MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 22 June 12

• What HMCS Charlottetown boarding parties are up to these days on OP Artemis  “As they wait to kick off on a mission, members of a naval boarding party are like athletes before a big game — there’s a bit of anxiety, but mostly they focus on visualizing what may come, and their strong desire to perform well. ““I think when people picture the boarding team swinging into action they picture everything happening very quickly,”” said Lieutenant (Navy) Adam MacIntyre, the Naval Boarding Party Officer in HMCS Charlottetown. ““While this is sometimes the case, there are also times when we know that a boarding is likely to take place as much as 24 hours in advance — or even more. It leaves time to think about what’s going to happen next.”” ….”
• Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay responds to a question about cutting 140+ civilian staff at CFB St. Jean:  “Mr. Speaker, we are still investing in the military, including in its infrastructure across Canada. At the same time, we need to ensure our economy is balanced, while making important decisions that respect Canadian taxpayers. For every decision that is made, we work with the public service in order to find fair solutions that are necessary to maintain support for our soldiers as well as local communities.”
• Meanwhile, Sun Media Columnist on DND, Veterans Affairs execs getting bonuses  “Most people find it commendable that the federal government is determined to trim the costs of running the country, even if it means some programs suffer cuts and restraints. The Harper Conservatives are adamant that the days of lavish spending are over (for the time being). Once again the Department of National Defence will take the lead in cutbacks — especially now that Afghanistan is on the back-burner. While all this has an inevitable feel, there are aspects that are so bothering that one wonders at the mental make-up of those involved. What I’m referring to are bonuses …. DND is reportedly cutting 1,000 jobs as its part in government austerity — clerks, kitchen staff, technicians, secretaries, whatever. That said, apparently some 157 DND employees in the executive category are dividing about $2 million in bonuses and extra pay. Over in Veterans Affairs (VAC), which is continually under fire for apparent short-changing those who come home with life-altering wounds (mental and/or physical) in foreign missions, there are also cutbacks — and more bonuses. Some 800 VAC jobs are said to be slated for extinction, yet $700,000 or so is headed to 57 executives or senior people in the form of bonuses or extra pay ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (1)  “The Harper government’s attempt to shut down a House of Commons committee investigation into the handling the F-35 stealth-fighter deal has failed, thanks to a filibuster by the Opposition. As the Commons adjourned for the summer, New Democrats managed to hold up the writing of a final report into the auditor general’s criticism of the multibillion-dollar program. It has been put off until the fall when opposition members will try once again to have more witnesses called before the public accounts committee. An in-camera motion by Conservative members that called for public hearings to end, and for the committee to conclude its study, was filibustered by an Ontario New Democrat, Malcolm Allen, and other Opposition members. The committee met one last time before the summer break on Thursday, where the matter was once again delayed ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  Lookit who’s in the approval chain for at least some e-mails to reporters on this file…. “The Public Works Department provided the strategic communications branch in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Cabinet department with at least one copy of emails to a journalist this week as it was attempting to deny an outside review of F-35 stealth fighter jet costs will not have access to key information provided by the F-35 project’s head office in the U.S. The Public Works communications office accidentally included The Hill Times as one of the recipients of an email it sent to officials in the Privy Council Office to show the powerful PCO branch a copy of an email Public Works had prepared in response to a Hill Times report posted Monday about the government’s plan to review F-35 costs, following Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s scathing report on the stealth warplane project last April. In the email, Public Works denied that an obscure footnote in the government’s new F-35 management plan to be set up in Public Works means an independent review of $25-billion in estimated F-35 costs will not have access to key data and estimates from the U.S. that Canada’s Department of National Defence has been using to establish its own cost estimates for aircraft acquisition and maintenance. “Please find below for your information what we will send to Tim Naumetz,” the Public Works Department email said. It went on to explain the email to The Hill Times had already been approved by the Public Works secretariat now in charge of the F-35 project, as well as the office of Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose (Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Alta.) ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (3)  Short and sweet on this one from the PM in the House:  “Mr. Speaker, the government has not yet purchased the F-35. On the contrary, we have said many times that we will replace the jets when necessary, at the end of this decade. Now, we are in the process of rebuilding the Canadian armed forces. It is very important to give our men and women in uniform the equipment they need. I am very proud of our government’s track record on this.”
