- Remember the Memorial Ribbon announcement yesterday? It appears to be gone now (except for a few media outlets that ran with it early here and here, at Army.ca for discussion, and here (PDF) for posterity). Hmmmm…..
- Remembrance Day “So far this year we’ve been spared the almost annual clash between the custodians of the red Remembrance Day poppy and anti-war activists who promote the white poppy of peace ….”
- Veterans getting a lot of mention in the House of Commons these days – more from Hansard here, here, here and here.
- The Applebees restaurant chain is offering a free meal on November 11th to veterans – I especially love Army.ca owner Mike Bobbitt’s idea of donating what the meal would have cost to the Soldier On fund.
- Poochies helping those with hidden wounds. “Dave Desjardins says he’s convinced a Rottweiler named Maggie helped save his life. The 41-year-old retired soldier was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder in 2005, a few months after he returned from Afghanistan. When he first met the dog last year, he was addicted to morphine and afraid to leave his home for anything more than a quick cigarette in the backyard ….”
- Toronto Star articles on dealing with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and how DRDC labs are helping.
- Libya Mission Softball question in the House of Commons on when the troops are coming home from the Libyan theatre o’ operations: “Mr. Speaker, earlier this year Canada responded rapidly and strongly after the UN Security Council passed a resolution to protect civilians who were being attacked by the Gadhafi regime in Libya. In less than 24 hours CF-18s were airborne from 3 Wing Bagotville en route to their operating base in Trapani, Italy, along with strategic air-to-air refueling support from 8 Wing Trenton’s Polaris aircraft. Canada also sent a frigate to patrol the central Mediterranean. Could the associate minister of national defence please inform the House when our heroes are coming home?” I guess the Conservative member for Chatham-Kent—Essex missed the news release here, not to mention all the media advisories here, here and here.
- While troops return from Libya, veterans will be pressing for better benefits. “There will plenty of celebration Friday and Saturday as cabinet ministers travel to air-force bases around the country to welcome home Canadian Forces personnel from a mission in Libya that saw rebels overthrow long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The 630 members of Canada’s military are returning home from Operation Mobile and NATO-led Operation Unified Protector, which saw them enforce an arms embargo and a no-fly zone around the North African nation for most of this year. Julian Fantino, the Associate Minister of National Defence, has been dispatched to Bagotville, Que., to greet troops Friday afternoon. Chris Alexander, the parliamentary secretary to the Defence Minister, will be waiting for them on Friday night in Trenton, Ont. And Defence Minister MacKay will be at 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia on Saturday, an event that was delayed by weather. At exactly the same time that Mr. MacKay is shaking hands with the folks getting off the plane from Libya, veterans from Afghanistan and other conflicts will be on Parliament Hill protesting what they say are unfair benefits for people who have put their lives on the line for their country. It is the second Veterans National Day organized by Canadian Veterans Advocacy against the New Veterans Charter, which the group says discriminates against military personnel who were injured after April, 2006 – a time when Canada suffered most of the casualties in Afghanistan ….”
- Afghanistan (1) CBC columnist reminds us Canada’s still at war in Afghanistan, training mission or not. “…. the reality is that while Canada’s military pulled out of a costly, direct combat role this summer, it is now plunging even deeper into the real heart of the war ….”
- Afghanistan (2) Kandahar handover more than just handing over the keys (via the CF Info-Machine).
- Afghanistan (3) “The Government of Canada is one of the most generous donors to the World Food Programme globally and also in Afghanistan ….” (via the World Food Programme Info-Machine)
- Taliban Propaganda Watch Mullah Omar: Guys, guys, guys – you want to get at least a bit of a grip on the civilian casualties? (links to non-terrorist web page)
- Kevin Megeney, 1982-2007, R.I.P. “Final submissions heard at ex-reservist’s court martial” (via The Canadian Press on CTV.ca)
- Stuart Langridge, R.I.P. “Shaun Fynes bristles as he recalls the Canadian military’s treatment of his son, Cpl. Stuart Langridge. “They threw Stuart away like a piece of broken equipment,” he says in War in the Mind, Saltspring Island-based filmmaker Judy Jackson’s moving, revelatory film about combat trauma. It airs Nov. 8 (9 p.m. and midnight) on Knowledge Network. “We have to do everything we can to resurrect his reputation,” says Fynes, whose son, a young veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, hanged himself at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton in 2008 at age 28, the victim of post-traumatic stress disorder. Langridge’s parents have taken issue with their son’s treatment at the hands of the military ….”
- Let’s not forget we have troops in the Middle East, too. “On the Golan Heights since July, Canadian army Capt. John Hooyer saw something new Thursday. It rained. He had been told by officers there before him that the rocky high ground between Israel and Syria does grow green. The area is fertile, home to vineyards and orchards. It is also the source of the headwaters of the Jordan River. But almost halfway into a year-long deployment with the United Nation’s observation force, Hooyer said he has watched the ground get drier and drier. Hooyer is one of seven Canadian soldiers assigned to Operation Jade, Canada’s contribution to the UN’s oldest peacekeeping mission. Hooyer is stationed around six observation posts on the Israeli side of the border with Syria. “It’s surprising how many people are not aware the UN is operating observation posts up here,” Hooyer said in a telephone interview ….”
