastructure and urgently deal with environmental problems. Pollution from radioactive waste has turned into a very thorny issue, which is now being addressed by the Russian government. It should not be ignored that most Arctic facilities serve both civil and military purposes. While Canada and the U.S. are considering expanding their exiting facilities and building the new ones, Russia must do its best to preserve what it already has on the ground. Ineffective commercial use of the Northern Sea Route is just the tip of the iceberg. All these problems require a comprehensive approach. The Arctic states` governments and their think tanks should develop a long-term program for Arctic exploration. The future of the Russian Arctic now fully depends on how realistic and well-conceived this program is.”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 20 Jan 12

• Naval Espionage Case (1)  “The Harper government has expelled staff at Russia’s embassy in the wake of charges filed against a Canadian military intelligence officer for allegedly passing secrets to a foreign power, The Globe and Mail has learned. The names of two Russian diplomats – including a defence attaché – and two technical staff at the embassy have been dropped from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ official list of diplomatic, consular and foreign government representatives recognized by Ottawa. The Canadian government has not officially confirmed news reports that Russia was the recipient of secret information that Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle now stands accused of giving to a “foreign entity.” …. A Russian embassy official acknowledged the following three staffers have recently left Canada, saying, however, that all departures were routine: Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry V. Fedorchatenko, assistant defence attaché;  Konstantin Kolpakov, attaché; (and) Mikhail Nikiforov, with the administrative and technical staff. The embassy did not provide a clear explanation for the fourth name now gone from Canada’s official list of diplomatic, consular and foreign government representatives: Tatiana Steklova, who had been described as “administrative and technical staff.” ….”  CTV’s version of the story here.  More from other media here, here, here, here and here.
• Naval Espionage Case (2)  A bit of the guy’s history.
• Naval Espionage Case (3)  So, which is it, then:  the investigation took a fair bit of time, or the investigation was pretty damned quick?
• Afghanistan  “The lessons a nurse from the North Bay Regional Health Centre learned in Afghanistan are relevant in a civilian setting. Capt. Stan French, a registered nurse with the hospital’s forensic program, is also a reservist with the 1 Canadian Field Hospital detachment at Canadian Forces Base North Bay. He was one of only two reserve mental health nurses in Canada to serve in Afghanistan. French served in Kandahar over the winter of 2006-07 in a hospital offering the highest level of medical care offered to the NATO coalition troops. In that facility, a “plywood and 2×4” hospital, he dealt with the victims of unseen injuries. Presenting several case histories, French talked about the role of mental health professionals in helping soldiers who have experienced traumatic situations return to duty. Whether the victim was an officer who saw his men killed, a soldier who had seen civilians killed or a soldier who had come within inches of his own death, the mental health professionals helped the soldiers return to duty. Those same techniques used to help soldiers, he said, are also effective in helping first responders deal with traumatic experiences ….”
• “The union representing workers at Veterans Affairs urged the federal government Thursday not to cut hundreds of staff, saying former military members with increasingly complex problems will be the ones to suffer. Yvan Thauvette, president of the Union of Veterans’ Affairs Employees, said staff are already overburdened, with some case workers handling up to 900 files. That could rise sharply if the department loses staff as part of Ottawa’s promise to cut costs in each department by up to 10 per cent. “If they intend to cut frontline staff tomorrow, you better watch out because the services to veterans will be lower down,” he told reporters in Halifax. “This exercise, if applied, will have a direct impact on the services provided to veterans.” ….”
• Defence Research and Development Canada paper (1MB PDF):  Let’s figure out the best way to do research on the buddy system Reservists use to take care of families while deployed.
• F-35 Tug o’ War  Lookit all the work Canadian companies’ll get from the F-35 deal!  “The Honourable Julian Fantino, Associate Minister of National Defence, today visited two British Columbia companies receiving additional work as a direct result of the Government of Canada’s decision to participate in the multinational Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. Minister Fantino helped mark important production milestones in the multinational development of new state-of-the-art F-35 stealth fighter fleets at Avcorp Industries Inc. in Delta and Advanced Integration Technology (AIT) in Aldergrove …. In July 2010, Avcorp Industries Inc. announced a contract with BAE Systems Operations Ltd. to manufacture the outboard wings for the F-35 Carrier Variant that will now be shipped to Lockheed Martin’s assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas. Meanwhile, Advanced Integration Technology (AIT) Canada is responsible for producing the Electronic Mate and Assembly System (EMAS) that ensures the precise fusion of the wings and major parts of the plane’s body during the aircraft’s assembly. The positioners are being shipped to the production facility in Italy. AIT has delivered seven sets of positioners which are currently in use at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth, Texas ….”  More in the Backgrounder here.
