MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – February 12, 2014

• Please do what you can to spread the message that folks who are having a tough time don’t have to suffer alone – #sendupthecount – more here on Facebook and here at milnet.ca (Disclosure:  I’m a moderator at Milnet.ca)
• Martin Mercier, R.I.P.  “Another sad day. We became aware yesterday of the death by suicide of WO Martin Mercier, of CFB Gagetown. WO Mercier was RCR, and posted to the 5 Canadian Division Training Centre. He was found at his home ….”
• “On behalf of the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of Veterans Affairs Canada, Parliamentary Secretary Parm Gill attended today the Fourth Annual Winter Sports Clinic held by the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing and National Capital Division (CADS-NCD). The clinic is held from February 9 to 14, 2014, at the Calabogie Peaks Resort ….”
• “A CH-146 Griffon helicopter from 417 Combat Support Squadron from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, took to the skies in record-breaking winds on January 15 for a medevac (medical evacuation) flight.  The patient, an expectant mother from Bonnyville Regional Hospital, had gone into labour ten weeks early. She was transported from the hospital in Bonnyville, approximately 45 kilometres from Cold Lake, to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, nearly 200 kilometres away.  High winds and slippery runways had grounded Alberta’s fixed-wing air ambulance, and the crosswinds were beyond the limits of helicopters from STARS (Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society), a charitable organization that provides emergency medical transport in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba ….”
• Afghanistan  “Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:  “Canada strongly believes Afghan laws must ensure strong protections for women and girls, as guaranteed by the Afghan constitution and in line with Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations.  To this end, we have deep concerns with the Criminal Procedure Code before President Karzai.  Canada urges President Karzai to reject this legislation outright, and to uphold the commitment of the Afghan government to protect the rights of all Afghan citizens, especially the rights of women and girls ….” ”
  
• Welcome home HMCS Regina  “Three-year-old Cameron Stevens hopped down the plush red carpet at Government House (in Victoria B.C.) and into the ballroom where pizza, miniburgers and breaded prawns were waiting.  On his first Family Day in B.C., Cameron and his mother, Kari, accepted an invitation from Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon to attend a reception for the families of the crew of HMCS Regina.  Little girls in patent shoes and shiny dresses ran through the ballroom, lining up to have their faces painted, to make a crown and see a puppet show.  “We’re missing our darling Ryan,” Kari said of her husband, Leading Seaman Ryan Lourenco. “It’s different. We are from Halifax so we have no family here. All our family is on the Regina right now. We got to Skype today. So we did have the whole family together.”  As she greeted her guests, Guichon observed that for many people, Family Day is a day of mixed feelings.  “For you folks, your loved ones have been gone now for more than 30 days, and although you miss them every day, a day like today is even more poignant,” said Guichon ….”
• Way Up North (1)  “The Future Of The (U.S.) Navy: Chief Of Naval Operations Pinpoints Underwater Drones And The Opening Of Arctic Sea Routes As Main Concerns In 2014“
• Way Up North (2)  “(U.S.) Senator, General Agree on Need for “Arctic Issues on the Front Burner” ”
  
• Way Up North (3)  “Lac Seul (Ontario) was the host of the largest attended Junior Ranger winter exercise in Ontario from Jan. 24-27.  Sixty-three Junior Rangers from five communities quickly adjusted to the unseasonably frigid conditions.  “I can not say enough about the Junior Canadian Ranger programme,” said Lac Seul Chief Clifford Bull. “This gathering provides the youth the opportunities to learn about winter survival skills but it also gives them an environment to learn about values, respect and discipline.”  The Junior Rangers spent the weekend learning about snowmobile safety and maintenance, fire starting, shelter construction, trapping, gill nets, snow shoeing and chain saw maintenance.  Ten Junior Rangers, two from each community, were selected for enhance leadership development. They were taught about public speaking, planning, team building and leadership roles ….”
• Way Up North (4)  “Abraham Metatawabin, a 90-year old Mushkegowuk Cree, has lived off of the Fort Albany River his whole life. It was here where he joined the Fort Albany Patrol of the Canadian Rangers in the early 1960s, and it was in this community where he was recognized for his many contributions to the Rangers over the years.  On January 30th members of 3 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group presented Ranger Metatawabin with the first clasp to his Canadian Armed Forces’ Decoration (CD) at the Peetabeck Academy during their 20th Anniversary Surveillance Patrol.  Metatawabin is the first Ranger in Ontario to receive a clasp to his CD.  The CD is awarded to those who have served 12 years in the CAF and the clasp represents an additional 10 years of service.  Ranger Metatawabin has the distinction of being the longest-serving Ranger in Ontario at 90 years of age ….”
• “The 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron crew involved in the dramatic rescue of a crane operator above a huge, raging fire in downtown Kingston, Ontario, on December 17, was presented with the key to the City of Kingston by Mayor Mark Gerretsen in a ceremony on February 4 ….”
  
