MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – March 20, 2013

• “The Harper government’s oft-stated support for Canada’s military is coming under the microscope as senior officers and defence analysts brace for more cuts in Thursday’s federal budget.  And some are even warning that unless dramatic steps are taken, some say the military is in danger of entering another dreaded “decade of darkness.”  An analysis by retired lieutenant-colonel Brian MacDonald of the Conference of Defence Associations has found military spending as a percentage of gross domestic product trending toward its lowest level since 1997.  The “decade of darkness” was the name given by former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier to describe the deep spending cuts imposed on the military by the government of former prime minister Jean Chretien in the 1990s.  MacDonald stated that the declining ratio of defence spending to GDP – from a high of 1.4 per cent in 2009-10 to an estimated 1.08 per cent by 2015 – is “more consistent to a return to ‘the Decade of Darkness’ than to the ‘Brave New World’ promised” by the federal Conservatives ….” – more analysis from the Conference of Defence Associations Institute here
• The Finance Department info-machine says it’ll be even easier than usual for you to catch tomorrow’s budget
• ceasefire.ca, again, with the “don’t buy armed drones” message
  
• Mali (1)  U.N. spokesperson:  LOTS of ways Canada can help!  “Canada is well-placed to help bring peace and stability back to Mali, a senior United Nations’ official says — and it doesn’t have to deploy hundreds of soldiers to do it.  “There are many different ways that Canada can contribute,” Kieran Dwyer, chief of public affairs at the UN peacekeeping department, told Postmedia News on Monday. “And large numbers of soldiers on the ground aren’t the only effective measure of a contribution.”  The UN Security Council is expected to approve a peacekeeping mission to Mali in the coming days to replace French soldiers who have been battling Islamic militants in the north of the country since January.  Dwyer said the UN has been soliciting feedback from member states in advance of that decision to see what different countries are willing and able to contribute so the mission can get up and running as quickly as possible.  Dwyer, who was in Ottawa to attend an event organized by the United Nations Association of Canada, could not say whether Canada has been approached yet ….”
• Mali (2)  “The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Monday confirmed that a Canadian’s remains was found at the site of Algerian gas plant attack January, but the police department said that they have been unable to confirm if the Canadian citizen involved in the attack was a victim or culprit.  However, it is believed the body of the Canadian is linked to the fight between the Islamic rebels and Algerian military forces at the gas plant.  On January 16, Algerian forces raided the gas plant seized by the Islamic rebels linked to al-Qaeda and the seize was put to an end but more than 80 people lost lives in the fight including at least 48 hostages. At least 36 people who succumbed to the fight between the Algerian forces and Islamic rebels were reported to be foreigners from eight different countries.  Following the gas plant attack, the Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said that the kidnappers at the site include two Canadian nationalities and people from Egypt, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Tunisia ….”
• Afghanistan  Joshua Baker, 1985-2010, R.I.P.  “Colonel Mario Dutil, Chief Military Judge, has sentenced retired Warrant Officer Paul Ravensdale to a suspended six-month prison term, a reduction in rank to Sergeant, and a $2000 fine, in relation to a training incident that occurred on a weapons range in Afghanistan, in February 2010.  The judge also ordered a DNA sample be provided for the national DNA data bank, which is mandatory for a conviction of unlawfully causing bodily harm ….”
• “Sixteen citizens from Eastern Ontario and one citizen from Laval, Quebec, will be presented with the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation during a ceremony held in Ottawa, Ontario (tonight) ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – March 15, 2013

• Welcome home!  “Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Regina returned to Esquimalt, B.C. (yesterday) following a successful eight-month deployment where 225 crewmembers conducted maritime security and counter-terrorism operations in the Arabian Sea region …. HMCS Regina left her home port of Esquimalt, B.C., on July 3, 2012, to replace HMCS Charlottetown on Operation Artemis, Canada’s contribution to Combined Task Force 150, the multinational flotilla conducting counter-terrorism operations in the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, and the Indian Ocean. She was deployed with a crew of 225 personnel, a shipboard unmanned aerial vehicle detachment, and a CH-124 Sea King Helicopter detachment from 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron, the West Coast operational Sea King squadron located in Patricia Bay, Victoria ….”
• Mali (1)  Canadian, French PM chat about stuff of mutual interest, including Mali, then they chat to reporters ….
  
• Mali (2a)  Reuters takeaway:  “Canada to keep C-17 with Mali mission as long as needed” – more along these lines here
  
• Mali (2b)  CBC takeaway:  “PM Harper says Canada considering options on Mali”
• Mali (2c)  Toronto Star takeaway:  “Harper sidesteps question of whether Canada will contribute to UN peacekeeping force for Mali, saying Ottawa has no interest in sending troops to the West African country”
  
• Mali (2d)  Postmedia News/CTV takeaway:  “Canada may contribute to Mali peacekeeping mission, Harper says”
  
• Mali (2e)  Globe & Mail takeaway:  “Harper says Canada may help a UN-led Mali mission, but rules out combat”
• Next federal budget due out next Thursday, and Macleans is the first to start reading the defence department tea leaves
• CBC Manitoba talks to troops, families about post traumatic stress and the toll it can take
  
• Former CF geo-int (geospatial intelligence) boss, now geo-int consultant, on everybody having to work better together and share more  “….  The Geospatial Intelligence community is slowly moving towards a more “joined up” Geospatial Intelligence enterprise approach. If we can accelerate the pace of using all types of imagery and data – which includes space-based data, all types of air breathing, handheld, crowd sourcing and other open source Geospatial Intelligence – we can provide world class Geospatial Intelligence products to the entire customer base.  By leveraging the incredible capabilities of both the geospatial and imagery analysts, we can enable them to work more effectively in this new dynamic Geospatial Intelligence environment ….”
  
• Way Up North (1)  More on Canada’s “Army of the Centre” training near the shores of James Bay
• Way Up North (2)  “The Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region met in Washington DC, March 12th-13th, 2013. Among the issues on the agenda were introductions to the US Arctic policy, presentations on the work of the US Arctic Research Commission, and an announcement by Lt. Governor of the State of Alaska, Mr. Mead Treadwell on plans for a multi-year study of Arctic marine shipping ….” – more on the conference here, and on the Standing Committee (which includes Canadian representation) here
• “Twelve Canadian citizens from the province of Quebec and one Canadian citizen residing in North Carolina were honoured (yesterday) for their commitment and dedication to Veterans. The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister for La Francophonie, presented these individuals with the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation at a ceremony in Québec City ….”
• Paul Rose (1)  FLQ’ite convicted of murdering a Quebec cabinet minister dies in his bed, and someone in the Quebec Legislature wants to have him declared some kind of hero – more here
• Paul Rose (1)  Compare the Toronto Sun’s column on Rose’s death (“Paul Rose, you won’t be missed”) here, to the French canoe.ca’s column (“The Death of a Gentle Warrior“) here – hard to tell both outlets have the same owners, eh?
• Corrections Canada to Khadr:  No publicity for YOU!  “The government’s refusal to allow the media access to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr is aimed at protecting its portrayal of him as a dangerous terrorist, his lawyer says.  In rejecting an interview request from The Canadian Press, Correctional Service Canada said such access might pose a security risk or be disruptive, and would undermine his correctional plan.  “CSC has determined that your request to interview federal offender Omar Khadr cannot be granted,” Kyle Lawlor, acting media relations and outreach adviser, said in the rejection email.  Khadr’s lawyer, Dennis Edney, accused the government of hiding his client from the Canadian public to paint him in the worst possible light.  “There appears to be a propaganda value to ensuring that Omar Khadr is not seen other than as a terrorist,” Edney said from Edmonton.  “It’s important that the public get an understanding beyond how he’s portrayed by the government.” ….”
• Canada’s War Poet on what she considers the greatest of the WW I poets  “…. (Isaac) Rosenberg, to me, is the Chagall of the trenches with his poetic imagery rooted in Kabbalah, his Lithuanian-Jewish heritage, and his bright hungry mind that desired to read so much, and which compensated for an upbringing in poverty in any way it could ….”
• Note to ceasefire.ca and Project Ploughshares:  why don’t you start your “nuke free” campaign with countries that HAVE or are WORKING ON nukes – maybe North Korea for a start?
• Border Security (1)  This from the Canadian Info-machine ….  “The Honourable Vic Toews, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, and Janet Napolitano, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, met in Washington (yesterday) to advance cooperation that will further strengthen security at the Canada–U.S. border, while facilitating the legitimate flow of goods and people.  In addition to signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that paves the way for a United States Customs and Border Protection truck cargo pre-inspection pilot project on Canadian soil, the Minister and Secretary discussed other key priority action items of the Beyond the Border (BTB) Action Plan. These items included integrated cargo security initiatives, countering violent extremism and the entry/exit system ….”
• Border Security (2) …. and this from the U.S. Info-machine  “Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (yesterday) met with Canadian Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews to discuss the ongoing partnership between the United States and Canada, as part of the Beyond the Border initiative, and also signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) truck cargo pre-inspection pilot project …. The CBP truck cargo pre-inspection pilot project provides CBP officers a designated preclearance area in Canada to conduct primary inspection activities for eligible truck traffic and drivers seeking to enter the United States—fulfilling a commitment in the Beyond the Border Action Plan, and expediting legitimate cargo and travelers. The U.S. and Canadian governments will continue to work closely with key stakeholders to solicit input throughout the pilot project to help ensure its success ….”
  

