MILNEWS.ca News Highlights –February 27, 2013
- Analyst as well as unamed “insider” agree – CF $ cuts’ll hurt (and not just HQ types, either) – more here and here
- Defence Minister in the House: they’re not cuts, it’s MORE money! “…. In fact, the Conservative government has seen increases of roughly 34% in the defence budget since 2005-06. Let us roll the clock back to when this member was part of the government that presided over a decade of darkness that saw the Canadian Forces rusted out. Whether we have increased funding for procurement, for infrastructure, for salaries, or for programs for soldiers, this member and this party have a sad, sorry record of not supporting the Canadian Forces ….”
- Historian on Canada’s future defence plans: “…. we have no national strategy to help us determine where we gather our resources and how and when to use them. We surely need something better than adhockery to plan our responses to the challenges we face ….”
- “A Canadian man working with the United Nations in the Syrian Golan Heights has disappeared, according to Israeli media reports. The UN has confirmed that one of its staffers went missing along the Syrian-Israeli border, but would not disclose the person’s name or nationality. The Times of Israel newspaper, however, reported that the missing man is Canadian citizen Carl Campeau, a civilian who was working as a legal adviser with the UN peacekeeping mission in the area. According to the Times, Campeau was stationed at the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force base on the Syrian side of the demilitarized zone separating Israel and Syria. It is believed that Syrian government troops have abandoned the area, leaving the rebels in control there ….” - UN’s not saying much yet. You can read more about Canada’s contribution to UNDOF via OP Gladius here.
- Afghanistan “Despite being located on a far-flung military base that is surrounded by desert and shot at by insurgents, the combat hospital in Afghanistan where Canadian casualties were treated had a mortality rate as impressive as sophisticated trauma centres in the West, suggests a new study. The authors, including a Toronto doctor, credit in part a novel system that used teams of different specialists to treat each severely injured patient, a concept they say could be adopted by hospitals here ….” - summary of the study here, and how the Toronto doc and others see Kandahar’s experience being useful in humanitarian aid settings here
- Ooopsie (1) …. “A CFB Shilo soldier who offered to pay a girl and a woman to have sex with him and a dog — then sent them explicit images — has been sentenced to 90 days in jail. “There are two… women out there who were disturbed, upset and victimized by what you did,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in Brandon court Monday. Tyson Larry Shiels, 31, admitted to contacting a 17-year-old girl online in September. He offered her $2,000 to have sex with him and his dog, and sent her an explicit video of himself with the animal ….”
- Ooopsie (2) …. “Pilot error was the reason two Canadian CF-18 Hornet fighter jets scrambled to intercept a Sunwing Airlines flight near Quebec City, after the Toronto-bound aircraft lost contact with air traffic control for more than an hour, a CTV News investigation has learned. The jets were under the command of NORAD, the military command responsible for the defence of North American airspace. Until now, little was known about the July 16, 2012, potential air threat. NORAD has maintained that security reasons prevented them from disclosing even the airline involved or how long the aircraft was unresponsive to radio communications ….”
- “A Chinese state-owned development group is setting up shop at Ottawa’s innovation hub, and some security experts are expressing concern about the possibility of intellectual property theft amid widespread cases of cyber stealing in the U.S. linked to China ….”
- A Muslim organization wants you to write to your MP opposing proposed anti-terrorism legislation – more on the group here