• What’s Canada Buying?  Business cards and “how to deal with media” aide memoire cards and 20,000 orange stress balls (to give away as promotional swag, of course)
• “Canada’s highest court on Thursday refused to hear a case of three Canadians who accuse the government of complicity in their detention and torture in Syria and Egypt. Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin sued Ottawa, but were denied access to key government documents in the proceedings on the basis that their disclosure could harm Canada’s foreign relations or national security. A lower court decision last year upholding Ottawa’s right to safeguard state secrets effectively scuttled a campaign to clear their names and obtain compensation. As is typical, Canada’s Supreme Court did not explain its refusal to hear the trio’s appeal to overturn the lower court ruling. An independent inquiry in 2008 concluded that Canadian officials did not have direct responsibility for detention or abuse of Kuwait-born former truck driver Maati, Syria-born electronics engineer Almalki and Iraqi-born geologist Nureddin. But it said Ottawa bore some indirect responsibility ….”  More here.
• “A federal government program that works to keep war criminals out of Canada has had a flat-lined budget since its inception, despite a government report four years ago that recommended the government devote more resources to it, particularly to its RCMP branch. The program encompasses work from four government agencies or departments, with the RCMP receiving the smallest portion. The 2008 Department of Justice evaluation of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program noted that to effectively address the program’s goals, more resources would be needed in specific areas, namely the RCMP’s investigative capacity. But the RCMP’s funding portion has not changed since then ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 19 Jan 12

Work commitments have changed, so I’m back at ‘er – enjoy!

• Naval Espionage Case (1)  The Chief of Defence Staff speaks.  “…. The CF takes the security of sensitive information very seriously, and we are ever mindful of the potentially adverse operational and strategic effects that can be created by unauthorized disclosure. For this reason, all CF personnel handling such material are required to observe stringent procedures to protect its security, and are expected to comport themselves ethically, and in a manner consistent with core military values of honour and loyalty ….”
• Naval Espionage Case (2)  Note to Toronto Sun columnist:  anybody working in intelligence who has access to stuff the bad guys want can become a spy, even Canadians.  “A Canuck spook? A Canook? You’re kidding. What beans would he spill? The secret ingredients in a beavertail? The Leafs’ next starting goalie? Rob Ford’s new diet? Unless you’ve been dead or a Sens fan, you know the Great White North is abuzz with our first spy brouhaha since, since, what, Gerda Munsinger? Gerda was an East German playgirl/spy who toyed with officials in the Diefenbaker government. She played hardest with Pierre Sevigny, associate minister of national defence. But Sevigny was no spy, though he qualified as, ahem, an undercover agent. Indeed, Canadians are rarely the spies in Canadian spy scandals. MP Fred Rose is the only example I can think of — and he was a Commie, exposed by Igor Gouzenko in the 1940s. Rose spent four years in jail. We’ve had good spies, such as Sir William “A Man Called Intrepid” Stephenson, who snooped on the bad guys. Otherwise, a Canadian spy seems as preposterous as a Jamaican bobsled team ….” 
• Afghanistan (1)  Some of Canada’s trainers are helping Afghan troops learn to read and write.  “As you read this article, you probably don’t stop to consider when and how you learned to read. Reading is second nature to you, and you can barely remember when it wasn’t. But what if you had to learn to read and write now? Learning to read and write as an adult is a challenge that the vast majority of Afghan National Army (ANA) recruits face. Thirty-five recruits sit quietly in a tent at the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC), a vast military base and training area located in the eastern fringes of Afghanistan’s capital city. With keen interest, the recruits track every move of the man at the front of the tent, an Afghan civilian teacher — proud and skilled in his craft — who methodically works through the day’s lesson. Today, the recruits are learning the first letters in the alphabet. There are 39 other tents just like this one, all lined up in neat rows as you would expect in an army camp, accommodating 1,400 more ANA army recruits in different phases of their literacy training. Nearly 9,000 ANA recruits are enrolled in basic training at KMTC, and almost all of them begin with learning to read, write, count and calculate ….”
• Afghanistan (2) “Kneeling in rocky dirt at her father’s graveside, Roya Shams whispered her farewells through the cloth mesh of her burqa’s veil. Just 17, a petite schoolgirl with a voice as soft as a puff of desert breeze, she dared to enter a poor Taliban stronghold to pray for the hero who taught her she was any man’s equal. Roya was packed and ready to fly to Canada to continue her high school education in safety at Ottawa’s Ashbury College. It is one of the country’s leading private schools, which prides itself on a progressive and caring learning environment. And it is Roya’s best hope of fulfilling a calling that has made her a vulnerable enemy of the Taliban ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch  ANOTHER commentary on the Marines pissing on Taliban bodies.