• What’s Canada Buying?  Someone to check out areas around CFB Goose Bay to prep for (environmental?) clean up and someone to provide “900 kits of Survival Evasion, Resistance and Escape Kits (SERE)” for delivery “within 250 KM radius of (Ottawa).”
• Search and Rescue on the East Coast  CF Info-Machine has this to say about the Burton Winters rescue operation  “Information regarding the use of a military aircraft at the end of January 2012 was recently tabled in Parliament by Minister MacKay. A Cormorant training flight that flew from CFB Gander to St. John’s on 30 January 2012 is listed in this documentation. January 30th is the same day that a ground search and rescue operation was being led by the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador for Burton Winters. My intent with this communication is to provide context to this flight in light of the tragic passing of Burton Winters. The Canadian Forces have consistently stated the operational decision not to deploy a Cormorant was based on a number of complex and inter-related factors to include: weather, aircraft availability, distance to the search area and the requirement to respond to an aeronautical and/or maritime search and rescue call which is the primary responsibility of the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces ….”
• Speaking of coastlines, this from Senator Colin Kenny on keeping a better eye on them  “…. It is true that the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) gives us a well-focused picture of what aircraft are entering Canadian air space. But the picture isn’t nearly as clear on our marine coastlines.  Canada does have coordinated coastal defence systems feeding into Marine Security Operation Centres (MSOC) at Trinity, in Halifax, and Athena, in Esquimalt, B.C. These centres are staffed by experts from various branches of government. They assemble information funneled to them in various ways and fuse it to produce intelligence as to what might be a threat off our coastal waters. The problem is that while NORAD air defences give us a real-time picture of what’s coming and going in our skies at any given moment, our coastal pictures are a mix of real-time and past-time information. Here’s an example. On the Atlantic Coast, some of the information funneled into Trinity is provided by Provincial Airways aircraft. Their observations are obviously of use, but these aircraft aren’t flying all the time, and they can observe only what is below their flight paths. Ideally, every component of an MSOC’s picture would be “real time” — exactly what’s happening in the moment, like an air traffic controller’s display screen ….”
• New boss coming at CF Operations Support Command (CANOSCOM)
• “Media are invited to attend a short press conference on Friday, June 22, where the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, will be joined by Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, to officially present Ms. Arlene Dickinson with her appointment as an Honorary Captain (Navy) in the Royal Canadian Navy. The Minister will also discuss the importance of the Honorary Captain (Navy) / Colonel program ….”
• Note to Edmonton Journal:  a big honkin’ truck =/= an “armoured vehicle”  “Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a CFB Edmonton vehicle fire on a highway north of the city Wednesday morning. The accident happened around 11 a.m. on Highway 28 near the intersection of Highway 37, six kilometres from the base, said Morinville RCMP. Earlier information from the RCMP said explosives inside the armoured vehicle had detonated, but CFB Edmonton spokesperson Fraser Logan said there were no explosives on board at the time. “The driver’s front tire popped, which accounts for the loud noise,” said Logan. Police said the armoured vehicle was “fully engulfed” when they arrived, but no injuries were reported. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire ….” – more from the CF Info-machine here
• Khadr Boy (1)  “Omar Khadr’s Canadian and American lawyers are calling on the Conservative government to live up to its agreement with the United States and approve his transfer to serve out the rest of his sentence for war crimes in Canada. “The Canadian government has consistently failed to live up to its obligations to Omar Khadr. While Omar, a child, was trapped in a place that has been condemned around the world, the Canadian government stood idly by and said simply, ‘We will let the process run its course,’” his Canadian lawyer, John Norris, told an Ottawa press conference Thursday. “Well, that process has now long run its course. “In October of 2010, Canada committed to return Omar to complete his sentence in Canada after he served one additional year in Guantanamo Bay. Yet today, he still sits in a cell in Guantanamo, eight months after he was eligible to return to Canada,” Norris said. One of his Pentagon-appointed U.S. lawyers said Khadr is not a threat. “I’ve spoken to dozens of guards and staff at Guantanamo Bay and they all say the same thing about Omar Khadr, it needs to be clear to Canadians: He is a good kid and he deserves a chance at life,” said Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson. …. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said again Wednesday there was nothing new to say about the case. “I’ve made no decision in that. I’ll make a decision in due course, in accordance with the law.” That’s been Ottawa’s position ever since it became clear that the Americans were seeking to have the Toronto-born Khadr transferred to Canada to serve out his sentence ….” – more here and here.