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – February 7, 2013

• Mali (1a)  Historian’s take  “…. The political response to the Canadian effort in Mali surprisingly was generally positive, with both Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic Party and Bob Rae of the Liberals supporting the government’s actions. However, the response of the pacifist left, usually one that slavishly follows the NDP line, this time spun off on its own …. Islamist terrorism is a threat to democracies everywhere, but those who oppose any military intervention anywhere — unless it is United Nations blue helmet peacekeeping which is, by definition, always good — seem blind to the realities of 2013. Stephen Harper bad, military intervention of any kind bad, mission creep inevitable and bad — it’s a tiresome refrain. How fortunate that the Opposition parties had better sense in this instance than the Rideau Institute and Ceasefire.ca.”
• Mali (1b)  ceasefire.ca underwhelmed at the historian’s mention  “Today one of the doyens of the pro-war lobby slammed Ceasefire.ca, once again, in the national media.  This proves that Ceasefire.ca supporters are having an impact, shaking up the pro-war lobby! ….”  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight ….
• Congrats to the Air Force rescue team receiving the Star of Courage!  “On November 9, 2009, search and rescue technicians Sergeant Randal McOrmond, Master Corporal Robin Richardson and Corporal Éric Beaudoin rescued a teenager who had been separated from his companion during a hunting trip, near Coral Harbour, Nunavut. An air search discovered the youth on a large pan of unstable ice that was drifting into Hudson’s Bay. Messrs. McOrmond, Beaudoin and Richardson parachuted down to a nearby ice floe, and jumped between pieces of moving ice and gaps of open water to reach the victim, who was suffering from severe hypothermia. They provided medical attention and kept watch on two polar bear cubs standing nearby. Thanks to the courageous efforts of these three rescuers, the victim survived.”
• Boss of the RCAF:  honest, those C-130J Hercs, the ones with the Chinese fake bits in them?  They really are safe to fly.
• “A major shakeup is in the offing amid the senior ranks of the Canadian military.  The country’s deputy top commander, Vice-Admiral Bruce Donaldson, along with the heads of the army and navy will retire in the coming months.  An internal notice, posted at National Defence headquarters last night, announced the changes, and they come as the military struggles to deal with pending budget cuts and a massive internal reorganization.  Donaldson will be replaced as vice chief of defence staff by Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault, a career army officer who recently served in Washington.  The commander of the Canadian Army, Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin, a veteran of Afghanistan, is also leaving, to be replaced by Lt.-Gen. J.M.M. Haines, who currently serves as deputy commander of NATO’s joint force command in Naples.  Haines will be replaced overseas by Maj.-Gen. Jon Vance, the country’s most experienced battlefield commander in Kandahar.  Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison also announced his retirement and will be replaced Rear-Admiral Mark Norman ….” – the latest detailed list of who’s up and who’s out here, and more media here
  
• Way Up North (1)  “What follows is the third of five excerpts from a newly released e-book, The Canadian Forces in 2025: Problems and Prospects. The publication was commissioned by the Strategic Studies Working Group — a partnership between the Canadian International Council and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. In today’s installment, James Fergusson looks at our Air-Force presence in the Arctic ….”
• Way Up North (2)  “The renewed Canadian military presence in the High Arctic has led the Royal Canadian Air Force to relearn old lessons about survival in the world’s most inhospitable climate, one wet sock at a time.  In January, 44 air force personnel from bases across Canada underwent Arctic survival training at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, the second-most northerly permanent settlement in North America. The 10-day course constituted the first High Arctic survival training for regular aircrew in 18 years ….”
• HMCS Preserver back in Halifax
  
• Remember the hunger-striking vet, and the committee formed to look into his concerns?  The committee’s report is out (also available here if previous link doesn’t work) – this, from the news release (highlights mine):  “The Scientific Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Health is an independent committee that comprises five experts with collective expertise in scientific, medical and military matters. Two of the members are Veterans, including the Committee Chairman, Major-General (ret’d) Pierre Morisset, MD.  “We are not suggesting that these concerned Veterans do not have health problems,” said Dr. Morisset. “However, we firmly believe that whatever health problems they do have are unlikely related to depleted uranium.” ….” - mention in the House of Commons here.
• The Minister of Veterans Affairs in Question Period on the denial of benefits to vets  “I have been very clear on this subject in the House. Not only are 70% of the applications that are submitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs approved, but veterans receive a positive response 85% of the time across government. That is why we welcome the ombudsman’s report. What is more, we have adopted measures to continue to keep veterans better informed of the information being used to process their claims.  The real question is why, every time we introduce measures to improve veterans’ living conditions, the NDP fails to support them or, even worse, votes against them.”
  
• Meanwhile, “Senator Yonah Martin, on behalf of the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs, Russell Mills, Chair of the National Capital Commission, and Jean-François Trépanier, Chief Executive Officer of the National Capital Commission, will honour the service of Canadian Korean War Veterans by illuminating an ice sculpture in their honour as part of Winterlude 2013 ….”
• Remember the Private Members Bill aiming at taking away Canadian citizenship from anyone committing an act of war against Canada?  Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has even bigger ideas:  “Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday the government should “consider” expanding a Tory MP’s bill to strip Canadian citizenship from those who commit acts of terrorism.  He was speaking after confirmation Tuesday that a Lebanese-Canadian dual national was involved in the 2012 bombing of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria …. “I think that perhaps we should consider working with Shory to broaden the scope of his bill to include not just acts of war against Canada by Canadian citizens, but perhaps we should also consider acts of terrorism,” Kenney said.  “Canadian citizenship is predicated on loyalty to this country and I cannot think of a more obvious act of renouncing one’s sense of loyalty than going and committing acts of terror,” he said ….” - more here.
  
