MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – November 21, 2012
- Joshua Baker, 1985-2010, R.I.P. “A soldier wounded during a fatal training accident in Afghanistan more than two years ago says he thought his platoon was under attack by the Taliban. Master Cpl. William Pylypow told a Calgary court martial he was in a direct line behind a Claymore C19 anti-personnel device when it went off on Feb. 12, 2010. “We always presume it’s Taliban, so I thought they got to us,” Pylypow said Tuesday ….” - more here.
- More vets food complaints on the East Coast “The Pictou County Health Authority will review the food served at the Northumberland Veterans Unit at Sutherland Harris Memorial Hospital. The decision comes six months after a new meal program, which includes pre-made meals shipped in from out of province, was introduced at local hospitals and follows a wave of complaints from veterans and their families about the quality of what is being served. The health authority is in the process of putting together a group that will evaluate the veterans’ full 28-day meal cycle. The group is to include representatives of residents, families, the Royal Canadian Legion and staff. Veterans Affairs Canada has also been invited to participate. Alan Mongraw, vice-president of corporate services for the health authority, said the group would begin working “as soon as we can.” He said the authority has evaluated the meal program from the beginning and thought that at the six-month mark it was an appropriate time to expand the evaluation process ….”
- “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, (yesterday) attended the Gala Leadership 60 at Royal Military College Saint-Jean, which celebrated the 60th anniversary of its foundation ….”
- RCN Info-machine on gassing up on the high seas “As you’re driving down the road, across town or even across the country, do you wonder when you will next get a chance to buy gas, and maybe a snack? Count yourself lucky you’re in a car. If you were driving a warship, you would face that problem on a much grander scale. Ships that have to stay at sea for extended periods must find a way to restock everything ship and crew consume — peanut butter, engine parts, fuel. It’s called “replenishment at sea” — abbreviated RAS (pronounced “razz”) — and the commodity most often replenished this way is fuel ….”
- Israel “With hope of an Israel-Gaza ceasefire beckoning Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird hailed the “miracle” of a Zionist Israel while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began the hard diplomatic work of brokering an end to the violence. Speaking to a glittering Jewish community fundraising gala, Baird called the birth of Israel a “miracle to behold,” describing it as “a phoenix-like rising … from a barren desert to the dynamic country we see today.” …. Baird offered no vestige of equivocation in his keynote speech to the Jewish National Fund’s annual Negev Dinner, held at Ottawa’s opulent National Gallery. “I want to share reflections on how I came to be such a strong supporter of Israel and why Israel holds such a special place in my heart,” Baird said in prepared remarks. Hamas, he said, was targeting innocent civilians with its onslaught of rockets aimed at Israel in “a despicable act of terror.” ….” – more of Baird’s speech here.
- “The federal government is asking police to investigate the leak of an internal memo that warns of a lack of security at Canada’s embassy in Moscow. The Canadian Press reported on the weekend about an internal memo to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird that described the embassy compound as vulnerable to terrorist attack and the prying eyes of foreign spies. “We take the release of this kind of information extremely seriously, and we are considering calling in the RCMP,” Diane Ablonczy, Canada’s minister of state of Foreign Affairs, said during question period Monday. “We will not engage in public or partisan discussions that could place the arrangements we make for our men and women in the public service at risk, and we will continue to do what is right and needful in this situation.” A spokesman for Baird later confirmed that officials had been asked to refer the matter to police. The memo, to Baird from a senior bureaucrat, warned that Canada’s embassy in the Russian capital offers “almost no protection” against a terrorist attack ….”
- “A confidential government document obtained by CBC News warns the Harper government has been slow to open new markets in Asia, leaving Canada firmly tied to the troubled U.S. economy for a long time to come. The document prepared by Foreign Affairs and dated Sept. 6 is a draft of a highly classified new “Canadian foreign policy plan” the Conservative government has been preparing for more than a year. The draft briefing paper for the federal cabinet states: “We need to be frank with ourselves — our influence and credibility with some of these new and emerging powers is not as strong as it needs to be and could be. “Canada’s record over past decades has been to arrive late in some key emerging markets. We cannot do so in the future.” ….”
