MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – October 23, 2012
- “The federal government intends to extend the window of opportunity for veterans to land a job after they leave the Canadian Forces, and has turned to the Public Service Commission to come up with ways to help veterans earn government jobs. Currently, veterans can receive priority in the hiring queue for federal jobs two years after they are medically released from the military. After that time, they lose their priority status. The Tories plan to extend that to four years, Postmedia News has learned, a move the government hopes will improve the job prospects for medically released veterans wanting to enter the public service ….” – more from the VAC Info-machine here, and by MP’s sharing the same message here, here, here, and here.
- Meanwhile, “A former member of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board began a stinging critique of the agency Monday by laying his service medals on a table in front of members of Parliament and declaring the condescending treatment of ex-soldiers precluded him from wearing the decorations in good conscience. Harold Leduc told a Commons committee that a pervasive attitude of disrespect towards the veterans by a handful of members of the board has driven some ex-soldiers to the edge. Leduc, who sat on the 21-member panel for seven years, was not reappointed this fall by the Harper government after a very public fight over violations of his privacy and claims that the agency went out its way to deny appeals ….”
- Afghanistan (1) UN says IEDs causing most civilian casualties, Taliban says it’s all propaganda – who’re you gonna believe?
- Afghanistan (2) Column: “…. Over the past decade, Canada’s Afghanistan campaign has frequently been the subject of heated political debate. With our troops fighting and dying, drums-and-bugles, pro-war cheerleaders insisted that the very sacrifice of our soldiers warranted our staying in the fight to garner our rightful place of honour in the eventual victory parade. Adding his voice to that discussion was Chris Alexander, who was in Kabul between 2003 and 2009, first serving as Canada’s youngest ambassador and then as our diplomatic mission head in Kabul. When I first interviewed Alexander in 2007, he was serving as the deputy chief of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan. I recall being amazed by his bubbling enthusiasm and alarmed at his delusional naivete …. Now, according to International Crisis Group, a failure of the 2014 election could “trigger extensive unrest, fragmentation of the security services and perhaps even a much wider civil war.” That is hardly the rosy picture which Alexander predicted for Afghanistan back in 2007. But that sure was one spiffy ball cap.”
- Afghanistan (3) “Canadian Forces training advisors deployed in Kabul on Operation ATTENTION have carried out the final phase of the project known as the Staff and Language Training CentreAfghanistan (SLTC-A). On 13 October 2012, they formally transferred the SLTC-A facilities four buildings constructed or substantially renovated by Canada at a cost of about $9 million to the Afghan Ministry of Defence. With the transfer of facilities, the SLTC-A project attained an important milestone. The Afghan National Army (ANA) is now responsible for all instruction for the Junior Officer Command and Staff Course (JOCSC) and the purpose-built facilities. These facilities are currently accommodating the JOCSC, the junior officer training program of the ANA Command and Staff College, which was launched by Canada in partnership with the ANA in 2008. The SLTC project, conducted over five years, included the development and delivery of a staff course for ANA junior officers, and the construction of staff training facilities in cluding an officers’ training building, two new dormitories (one for men and one for women), a kitchen facility, and several support buildings. A key building block of Afghan professional military education, the JOCSC focuses on providing junior officers of the ANA with leadership skills, and helps prepare senior captains and junior majors to plan and coordinate military operations, and to command soldiers in garrison and in the field ….” – more on the junior officers’ training (tenders called to get ‘er done) here.
- Khadr Boy “Omar Khadr is a terrorist, not a child soldier, but Canada has an obligation to rehabilitate the convicted war criminal now that he’s back in the country, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Sunday. “I don’t agree he was a child soldier in the sense that he was somehow misled. The evidence is very clear. He’s a convicted murderer, he’s a terrorist and that’s the basis I brought him back on,” Toews said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period. “I do believe we have an obligation to rehabilitate him even though he is not a child soldier in the technical sense of that word,” he added ….”
- Delisle Spy Case See how easy it is to share documents so readers can get more of the big picture? “Top security officials fear Canada’s ties to its closest allies could be irreparably damaged after Jeffrey Delisle leaked secrets from the United States and others to Russia, newly public documents show. A series of damage assessments show Delisle had access to intelligence reports from Canada’s closest intelligence partners in the “Five Eyes community” – the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Newly unsealed court documents show Delisle accessed both Canadian and foreign intelligence information. Canadian officials worried Canada might be cut out of the security loop because of the Delisle fiasco. “The release of this information by the accused puts Canada’s relationships with our partners in jeopardy,” says a report by Brig.-Gen. Robe Williams. Delisle had top-secret clearance, meaning he was able to leak information that was deemed able to cause “exceptionally grave injury to our national interest.” An analysis by CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, found Delisle’s leaks caused “severe and irreparable damage to Canadian interests.” ….” More from one media outlet that doesn’t seem to be sharing the documents in question here, and stories sharing only some of the content (not the documents themselves) here and here.
- “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, and the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veteran’s Affairs, …. joined General Walt Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff, Rear-Admiral Andrew Smith, Chief Military Personnel and senior leaders from across the Canadian Forces (CF) for a discussion on the CF’s mental health programs, services and areas of research …. The Forum on Mental Health and the CF provided an opportunity for senior leaders across the CF, and for partner organizations from the government and civilian sectors, to gain a complete understanding of the comprehensive and innovative mental health programs and services available to CF personnel ….”
- “Of all the deputy ministers shuffled recently, it was perhaps one of the ones that didn’t move that was the most controversial. Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled 10 deputies and associate deputies last week, but opted to leave in place Robert Fonberg, his DM of National Defence. This despite a year of tumult in the House and negative headlines, particularly on the troubled F-35 fighter jet procurement. That acquisition was ultimately taken out of his department’s control and handed to Public Works. Critics say the fact that Fonberg is still in his post is telling of the government’s approach to the entire defence file recently. “It’s the same question as why [Defence Minister Peter] MacKay is still in his position?” Liberal defence critic John McKay told iPolitics. “The government wishes to minimize the fallout from the F-35, so one way is to protect MacKay, another way is to appoint an associate minister of defence, another way is to protect your deputy minister.” ….”
- Some military highlights of the 50th anniversary of Canada recognizing Jamaica “…. Prime Ministers Harper and Simpson Miller noted that Canada and Jamaica enjoy an enduring relationship in the area of defence, based on extensive bilateral collaboration between the Canadian Forces (CF) and the Jamaican Defence Force (JDF). Reference was made to cooperation between the two countries including the provision of support to Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, cooperation in Afghanistan, and jointly building and operating the Caribbean Military Aviation School, the Caribbean Counter-Terrorism Training Centre, Operation Jaguar in 2011, and most recently the Caribbean Military Maritime Training Centre, to provide defence training throughout the region. Prime Minister Harper also thanked Prime Minister Simpson Miller for Jamaica’s support in relation to the establishment of an Operational Support Hub for the Canadian Forces in Jamaica, aimed at improving Canada’s ability to support operations to address security challenges and disaster response in the region ….” - a bit more on the Jamaican PM’s visit to Canada here.