• Globe & Mail, on the other hand, doesn’t like the idea  “…. The government needs to do everything it can to identify Canadians involved in fighting against Canada and its allies abroad, and those involved in terrorism. It needs to find ways to thwart them, possibly including refusal to issue passports. If such crimes are committed, those responsible should be apprehended and vigorously prosecuted. The government already has the tools. Use them.”
• “The Canadian man who’s the first cabinet minister in a G8 country to go public with their belief in extraterrestrials will be giving a speech in Toronto this Thursday.  Paul Hellyer, minister of national defence under Lester B. Pearson and deputy prime minister under Pierre Trudeau, will be speaking at the Conspiracy Culture Bookstore on Queen Street West. The event is a Canadian preview of the Citizens’ Hearing on Disclosure, a mock senate hearing on extraterrestrials that will be held in Washington, D.C. in April. Hellyer is scheduled to testify and will talk about how he came to believe in aliens.  As minister of defence, he received “sightings reports” of unidentified flying objects, the vast majority of which were ultimately identified as natural phenomenon, he said.  For years a friend sent him information about UFOs, but paid no attention to it until he read The Day After Roswell and watched a program by Peter Jennings who interviewed people who had seen UFOs ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – February 5, 2013

• Mali (1)  “Canada’s ambassador to the European Union is expected to stay quiet during a major meeting in Brussels (today) where the international community will be gathering to discuss the situation in Mali.  Ambassador David Plunkett will be among those from 45 countries as well as the United Nations, African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and the World Bank talking about ways to bring peace and stability to Mali.  But Plunkett will not announce any increase or expansion to Canada’s role in the country, which has largely involved providing humanitarian assistance and deploying a heavy military transport aircraft to help France move troops and equipment into the West African nation.  A government source said Canada will continue to watch developments in Mali, where Islamic militants are on the run in the north of the country, and may make further contributions in the future, including financial support for the African-led military force poised to take over from  French troops who have routed the militants.  “I don’t think we expect this will be a short game,” the source said, noting elections to return Mali to democratic rule won’t be held until July.  However, all indications remain that the government is not interested in getting dragged into the conflict ….”
• Mali (2a)  Columnist on the fight ahead  “…. While France’s initial military objectives have been met, it is evident that the crisis in Mali is the tip of a much larger regional powder keg. Like stepping on one side of a water balloon, pushing the Islamic Maghreb and Tuareg separatists out of Mali has only built up pressure elsewhere.  Even with the addition of 3,300 troops promised by the Economic Community of Western African States, the Malian security forces will be hard pressed to hold the French military’s gains on their own.”
• Mali (2b)  rabble.ca column’s take  “…. The west has been in perpetual war with Muslims of all kinds ever since 9/11, never quite winning. As the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald has reminded us, Mali is the eighth country in the last four years where western countries have killed Muslims. Shouldn’t the aim in Mali be to determine realistic goals before we kill again?  In the meantime, Canada should be a generous humanitarian donor to Mali’s refugees and displaced people ….”
• Mali (2c)  Another writer aching for the days of the blue beret (question:  can the peace be “kept” if both sides haven’t agreed yet to stop fighting?)  “…. Within the next few weeks, the U.N. Security Council may well authorize an U.N.-led peacekeeping mission to stabilize Mali after the French-led combat mission ends. The success of the peacekeeping mission will turn, in large part, on whether well-trained soldiers from the developed world are involved.  It’s a mission tailor-made for Canada; one that Pearson would undoubtedly have embraced.”
  
• Mali (3)  More on whazzup in Mali here (Google News), here (EMM Explorer) and here (France’s defence ministry’s daily update in French)
• Syria  Can you spare a few bucks to help someone (allegedly) wanting to fight the good fight?  This from kijiji (also here if previous link doesn’t work):  “I am a ex cdn soldier with experience looking for sponsorship so I can go train and fight with the Free Syrian army. I need to gather about $10,000 for the mission to be successful.”
• Joshua Caleb Baker, 1985-2010, R.I.P.  “It was an emotional day of testimony inside the trial of a former Canadian Forces Commander.  Retired Warrant Officer Paul Ravensdale pleaded not guilty to six charges including manslaughter in death of Corporal Joshua Baker. The 24-year-old died during a training accident in Afghanistan in 2010.  Four other soldiers were injured.  Those soldiers testified for the first time Monday.  They told the military court on Feb. 12, 2010, the only thing standing between them and the C-19 they were learning to use was their body armor. The prosecution says Ravensdale should have never let that happen.  They were standing out in the open when two C-19 land mines, also known as claymores, were set off during a training exercise.  Cpl. Joshua Baker was killed when shrapnel from one of the explosions backfired.  The commander, now retired Warrant officer Paul Ravensdale has pleaded not guilty to six charges including manslaughter and breach of duty ….”
• Need info on the foreign bases that aren’t really foreign bases?  This from the CF Info-machine, just updated about a week ago.
  
• Libya  Curiouser and curiouser  “There’s a kind of Mission Impossible vibe to the relationship between Cyndy Vanier and SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal-based international engineering giant enmeshed in allegations of corruption and consorting with dictators.  Vanier, a Canadian consultant who worked for SNC-Lavalin, has been languishing in a Mexican prison for more than a year while a judge there decides if she was part of a plot to spirit Saadi Gadhafi out of Libya as his father’s dictatorship crumbled under a rebel onslaught in 2011.  According to CBC News, Vanier insists she was hired by SNC-Lavalin controller Stephane Roy, under orders from executive vice-president Riadh Ben Alissa, for a legitimate “fact-finding” trip to Libya.  Mexican authorities allege she was helping set up an exit route for Gadhafi, a senior commander in father Muammar Gadhafi’s regime, and smuggle him and his family into Mexico under false identities. Gadhafi eventually escaped to Niger, Libya’s neighbour, and has been given asylum ….”
  
• Vets’ Ombudsman latest report:  “…. by not providing applicants with copies of documents retrieved and submitted to disability adjudicators, applicants are denied their participation rights and the right to a fair hearing, including the right to be aware of the information that will be considered by adjudicators (the right to disclosure), the right to provide their own information and to challenge the information available to decision-makers, and the right to determine the relevance of information provided to adjudicators. For these reasons, the current practice is procedurally unfair ….” - more from the media here and here.
  