• Khadr Boy (2a)  Editorial:  “…. Does (Public Safety Minister Vic) Toews really think he and his successors can continue to push paper around on their desks for another six and a half years, until Khadr’s sentence is up and he comes home a free man? Whatever the government has planned for Omar Khadr, it doesn’t seem inclined to share those plans with Canadians. Instead, it continues to say one thing and do another.”
• Khadr Boy (2b)  More opinion:  “…. The disagreement over Khadr’s place, or lack of place, in Canada will go on, but the moral battle is in my view already lost. The Khadr detention and especially the dirty work of Guantanamo which followed was a disgrace and a crime. Now there appears a new challenge and a new opportunity, to reintegrate and restore a Canadian citizen so badly abused, by so many, and for so long.”
• Remembering the Air India terrorist bombing in the House of Commons:  “Ms. Jinny Jogindera Sims (Newton—North Delta, NDP): Mr. Speaker, each year, June 23 marks a painfully sad day for thousands of Canadian families. Twenty-seven years ago this Saturday, 329 people lost their lives in a tragedy known as the Air India bombing, the largest mass murder in Canadian history. Although a Canadian inquiry was launched and completed, many questions remain unanswered. Relatives still struggle to understand how it happened. Today, our hearts go out to each and every one of them. As we approach another anniversary of this atrocity, I stand here asking all parties in this House to join together in remembrance of the victims and their families. Canadian, British and Indian citizens perished on that flight, but countries all over the world mourn them.”
• “The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs, and Greg Rickford, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, laid wreaths (yesterday) at the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument on the occasion of National Aboriginal Day. Representatives of Aboriginal Veterans’ organizations were in attendance …. The National Aboriginal Veterans Monument was dedicated in 2001. The monument incorporates images of four “spiritual guides”—the wolf, the bear, the bison and the caribou—possessing qualities that Aboriginal Canadians see as key to military success. …. Canada’s Aboriginal people have been fighting for Canada on the front lines going back to 1812. Then, warriors like Tecumseh, John Norton and John Brant led Aboriginal forces in alliance with the Canadians and the British against the Americans. Aboriginal Canadians would go on to serve in many more conflicts over the years, from the First World War to Afghanistan ….”
• War of 1812  Part of the PM’s message for National Aboriginal Day yesterday  “…. Aboriginal peoples have made immense contributions to our nation. First Nations fought as allies in the War of 1812 and in every major conflict since, and their cultures and traditions continue to be an integral part of Canadian identity. The enduring relationship between the Government of Canada and First Nations is one based on mutual respect, friendship and support, and we are committed to working towards deepening this bond ….”
• Remembering Bomber Command in the House of Commons – this from former CF pilot MP Laurie Hawn (highlights mine):  “Mr. Speaker, the early 1940s were dark days in England and in the rest of the free world. People were desperate for some good news and a feeling that freedom was fighting back against tyranny and oppression. Bomber Command became a ray of hope as the only way that the allies could take the fight to Nazi Germany. Canada’s contributions were impressive and the stuff of legend, but the success of Bomber Command came at a terrible cost. Out of 125,000 aircrew who served, over 55,000 were killed, including over 10,000 Canadians. This is a debt that can never be repaid but it is a debt that can never be forgotten. In an act of political correctness in 1945, Bomber Command was left off the list of organizations that were officially recognized for the role it played in the allied victory. This oversight is finally being corrected 67 years later. The new Bomber Command memorial will be unveiled in London on June 28 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the presence of 42 Canadian Bomber Command veterans. The Bomber Command memorial will form a physical and emotional link to our past. We will remember its members’ dedication to the values of freedom and democracy and we will remember their sacrifice. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

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