• From the RCAF Info-machine  “For Captain Roy Laudenorio, a Chaplain with the Canadian Armed Forces stationed at 17 Wing Winnipeg, Operation Renaissance gave him a chance to give back to the society he says helped make him what he is today.  “They taught me to care and what it means to reach out to a fellow human being,” said Captain Laudenorio about the people he grew up with. “My Filipino culture had a big impact on my choice of vocation/career.”  Born and raised in the Philippines, Padre Laudenorio was one of 319 CAF members on the operation and one of a special group of about 15 liaison officers of Filipino descent. Captain Laudenorio speaks Hiligaynon, the most widely used dialect of Panay Island where the Canadians provided assistance ….”
  
• “A Canadian Armed Forces reservist has started something of a singing career after winning the right to sing the Canadian national anthem in front of tens of thousands of football fans in December 2013 in a contest held by a Toronto TV station.  Sergeant  Darryl Casselman, a soldier with 31 Canadian Brigade Group, was one of four finalists in a contest by Toronto’s CITY-TV to choose someone to sing O Canada at a National Football League game in Toronto on December 1st, beating out dozens of other contestants.  Viewers of CITY-TV’s Breakfast Television show chose the winner in an on-line vote on the station’s website after the four finalists sang on the morning show. Sgt. Casselman’s performance clearly won over the audience, making him the hands down winner in the Internet vote.  A few weeks later, he found himself standing at centre field in Rogers Centre, microphone in hand, before a National Football League game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Buffalo Bills ….”
• From the Army’s Info-machine  “Using virtual battle grounds and troops is an excellent way to hone skills of military leaders.  Senior leaders from 33 Canadian Brigade Group and 33 Territorial Battalion Group traveled to the Simulation Centre in Petawawa to do just that. Taking part in elaborate virtual operation in the context of a fictional country allowed leaders to practice defence, diplomacy, and humanitarian assistance ….”
  
• From the Lux Ex Umbra blog  “The “common understanding” that exists among the Five Eyes countries that they won’t spy on each other seems to be less and less commonly held ….”
  
• “Recorded conversations that appear to show three men discussing an attack on a repatriation ceremony at CFB Trenton were played Tuesday at the trial of a Canadian doctor and former Canadian Idol contestant who is accused of having links to al-Qaeda.  Dr. Khurram Sher, a former pathologist who lived in London, Ont., is accused of joining an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cell in Ottawa, where the trial began yesterday ….” – more here and here
• “A lawyer for accused terrorist Khurram Syed Sher is pressing a police detective on the reliability of a transcript of a key meeting between Sher and two alleged co-conspirators.  In Ontario Superior Court, defence lawyer Michael Edelson has peppered Det. Mireille Clement with questions about how she prepared the transcription from secret audio surveillance of a discussion at an Ottawa home.  During the July 20, 2010, meeting, Sher seems to express a desire to arrange overseas tactical training through a Pakistani man who claimed to be with the Taliban ….”
• Khadr Boy (1)  Remember, you read it here first yesterday  “Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen who spent time detained in Guantanamo Bay, was reportedly transferred from a maximum-security prison in Alberta to a medium-security facility in the same province ….”
• Khadr Boy (2)  “Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney assured Canadians on Wednesday that the government will go out of its way to fight terrorist Omar Khadr getting a lighter prison sentence.  Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was convicted of killing an American medic in Afghanistan, was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to a maximum-security prison in Alberta 15 months ago.  He was transferred Wednesday to the Bowden Institute, a medium- and minimum-security prison also in Alberta …. Blaney isn’t among the Canadians who view Khadr as a “child soldier.”  “Omar Khadr pleased guilty to heinous crimes including the murder of American Army medic Sgt. Christopher Speer,” Blaney’s spokesman, Jean-Christophe de le Rue, told QMI Agency. “The government will vigorously defend against any attempted court action to lessen his punishment for these crimes.” ….”
  
• Commentary  “A new axis of terror – Last summer, in the oppressive Middle Eastern heat, I found myself in Iraq. Technically, I was in “the other Iraq” — that is, Iraqi Kurdistan, a tiny island of stability in an otherwise tumultuous region. With innumerable cranes giving life to what will soon become hotels and businesses, perfectly paved roads, and crisp air yet to be polluted by industrial growth, this Other Iraq seemed a miracle. Yet, even then, amid the reflective solitude of Ramadan, anxiety over the creeping jihadism in both Iraq and Syria was palpable, from Kurdistan’s de facto foreign minister down to the young merchants I met ….”