• The Government’s Response:  “The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs, …. launched the “Right to Fairness Implementation Plan” to cut red tape for Veterans applying to Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) for disability benefits.  The plan addresses the recently issued Ombudsman report entitled “Veterans’ Right to Disclosure: A Matter of Procedural Fairness.” It consists of new measures that will ensure Veterans and their families have a better understanding of the Department’s disability benefit application process for considering information and how that information is used to make a decision on their applications ….”  We’ll see ….
• In other ombudsman news….  “The Canadian Forces ombudsman says the Harper government has an opportunity now to help military families who’ve suffered huge home-equity losses by amending proposed legislation that’s before Parliament.  Pierre Daigle testified Monday before a House of Commons committee that’s studying C-15, the latest attempt in a decade-long struggle to overhaul the military justice system.  Since 2007, as many as 146 applications for reimbursement have been denied to military families for losses they’ve taken after selling their homes because of forced transfers to different parts of the country.  The problem could be solved by giving the country’s top military commander the full power to make one-time payments in grievance cases, Daigle told the all-party Commons defence committee.  “This is an unfairness that people serving this country are facing, and all we want is to solve this unfairness,” Daigle said in an interview with The Canadian Press following his testimony.  The legislation being studied by the committee has been before Parliament several times, in different forms, over the last 10 years without being passed ….”
• “HMCS Ville De Quebec is taking part in an composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX) with the Aircraft Carrier USS Harry Truman, as a memeber of the 1st Combined Destroyer Squadron (1CDS) 1CDS members currently include USS Barry (DDG 52), USS Gravely (DDG 107), the German ship FGS Hamburg (F220), and the Canadian ships HMCS Ville De Quebec (FFH 332) and HMCS Preserver (AOR 510); USS Monterey (CG 61), USS Gettysburg (CG 64), and USS Kauffman (FFG 59).  COMPTUEX is a series of training scenarios designed to certify HSTSG as a deployment-ready fighting force capable of completing operations in overseas theaters ….”
• Way Up North  Head’s up for military training in northeastern Ontario all the way up to Ontario’s James Bay coast  “Canadian Forces personnel from across Ontario will conduct military training in the vicinity of Cochrane, Fraserdale and Moosonee, Ontario, from February 8 to 26, 2013, as part of Exercise TRILLIUM RESPONSE 2013.  Soldiers and military vehicles, including snowmobiles, will be seen in these areas, as well as low flying aircraft including large transport aircraft and helicopters. Military vehicles can be expected to travel at reduced speeds and motorists are advised to exercise care and patience when encountering military vehicles and soldiers on foot or on snowmobiles. Soldiers will be using blank ammunition and pyrotechnics; loud noises may be heard ….” 
• More on Jointex 2013  “In anticipation of a variety of potential future operations, the Canadian Forces are currently engaged in a series of training exercises they began planning three years ago, collectively named JOINTEX 13, which will prepare them to take on a leadership role in multinational expeditionary operations.  ““JOINTEX provides a predictable, repeatable, and adaptable means to learn and improve, allowing us the critical opportunity to play it out in training before living it out in actual operations,’” said Lieutenant-General Stuart Beare, Commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command.  JOINTEX will prepare the Canadian Forces to lead a Combined Joint-Inter Agency Task Force Headquarters (CJIATF), with 1st Canadian Division Headquarters at its centre, responsible for planning and conducting coalition full-spectrum operations with multinational military forces and both governmental and non-governmental agencies.  ““This training allows us to further develop our replication of the contemporary and future operating environments in the live, virtual, and constructive training domains – all at the same time and in multiple locations,”” said Major-General John Collin, Commander 1st Canadian Division.  While the majority of planning and coordination for the exercise takes place at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Kingston, there are also approximately 1,000 Canadian Forces members taking part in the exercise through simulations across Canada because the exercise is computer-assisted ….”
  
• Columnist on Ministers not getting all the information they need (or want)  “…. Canada needs a military, and it needs an effective, capable one. But that requires civilian oversight, as much for the military’s benefit as the taxpayers’. It seems increasingly clear that right now, we don’t have that. And it’s hard to see how that will change any time soon.”
• Academic on what the Army should be preparing to do  “…. With instability throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, the future of warfare looks likely to be dominated by insurgencies and failed states. Still, the war drums beating in northeast Asia over the Korean peninsula and the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands hedge against the possibility of a traditional state on state conflict marked by conventional capabilities. There are no easy answers to the question of what future Canada must demand its Army to prepare for. The Army clearly wishes to have as much capability it can get out of the state while Canadians might prefer to have only so much capability as we can afford. Hybrid warfare is a great concept to hedge bets, but one that doesn’t shed too much light on the space between those two positions, or on the hard decisions of deciding what Canada’s Army is for.”
  
• Canada’s Defence Minister drops by Norway  “…. the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, concluded a visit to Norway, during which he held bilateral discussions with his Norwegian counterpart, Minister of Defence Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen …. This visit provided both Ministers an opportunity to share insights and understanding on a wide range of issues and deepen Canada-Norway bilateral defence ties ….”
• Columnist on how the navy spy trial could be drawing Canada’s eye from the real threat  “…. In this century, authoritarian regimes may be more interested in, say, the government’s deliberations over allowing a Chinese state-owned enterprise to acquire a Canadian oil company than in military intelligence. Stealing intellectual property may be a bigger catch than ferreting out double agents ….”
  
• Note to headline writers:  is it “spying” when most of the information is out in the public domain?  “The Mounties compiled a dossier on the Occupy Ottawa movement, scouring social media sites and even quizzing campus security after protesters held planning sessions at a university, newly released documents show.  Meeting notes show there were also plans to monitor the Confederation Park protest site using a camera mounted to the nearby offices of the National Capital Commission.  The camera is normally pointed at Ottawa’s city hall, the notes say. However, the NCC says it does not operate the camera and it did not use the device to monitor the protests from its offices.  The documents show NCC staff did keep close tabs on the makeshift encampment throughout the occupation, snapping dozens of photographs and reporting on the protesters’ activities.  Details about the surveillance tactics are only now coming to light, some 14 months after police ousted the Occupy Ottawa protesters from Confederation Park in late November 2011. It took the NCC until last week to provide documents in response to an access-to-information request from The Canadian Press ….”  No word on whether the documents are being shared, so no clue what else is there.
• More on those OTHER squadrons that helped win the Battle of Britain (10 page RCAF Info-machine PDF)

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – January 24, 2013

• More Mali (1a)  “Canada is considering deploying a second aircraft to support the mission in Mali, CBC News has learned, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated he’d like to see a “broad consensus” across Canada about any help for the country.  The mission could last for months, sources tell the CBC’s James Cudmore. But, they caution, the most pressing moments for the nascent international force in Mali are during these early days of the operation — and that’s where Canada’s efforts will likely be focused.  French military planners are desperate to surge gear and troops into Mali and deploy them forward to the fight. It’s that effort Canada is considering assisting.  In such a scenario, Canadian air crew would be under the operational control of a French-led Coalition Air Operations Centre, that would co-ordinate all air support to the international mission.  The details of the contribution are still to be approved by the government and worked out among allied militaries.  A source tells CBC News the exact nature of Canada’s contribution will depend on what other countries bring to the negotiating table. But in each case the negotiations are based on limited French requests for logistical support — not combat troops ….”
• More Mali (1b)  “Stephen Harper is looking for a broad national consensus on what else Canada should be doing about the unfolding crisis in Mali.  The prime minister said the government is looking at “whether and how” to extend its support for France, which has launched an offensive to dislodge an al-Qaida off-shoot from Mali’s north.  The government has reached out to colleagues and opposition parties to build consensus, but Harper made it clear Wednesday that “direct” military involvement in the form of troops is still not in the cards.  “Anything we do, I would like a broad Canadian consensus behind that,” he told a news conference in Cambridge, Ont.  “I do think that it is important to help this mission, but at the same time I think we’ve been very clear — and I think this reflects Canadian opinion — that while we’re prepared to help, we don’t want to see a direct Canadian military mission to Mali.”  NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has already said he wants to see the issue of the country’s military contribution — direct or otherwise — debated by Parliament.  Mulcair said he supports the decision to send a Canadian heavy-lift transport for logistics support, and even favours the French intervention, which began on Jan. 10 ….” - more here and here.
  