• Way Up North (1)  Newsflash – an army plans to bring the equipment it’ll use on a training exercise!  “They were Canada’s armoured workhorses in the dust and heat of Afghanistan, and now the military is taking its LAVs to the snowy tundra. A massive military exercise next month in the Western Arctic will involve light armoured vehicles — the first time in more than a generation that mechanized units will operate in the North. “Certainly with the new light armoured vehicles, this is the first time we’ve ever gone up in any significant strength to test our capabilities,” said Lt.-Col. Bill Fletcher, battle group commander for the Arctic Ram exercise, which runs from Feb. 14 to 26. Arctic Ram will bring more than 1,500 soldiers from bases in the south to the Northwest Territories. Personnel will include a range of units from the reservist Canadian Rangers, the largely aboriginal eyes and ears of the military in the North, to the Kandahar-tested troops of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. “It’s huge,” said Fletcher, who added that the army’s contribution to Arctic operations is usually between 100 and 150 soldiers. “From an army perspective, it’s one of the bigger ones.” ….”
• Way Up North (2)  A couple of think tank bits on the Arctic.
• Mark Collins on Cyclone chopper troubles (in a bit more detail than in the past)
• Congratulations to CBC for sharing the memo this story is based on.  “The deputy minister of defence approved a $375,000 renovation to his office last May, just three weeks after the department warned staff about saving money and impending layoffs of 2,100 civilian positions. A CBC News access to information request unveiled Robert Fonberg approved the accelerated work to his office in May after the new associate deputy minister, Matthew King, was hired. The renovations began in June 2011 and finished over a seven-week period, the document reveals, including moving King and his staff into the shared space at the DND headquarters at 101 Colonel By Dr. in Ottawa. The internal briefing note, which indicated the work would cost about $379,000, stated the renovation would “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the deputy minister’s office.” A DND spokesperson corrected the total saying the department worked with Public Works to save about $4,000 by using existing furniture. A statement issued to CBC News also defended the renovations saying the office had gone without an upgrade since 1992. “New requirements emerged that are appropriate for the offices of the senior civilian leadership at national defence,” read a satement from the DND ….”
• Congrats to the individual involved, but one hopes that one day, it won’t be so newsworthy learning the first “woman” to do anything because it won’t be such a novelty anymore.  “Little did a young Elizabeth Crosier realize her dream of flying would eventually translate into her being the first Canadian female pilot of the CC-177 Globemaster III, the Canadian Forces’ largest cargo aircraft. Now just 25 years old, Captain Crosier has about 40 hours flying time on the giant aircraft. As her training continues, she is scheduled to fly some legs of a flight into Kabul, Afghanistan in February. “There’s a lot more mission planning involved in a theatre flight,” she notes. Capt Crosier plies her trade with 429 Transport Squadron at 8 Wing Trenton, Ont., perhaps a natural step for this child of a navigator father also employed by the military. She joined the Air Force in 2004 and received her wings Nov. 19, 2010 ….”
• This from ceasefire.ca on “lessons unlearned” in Rwanda:  “Earlier this month, civil conflict in South Sudan between the Murle and Nuer tribes resulted in the deaths of hundreds or possibly thousands of Murle people. A UN source said the number might be as high as 1,000, while a local Murle official estimated the number of deaths to be as high as 3,000 (Jeffrey Gettleman, “Born in Unity, South Sudan Is Torn Again,” New York Times, 12 January 2012). A UN peacekeeping mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), is present to assist the government of the country, which achieved independence from Sudan in July 2011, in establishing peace and stability. However, as the New York Times reported, the peacekeepers seem to have been of little benefit to the civilians targeted in the recent violence ….” Note to ceasefire.ca: does sharing your concern with this mean you’ll soon be calling for the U.N. to allow peacekeepers to shoot back if required? Or to push for Canada to have robust forces that CAN shoot back if needed on the peacekeeping missions you say we should go back to?
• What’s Canada Buying?  “A qualified supplier to provide High Risk Search (HRS) Training (for counter-IED unit) …. (to) be provided (at) CFB Gagetown” – more details in bid document extract here (8 page PDF).
• “Flight training firm CAE Inc. (TSX:CAE) said Wednesday it has won a number of military contracts worth more than $100 million from Canada’s Department of National Defence, Malaysia, the German Air Force and the Royal Air Force. Montreal-based CAE said the contracts include major upgrades to Canada’s CC-130 Hercules airplane and CH-146 helicopter simulators, long-term support services for an AW139 full-flight simulator in Malaysia as well as the development of two Tornado maintenance trainers for the German Air Force and Royal Air Force. “As militaries around the world face the reality of declining budgets, they will increasingly turn to simulation-based training to reduce costs and maintain readiness,” Martin Gagne, CAE president of military products, training and services said in a statement. “CAE is well-positioned globally to address the growing use of simulation by governments and defence forces.” The company will also design and manufacture a CAE 3000 Series helicopter full-flight simulator for an undisclosed customer in Europe and has a helicopter training services contract for an undisclosed customer in Asia ….”