• More Mali (1c) “The Conservative government has cobbled together a nascent political consensus with the Opposition NDP that should permit an extended deployment of Canada’s heavy-lift military cargo plane, which is ferrying war equipment into Mali.  New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair agreed Sunday to allow the air force’s C-17 cargo plane to continue assisting French and African forces as they battle al-Qaida-linked militants, said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday the government is looking at “whether and how” to extend its support of France, which launched an offensive Jan. 10 to dislodge the terrorist organization from northern Mali.  Harper said he has reached out to colleagues and opposition parties to build consensus on the next steps in the unfolding crisis, but made it clear that “direct” military involvement in the form of troops is still not in the cards ….”
• More Mali (2)  “Nigeria, the leading power in West Africa, wants Canada and other Western nations to take on the conflict in Mali as an international problem and provide funding and heavy equipment like helicopters – and it is warning the West not to parcel out small pieces of support now because it will force them to take on a more costly effort later ….”
• More Mali (3)  What ELSE is Canada doing?  “….Mali hasn’t historically generated much in the way of international media coverage. But Canada has been providing development aid assistance to this sprawling West African nation for more than 40 years.  And Canadian-based companies have been actively involved in gold mining and other ventures in Mali for more than 20 years.  In fact, Mali has been designated a “country of focus” for CIDA since 2009. So it comes as no surprise that Canada is one of the biggest foreign aid donors to Mali, ranking fifth in the world according to OECD figures.  The $110 million Canada gave to Mali in 2010-11 (mostly through the Canadian International Development Agency) was enough to rank Mali as the third biggest recipient of Canadian assistance in Africa. Only Mozambique and Ethiopia received more. While direct aid payments to the government of Mali were suspended following the coup there in March 2012, CIDA’s programs that deliver humanitarian assistance directly to the population are still operating.  CIDA operates some 45 assistance programs through a variety of international and local non-governmental aid partners, such as CARE Canada ….”
  
• More Mali (4a)  ceasefire.ca’s looking for your comments on Canada’s role in Mali - remember, be nice now….
• More Mali (4b)  World Socialist Web Site:  “Canada to expand support for French imperialism’s war on Mali”
• More Mali (5)  More on whazzup in Mali here (Google News), here (EMM Explorer) and here (France’s defence ministry’s daily update in French)
• Algeria  “The federal government said Monday it was still “seeking further information” after Algeria’s prime minister remarked that the band of Islamist militants who carried out a deadly attack on a natural gas plant in that country included two Canadians.  A Canadian security expert urged caution about taking at face-value statements from the Algerian government, suggesting it could be trying to deflect from criticism over its handling of the attack that left 38 hostages and 29 militants dead by pointing to “foreigners coming in to our country causing havoc.”  Christian Leuprecht, a fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University and political science professor at Royal Military College, also noted some terrorist groups have used fake or borrowed Canadian passports in the past.  Monday night, the Canadian Press reported the federal government is frustrated by the lack of information coming out of Algeria, and is assuming fake passports could be involved, according to an unnamed source ….”
  
• Afghanistan  “The United Nations has once again found that torture and abuse of prisoners — even children — is rampant in the Afghan prisons to which Canada once sent its detainees.  A new report, released this week by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (PDF), found that the country’s infamous National Directorate of Security (NDS) still regularly engages in torture and abuse in its facilities across the war-torn country.  The problem is particularly severe in Kabul and in Kandahar …. Jay Paxton, spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, highlighted the fact the UN focused its efforts on Afghan and not international forces.  “No Canadian-transferred detainees have been transferred to, or held within facilities controlled by either of these organizations since before the last UNAMA report was released in 2011,” Paxton said ….” – more in the UNAMA Info-machine’s news release here.
• “Georgia and Canada Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding about defense policy.  The agreement was signed by Colonel Christopher R. Kilford and Davit Nardaia, Chairman of Georgia’s International Affairs and EU Integration Department at the Defense Ministry.  Colonel Kilford is on a visit to Georgia and has met with Colonel Irakli Dzneladze, Chair of Joint Staff of Georgia. The two discussed military cooperation between the two countries.  Bilateral cooperation between Georgia and Canada takes place within the framework of the Canadian Military Training and Cooperation Program.”
• Foreign Affairs Minister:  BAAAAD North Korea!  “Canada is deeply concerned about North Korea’s missile tests and apparent plan to conduct more nuclear tests. We urge the regime to abandon any such plans.  The regime in Pyongyang has repeatedly violated its international obligations and poses a grave threat to the security and stability of the region, even as the people of North Korea starve and suffer.  Further defiance of its non-proliferation obligations will lead to further consequences: Canada stands ready to work with the international community to take further measures if the regime continues to demonstrate total disregard for its people by choosing to fund military and nuclear programs ….”
  
• Congrats to to the Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute for making it into the top 10 think tank in North America & Mexico rating
• VAC Minister drops by Moose Jaw  “The Moose Jaw Legion was host to a discussion between veterans, the Minister of Veterans Affairs and MPs Ray Boughen (Palliser) and Laurie Hawn (Edmonton-Centre) Wednesday evening.  “It’s a great opportunity to be here in Moose Jaw,” Steven Blaney, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, told the Times-Herald. “I would call this an open and frank discussion about our program and initiatives.”  Together, the trio of Conservatives discussed programs and services available to veterans, as well as presenting a detailed explanation of how military pensions work, before fielding questions from an audience of 30 or 40.  Hawn discussed the structure of military pensions, seeking to dispel the notion that the government “claws back” an amount of money once a retired serviceman or woman reaches 65 ….” – more here, and a photo from the Minister’s Info-machine here.
  
• “The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs, and David Anderson, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and for the Canadian Wheat Board and Member of Parliament for Cypress Hills-Grasslands …. announced up to $22,575 for a project in Swift Current to honour Veterans and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This funding, provided through Veterans Affairs Canada’s Community War Memorial Program, will support the construction of the Community Métis Veterans Monument ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – January 19, 2013

• More Mali (1)  “Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed they are aware of reports that a Canadian may have been involved in the bloody three-day hostage standoff at a Sahara natural gas plant in Algeria.  A department spokesperson told Global News they are actively seeking further information on the reports, and are in close contact with the Algerian authorities.  “Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms this deplorable and cowardly attack and all terrorist groups which seek to create and perpetuate insecurity in the Sahel countries of West Africa,” the department said in a statement to Global News.  In the Mauritian News report, a source with the “Signatories of blood brigade” said the hostage takers were from Algeria, Canada, Mali, Egypt, Niger, and Mauritania ….” – more here.
  
• More Mali (2a)  Rabble.ca opposes the CF getting beans & bullets into Mali
  
• More Mali (2b)  The Canadian Peace Alliance’s take:  “…. One transport plane and a few Canadian “trainers” is just the thin edge of the wedge. There is a real fear of “mission creep” as witnessed in the Libyan situation. Canada’s involvement as a junior partner to a NATO aggression in Africa could mushroom in the coming months and years. All this is being done without public or parliamentary debate. This unilateral support for war by the Harper government without consultation must stop ….”
  
• More Mali (3)  TorStar Columnist:  “Slowly, inexorably, Canada and the world are being drawn into Mali ….”
• More Mali (4)  More on whazzup in Mali here (Google News), here (EMM Explorer) and here (France’s defence ministry’s latest update in French)
• Back in Canada, the federal environmental assessment agency is seeking public comments on a proposed CF firing range and training area near Thunder Bay, Ontario - more details about the project here and here.
• “The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, joined his NATO counterparts for the first time this past week for a meeting of NATO’s Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting provided Chiefs of Defence from NATO allies and partners with the opportunity to discuss and receive updates on a number of important issues for the Alliance …. The focus of this conference was on NATO’s continuing transformation and reform work, updates on NATO’s current operations, and the strengthening of NATO’s relationship with partner militaries ….”
  
• “Five workers, including a Canadian, two Peruvians and two Colombians, were kidnapped on Friday by leftist rebels at a gold mine in northern Colombia, the army said.  “A group of 20 or 25 bandits from the ELN burst into the place and kidnapped five people,” army General Alejandro Navas told reporters, referring to the National Liberation Army, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group.  Canadian mining company Braeval Mining Corp. said those kidnapped worked at its Snow mine project.  Gen. Navas said soldiers backed by the air force had launched an operation to track down the rebels. He said the kidnapped workers included a Canadian, two Peruvians and two Colombians.  Braeval said it was cooperating with the authorities to ensure the health and safety of its employees. It said three employees and two consultants were abducted but did not release their nationalities ….” – more on the ELN here, and from other media (via Google News) here.
  

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – December 15, 2012

• No sign of documents being shared, so no word on what else might be in them  “Military search-and-rescue experts may soon be resorting to “pencil and paper” to organize complex rescue missions because the outdated software they rely on now is facing “critical failure,” documents obtained by the Star warn.  Senior military commanders are sounding the alarm over the state of the outmoded software used to co-ordinate rescues nationwide, saying it is vital to a speedy response when Canadians call for help.  “Should this software fail . . . our (rescue centres) would be effectively crippled and have virtually no ability to prosecute SAR cases in an expeditious manner,” wrote air force Maj-Gen. Yvan Blondin in a memo from May, 2011.  Blondin, now a lieutenant-general and head of the Royal Canadian Air Force, wrote in a memo last year that the software is “rapidly approaching obsolescence and will be completely unsupportable within the next three years.”  Their worries centre on SAR Mission Management System, the software used by the search-and-rescue coordinators responsible for dispatching military rescuers on more than 9,000 missions a year. Those missions include saving people stranded in the mountains, lost in the bush or stuck on sinking ships.  “The importance of an electronic mission management system to the delivery of the (Canadian Forces search-and rescue) should be considered critical,” wrote air force Maj. Clarence Rainey in an email from June, 2011.  The concerns are outlined in documents obtained by the Star under Access to Information legislation ….”
  
• SAR folks are still out there doing the job, though  “A crewmember on board a 690-foot bulk carrier, approximately 110 km west of Tofino, British Columbia, was evacuated by an RCAF Search and Rescue helicopter from 442 Squadron, after suffering an injury, Thursday evening, December 13th.  The crew of the Cormorant helicopter took off from their base at 19 Wing Comox at 6:00 p.m. after Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria received a call for help from the “Rook”, indicating that one of their crew had suffered a potentially serious injury while performing maintenance.  Despite low clouds and poor visibility, the aircraft arrived over the ship at approximately 7:00 p.m., as it rolled in 20 ft waves and almost 50 km/h winds.  “We communicated a lot as a crew to determine the best place to hoist the Search and Rescue Technicians (SAR Techs) on board,” said Captain Luc Coates, aircraft commander.  “We decided to hover over the centre of the ship, taking care to avoid the cranes and guide wires, as we hoisted them to the deck.”  Once on the ship, the SAR Techs moved to treat the injured crewman.  “The ship’s crew had already applied some first aid, so it was a matter of further stabilizing the patient,” said Sergeant Shawn Harrison, SAR Tech.  The crewman was later put into a rescue basket and hoisted into the helicopter ….”
  
• “Her Majesty’s Canadian Submarine (HMCS) Windsor returned to sea (Thursday) at Halifax, N.S., officially marking the completion of a deep maintenance cycle known as an Extended Docking Work Period  …. With the completion of the Extended Docking Work Period, HMCS Windsor will now conduct a series of sea trials, crew training and certifications to prepare for future operations, a process known as the Tiered Readiness Program.  HMCS Windsor’s Tiered Readiness Program will closely resemble the one conducted by HMCS Victoria, the first Victoria-class Submarine to become operational and weapons certified to fire MK 48 Heavyweight Torpedoes ….” – more on how Canada’s sub fleet is doing from the Info-machine here.
• Speaking of RCN vessels, the Halifax Shipping News tells us that “HMCS Toronto was removed from the nova dock this morning. She was undergoing a brief pre-dpeployment work period”
• Wayne Johnston of Wounded Warriors points out gaps in the system to the Toronto Star  “…. He points out two major blind spots in military training. “The biggest problem in the Canadian forces today is mental health. How do you prepare a guy for holding his friend’s head together when he’s been ripped in half?” In the armed forces, says Johnston, soldiers admitting to mental health issues are quickly removed from their units “like a cancer.”  “Depending on the level of being diagnosed, you get released from the Forces. Some of these kids, that’s all they know. When you get released at 32, what are you going to do?”  The other problem is fiscal literacy. Young men returning from duty spend their money on cars and video games.  “You get a lump sum from Veterans Affairs. Paltry is a polite word.” I ask if he can ballpark it. “Ten per cent disability is just slightly under 30K. Let’s say a guy comes back. He’s lost his soul and had his flesh torn from him, lost a couple legs. He’ll be 100 per cent disability. $293,000. At 23 years of age, you’ve got about another 60 years.” ….”
  
• Way Up North  Mark Collins on “Senior US Commander Makes Pitch for Attention to the North”
• Middle East  Even when Canada helps the Palestinians, it’s a bad thing among some of the “usual suspects”  “…. In effect, Canada has helped to build a security apparatus to protect a corrupt PA led by Mahmoud Abbas, whose electoral mandate expired in January 2009, but whom the Israeli government prefers over Hamas ….” – more on Operation Proteus, which helps train up Palestinian security forces, here.
  
• Supreme Court says terrorism not protected by Charter  “The Supreme Court of Canada today unanimously upheld the country’s anti-terrorism law, rejecting an appeal from Momin Khawaja, the first person charged under the Anti-terrorism Act.  The top court on Friday also rejected the appeals of two men seeking to avoid extradition to the United States, where they are wanted on charges related to terrorism.  The top court justices ruled that violent acts are not protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The key issue in the appeals of Khawaja, and the two men seeking to avoid extradition, centred on the Anti-terrorism Act’s motive clause, which states that terrorist activity is committed “in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause.”  The three men argued the law has the effect of “chilling the exercise of freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of association; and …it would legitimize law enforcement action aimed at scrutinizing individuals based on their religious, political or ideological beliefs.” ….” - a bit more in the Court’s decision, a news release from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and other media coverage.
• Update on Canada-U.S. “perimeter security”, from the PM’s Info-machine  “The Government of Canada is committed to working with the United States to improve trade and travel between our countries while strengthening security and economic competitiveness.  To this end, on December 14, 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Barack Obama, President of the United States, welcomed the release of the first annual Beyond the Border Action Plan Implementation Report and the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Joint Action Plan Progress Report, which demonstrate progress made by Canada and the United States on perimeter security and economic competitiveness ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – November 27, 2012

• Afghanistan (1)  Senator selling the mission (glad SOMEONE is)  “It doesn’t always get the headlines.  It’s not the image most people see when they think of soldiers.  But Canada’s brave men and women in the military are not only protecting Canadian freedoms around the world, they are also providing hope to the downtrodden where freedom has long been only envisioned in dreams.  The Canadian military has built more than 50 schools in Afghanistan since war broke out following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Senator Pamela Wallin told more than 100 local dignitaries and veterans at the Scotiabank Convention Centre Monday.  “(When the mission started) no girls were going to school. Now the girls are going to school, millions of them. They are taking the veil from their faces and they are feeling what freedom feels like.”  She told the crowd the Canadian military has helped countless Afghan’s go from nothing to Grade 3 literacy skills in nine weeks.  “It makes me a little bit optimistic what might happen in that country,” she said, adding there remains a lot of work to do ….” - more here.
  
• Afghanistan (2)  Columnist’s glass-is-half-empty assessment of the Defence Minister’s view of the situation  “….  MacKay’s message was that Canada’s sacrifice — 158 soldiers killed and another 2,000 injured — was offset by the progress the international community has made in developing that war-torn country.  The yardstick MacKay used to determine this progress was the same well-worn platitudes about girls attending schools and the crowded market places in Kabul.  However at the Halifax forum, MacKay went one step further when he said that on his most recent trip to Afghanistan, he had flown on a commercial passenger plane, which according to MacKay was “once impossible.”  This was offered by MacKay to the assembled brain trust as further proof that NATO is making headway.  MacKay’s claim is entirely baseless ….”
• “Media are invited to the Canadian Military and Veteran Health Research Forum 2012 at the Ambassador Conference Resort in Kingston, Ont., from November 26th through 28th.  The forum will bring more than 450 Canadian researchers and international delegates to the forum to share key research and studies into the critical field of military and veteran’s health. Keynote speakers include the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, and Lieutenant-General the Honourable (Ret) Roméo Dallaire, Senator and Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs.  Also on hand to present her research will be Dr. Stéphanie Bélanger of the Royal Military College of Canada who is the Associate Director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran’s Health Research ….” – more on the forum here, and more on the Minister being there from the Info-machine here.
• “More federal politicians and senior military officials could find themselves flying commercial in the years ahead as the Harper government plans to retire and not replace most of its VIP Challenger jets.  Defence sources say most of the fleet, which has often been in the news for being air taxis for senior officials, will reach the end of its service life by 2014, at which time the jets will be taken out of service.  CTV News reported Monday that four-of-the-six remaining aircraft will be cut, something defence insiders say is a function of their age and the fact the Harper government doesn’t intend to invest in a service life extension.  The Conservatives, for over a decade, have made a political lightning rod out of the jets, pointing to their use as a sign of Liberal excess.  Once in office, they drastically curtailed the use of the executive jets to the point where one military official, who would not be identified, said the pilots have been reduced to flying training missions as a way to keep up their qualifications.  Jay Paxton, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, would not confirm the cutbacks, but said the government is always looking for efficiencies in order to sustain a combat capable military ….” – more on this here and here.
• “The Canadian army’s east coast branch has hired a civilian to tweet and Facebook for the troops.  Major Mark Gough is the media contact for Land Force Atlantic Area, but said he needed outside help for using social media.  “None of us are experts in social media. We all have our own Facebook pages, individually, personally. Some of us engage in Twitter, but none of us have used this in an organizational sense,” he said.  He said it’s not a tool for recruiting new members, but a way to better inform the public about what their army does every day.  The 7,000 personnel in the region include regular forces and reserve members in all four Atlantic provinces.  Gough said Land Force Western and Land Force Central, the other two branches, do not use civilians for social media, but he felt an outside perspective would help the army connect with civilians.  “We are opening ourselves up to conversations that traditionally, you might not want to engage in. But those conversations are happening whether you want them to or not,” said Gough.  “By having our own social media sites, we can be part of that conversation.” ….” – more on the civvies with the new gig here.      
  
• “Last week, The Link received an email—subject “Concordia’s Military Complex”—containing information about the university’s ostensible ties to the Department of National Defence and military industries.  The email was sent by a student activist from the newly formed Anti-War Efforts Group.  “It’s an attempt to show that the military is deeply involved in Concordia’s administration, deeply involved in the funding of Concordia and deeply involved in the research at Concordia,” said Gabriel Velasco, one of the original members of the AWEG.  The group sprang up in September as an offshoot of the Mob Squad, a campus-based activist organization that supported the student strike and stands against the privatization of universities.  So far, the Anti-War group has roughly a dozen active members and a mailing list of about two hundred people.  The group’s research was partly based on a five-year-old pamphlet entitled “Military Research in Our Universities” by another local activist group and summarized in a flowchart scribbled on the back of a concert poster—hardly what one would call compelling evidence.  Indeed, it would have been easy to disregard their allegations, had they not found a few real—albeit ambiguous—links between Concordia, the defence department and large corporations involved in different aspects of military production ….” – more on the Montreal university group at its Facebook page here.
• Way Up North (1)  Norwegian troops on major exercise  “As the Norwegian Armed Forces are changing the training model to focus more on cooperation between different branches, “Flotex Silver Rein II” is a foretaste of how military exercises will be organized in the years to come. In 2013 there will be four so-called joint operational exercises, the Armed Forces’ web site reads.  The exercise “Flotex Silver Rein II” used to be three separate exercises: “Flotex” – a navy exercise, “Falcon Silver” – an air force exercise and “Rein” – an exercise for ground forces.  The aim of the exercise is to practice procedures, interaction and a common understanding of the situation between the different land, naval and air units. Systems for network based defense (NBF) will be tested and all branches will be conducting live firing ….”
  
• Way Up North (2)  “The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, in partnership with the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, The Inuit Knowledge Centre, St. Jerome’s University and the Trinity-Munk Centre for Contemporary International History, is pleased to host the third annual Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Conference, entitled:  Arctic Peoples and Security  The goal of this conference is to explore different ways of conceptualizing and understanding security in the Arctic in order to develop and implement sounder, more productive, and more inclusive public policies in the North ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – November 15, 2012

• Joshua Baker, 1985-2010, R.I.P.   “The Calgary reservist charged with manslaughter admitted to military police he had never used the explosive device before, did not read the safety manual and trusted his second in command to run the show during the firing range exercise that killed an Edmonton soldier.  In two military interrogations played in full Wednesday during the court martial proceedings against Maj. Darryl Watts, the reservist told investigators from the Canadian Forces National Investigative Services his recollection of what happened Feb. 12, 2010. That’s the day Cpl. Joshua Caleb Baker was killed in an explosion at Kan Kala training base outside of Kandahar city in Afghanistan ….” – more here.  
  
• “The country’s veterans Ombudsman received nine privacy violation complaints over the past five years, seven of which were handed over to Canada’s Privacy Commissioner – a move questioned by a growing number of ex-soldiers.  A high-profile advocate who claims his medical files were raided wants the federal solicitor-general to investigate whether it was appropriate for Ombudsman Guy Parent to “take a back seat” on the issue ….”
• One view of a protest at a Toronto Remembrance Day ceremony  “It was spitting in the faces of Canada’s 158 Afghanistan war dead and the thousands who fell in wars before them.  And done on the very day families were tearfully remembering them. It was also grossly disrespectful to a group of veterans — aged 80 to 90 — from both World War II and the Korean War.  It was disgusting.  But freedom can be as ugly in what it must tolerate as this protest on Remembrance Day at Old City Hall was crass.  Interesting that much of this disrespect came from, seemingly, some of the very people who should have been at this ceremony saying thank you. Instead they attempted to ruin it.  “I cannot, and will not, be silent in a ceremony used to glorify Canada¹s mission in Afghanistan, where many of my fellow Afghans were detained, tortured and killed because of the Canadian military,” explained Suraia Sahar in an e-mail to Newstalk 1010 reporter Siobhan Morris, as well as Showgram host Jim Richards and producers Jessie Lorraine and Jordan Whelan.  Sahar wrote she and friend Laila were protesting because “there is no honour” in Remembrance Day.  “As an Afghan Canadian my anger can be justified,” she wrote. “But I faced enough verbal abuse by racist, angry old white people telling me to go back to my country, and that the Canadian military should kill more Afghans.” ….”
• What the protesters themselves have to say (1)   “…. Some sections of the conservative media have inaccurately portrayed our identity, action and purpose. We are Afghan-Canadian women peace activists with a voice that can stand for itself. We have a message which cannot be silenced by such tactics to censor and demonize us.  In 2001 we watched the invasion of our home country, Afghanistan. Fast forward 11 years later: Afghanistan is still occupied, and every year on Remembrance Day we are reminded of it. It has become painfully obvious that Remembrance Day is used as a war propaganda tool. If one is going to take offense to our presence, direct your misguided anger at those responsible for why we are taking offense.   The war in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians, and further escalated violence in an already war-torn nation. This war has created a platform where foreign military forces perform terrifying acts against the civilian population. The Canadian military is responsible for the detainment, torture and murder of Afghans.  We do not support the NATO-led occupation and war in Afghanistan ….”
• What the protesters themselves have to say (2)  “We, as two Afghan Canadian women, were present at the Remembrance Day ceremony with a banner in remembrance of Afghans murdered by the Canadian military operations. We were not responsible for the alleged disruption of the Moment of Silence as the news media falsely reported, which has censored and attempts to discredit our peace activism. From our account, we will provide an honest chronology of events that occurred minutes before and after the police-incited scuffle, recorded on November 11th at Old City Hall in downtown Toronto. There were also two other separate groups at this ceremony with banners, one promoting anti-fascism and the other promoting peace through non-violence. In total, there were three groups located at different parts and times around and outside of the ceremony ….”
• What an activist who’s not happy with what some of his fellow Occupiers do says he saw (with a bit of video of the protesters mentioned above)  “This article is a quick follow-up to yesterday’s article on the Anarchist Asshats who decided it was a good idea to interrupt Toronto’s Remembrance Day ceremony on Sunday. The interruption was planned by one of Toronto’s most despicable anarchists (quire an achievement) named Julian Ichim (wearing the beige hat on the left side of the picture).  A video came out today, filmed by Derek Soberal, another one of Toronto’s more famous cop baiters. He’s most famous for his incidents during the G20. I’ll include a video of Derek Soberal Gone Wild! after the video of Sunday’s incident.  One thing I notice from this video is that the police didn’t take any action to arrest anyone- despite the fact that Ichim and his crowd were disturbing the peace, and that there was physical violence. Now, obviously Ichim and his crowd are to blame for this debacle- but, we have to put some of the blame on the police too. It seems that they let the anarchists get away all too often ….”
  
• “The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, concluded a visit to Sydney, Australia, late last week, where he participated in the United States Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) 15th Annual Chiefs of Defence conference. General Lawson was accompanied by Director General of International Security Policy Major-General D. Michael Day ….”
  
• “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, will officially launch the fourth annual Halifax International Security Forum, on November 16, 2012 ….” – more on the conference here.
  
• RCAF Info-machine on the Air Force’s work in an exercise that wrapped up two weeks ago.     
• Mark Collins reminding us “Possible Arming of Canadian Coast Guard: Not Exactly News…“

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – November 7, 2012

• Remembering (1)  Remember where you read it first – almost exactly a year ago  “The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, along with the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs Canada, announced …. the creation of the Memorial Ribbon. The Memorial Ribbon will be offered to close family and friends of deceased Canadian Forces (CF) members as a memento of personal loss and sacrifice …. Memorial Ribbons may be issued in commemoration of every CF member whose death is attributed to injury or illness sustained on or after October 1, 1947, due to military service. This date coincides with the first date inscribed in Veterans Affairs Canada’s Seventh Book of Remembrance ….” - more on the ribbon here, and some backstory & comments over at Milnet.ca.
• Remembering (2)  Veterans Affairs Minister hosts movie night  “In honor of Veterans’ Week, the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs, hosted more than 200 people, including Canadian Veterans and Canadian Armed Forces personnel, at a special screening of HISTORY’S documentary, Dieppe Uncovered, at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.  In August, the Minister joined with Canadian Veterans of the Dieppe Raid for the world premiere of the documentary in Dieppe, France, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Raid. During the trip, the Minister and the Veterans also visited Dieppe, which marked the first time many of the Veterans had set foot on the beach since they landed there 70 years ago ….”
  
• Remembering (3)  From ceasefire.ca’s latest update e-mail  “…. Later this week we will be releasing new polling numbers on the views of young people about Remembrance Day. You might be surprised by the results! ….”  We wait with bated breath.
  
• NDP Messaging on “We want to help vets, too” (1)  From the NDP critic for vets affairs:  “…. New Democrats are leading the way with practical proposals to improve the care of our military and RCMP veterans and their families. For many years, we have proposed the following: end the clawback of retired and disabled CF and RCMP service pensions; expand the Veterans Independence Program to all veterans, including widows and the RCMP; and grant veterans’ “marriage after 60” pension and health benefits ….”
• NDP Messaging on “We want to help vets, too” (2)  NDP MP in the House of Commons yesterday:  “Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank our veterans and active military personnel and their families for their sacrifices in defence of Canada and our values.  New Democrats have always fought for improved rights for those who serve our country. We fought for DND and RCMP personnel to end the pension clawback. Together we succeeded.  This recent victory is to be celebrated, but clearly our work is not finished when it comes to making sure that our veterans and their families are able to live and retire in dignity ….”
  
• More on vets deserving more money for funerals  “….  The cost of improving the funeral allowance for low-income veterans has been pegged at $5 million to $7 million a year.  Compare that cost with the $28 million worth of historical hoopla the federal Conservatives spent this year on the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, with ceremonies and battle re-enactments aimed at what? Annoying our American neighbours?  It is not that the anniversary should have been ignored, but $28 million is a lot for a glorified history lesson.  One wonders whether this government can grasp its appalling confusion of priorities, compared with its obligation, on behalf of Canadian taxpayers, to provide low-income veterans with the dignity of a decent final salute.”
  
• VA Minister’s messaging in the House of Commons on vets’ funeral costs  (from Hansard here and here)    “…. When talking about funeral and burial assistance, we are providing this program to more than 10,000 veterans. I can assure the member that, unlike the Liberals, we will not cut this program and, unlike the NDP, whenever there is a program for veterans we will support it, as long as we are taking care of veterans and making sure we are making their lives better …. let me get to the very substance of the funeral and burial program. It is a program that is provided to veterans in need. Since 2006 this program has been provided to 10,000 veterans and their families.  I can assure the member of one thing. We on this side of the House will not cut this program, like the Liberals did ….
  
• “John de Chastelain knows all about belt tightening.  He was Canada’s chief of defence staff in 1989.  The Cold War had ended. Canada faced a severe deficit.  It was time for Ottawa to make cuts and the 1989 federal budget came down like a large axe on the Department of National Defence.  CFB Summerside, at the time home to anti-submarine and coastal patrol aircraft, was identified as a candidate for the chopping block. In 1991, the base was closed and the majority of military units were transferred to CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia.  De Chastelain fought unsuccessfully to keep Canadian forces stationed in Europe. Instead, those organizations were moved back to Canada and absorbed into a Force that was already being reduced.  …. Canada’s newly minted top military commander, Gen. Tom Lawson, has also been told trimming will take place under his command.  … De Chastelain, who attended the change of command ceremony Monday, says he is “sensitive to what Tom is going through.’’  He agrees with Lawson’s assessment that there’s not much fat to cut, particularly when it comes to combat units.  “The difficulty is that having made the cuts that we did 20 years ago, there are not too many bases you can close now,’’ said de Chastelain.  “There are no troops to withdraw from Europe now. And we do have these capital acquisition programs — new ships and new aircraft – coming up. So, yeah, it’s going to be tough.’’  De Chastlain is hopeful Canadian Forces will be able to continue to carry on out of area operations for a reasonable period of time, rather than simply set up a headquarters and then leave the work to others, which Canada has had to do before, he notes, with UN operations in the Middle East and Lebanon ….”
  
• Way Up North  New paper out from the Library of Parliament:  “The Arctic: Organizations Involved in Circumpolar Cooperation”
  
• “Robert Kaplan, a former veteran Liberal MP and cabinet minister, died Monday at age 75 after losing a long battle with cancer.  Kaplan is probably best known for his 1980-84 stint as Canada’s solicitor general, when he presided over the demise of the RCMP’s disgraced security service and the creation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ….” - tribute/mention in the House of Commons yesterday here.