- F-35 Tug o’ War (1) Yet ANOTHER question in the House of Commons.
- F-35 Tug o’ War (2) Mark Collins on numbers and locations (some that may be no more?)
- Mark Collins again, this time on how long some of the Big Honkin’ Ships’ll take to build – more on that here.
- Speaking of Big Honkin’ Ships, ooopsie…. “A Canadian navy ship that had just undergone a yearlong, $44.7-million facelift struck a dock in Halifax on Friday afternoon, causing damage to both. HMCS Preserver, one of the navy’s supply ships, had just returned from several days of tests at sea and was in the process of turning around when it struck the Halifax Shipyards dock, said Royal Canadian Navy spokesman Maj. Paul Doucette. No one was injured, but Preserver’s upper starboard side was damaged, as was the dock ….” More at CBC.ca here, and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald here.
- House of Commons debate on proposed changes to the CF’s legal system via Hansard here and here.
- Don Cherry declines honourary degree from RMC with thanks (you can still vote here on a CBC.ca poll, though). “Concerned controversy may take away from “a special day,” Don Cherry has declined an honorary degree from the Royal Military College. “I can’t accept the degree and I won’t attend the convocation,” Cherry said in an interview Friday about the Nov. 17 ceremony in Kingston. “I am sad because I was really looking forward to spending time with the 800 cadets.” Perhaps instead they can line up to get their picture taken with French Professor Catherine Lord. It is because of her bizarre and vitriolic complaints that the legendary hockey coach and commentator wont be there. “On many occasions he publicly expressed his contempt for many groups of the Canadian population, notably for the French-speaking Canadians, for the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) community and for the immigrants,” Lord wrote in an open letter. “What message will RMC send, in celebrating Don Cherry, to the students coming from these groups? And what will the Canadian people remember from RMC, as a serious and prestigious institution?” The message would be: “Thanks, Don, for all you have done.” ….”
- Big spending by the U.K. to train its troops in Western Canada. “The Army spends an average of almost £45 million a year (CDN$ 74 million) training British soldiers on a Canadian prairie, the Government said today. Seven thousand troops are sent to British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS), on a prairie in Alberta, each year ahead of deployment to war zones, including Afghanistan. They are able to fire live weapons more freely than in the UK because of the vast size of the prairie in Alberta. But figures revealed by the Ministry of Defence show spending on BATUS totalled £224.5 million over the past five years, peaking at £58 million in 2009/10. It works out at an average of £44.9 million annually since 2006 ….” (Article also downloadable as PDF here if link doesn’t work)
Tag: Golan Heights
MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 1 Jul 11
First off, Happy Canada Day!
- Afghanistan (1) “Whazzup for Canada Day?” meme. “Every day is grey at Kandahar Airfield. The sprawling military base, known as KAF, is always covered in layers of dust from the crushed stone roads, the concrete walls, concrete buildings and bomb shelters, and the constant traffic of tanks, trucks and military aircraft. On top of that, you’ve got 30,000 soldiers, dressed in desert khakis, who, by design, blend into the landscape. Colour is almost like a dangerous outlier here. But there is one splash of colour that lights up this dull place — the Maple Leaf ….”
- Afghanistan (2) “The Treasure Hunter just knows where to search. As other Canadian soldiers are looking to get out of Afghanistan, he’s still combing every inch he can find. Combat Engineer Sgt. Stephane Mailloux has a particularly special knack for finding the weapons caches that insurgents try to hide here. On this day, he stands in front of the other members of Bulldog Company at this forward operating base, and accepts a special coin for finding an amazing number of weapons along with the ingredients for improvised explosive devices. At last count, the man they’ve dubbed the Treasure Hunter has sniffed out about 87 hidden stockpiles ….”
- Afghanistan (3) “Sometimes, you have to travel far from home to fall in love with Canada again. Sometimes, the best of our dominion shines brightest in distant, deranged reaches. Sometimes, the qualities that make us a fine and honourable nation — a country of virtue — reveal themselves in the most benighted of places, where the word “Canada’’ is uttered with such envy, like a prayer. I came late to the concept of patriotism, a downtown Toronto kid of immigrant parents, who for the longest time believed herself to be American, or maybe second-class British, because of the Queen’s portrait on a classroom wall and God Save the Queen as anthem. It appears children of later generations suffer from no such identity confusion, weaned at an early age to the distinctiveness of their nationality, their birthright, a message pounded into their brains by teachers, mass media, Can-cult and Olympic gold medal hockey games. It’s almost unseemly — un-Canadian, dare I say — to take so much pleasure in ourselves ….”
- Afghanistan (4) “Op OMID ATAL 09: Canada’s last partnered combat operation in Kandahar” (Courtesy of the CF Info-Machine)
- Afghanistan (5) “Ribbon-cutting at Outpost Khyber: The Panjwa’i Road opens to traffic” (Courtesy of the CF Info-Machine)
- Afghanistan (6) The Canadian head of Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission, Grant Kippen, speaks out on recent electoral shenanigans. “…. President Karzai has the perfect opportunity to step back from the current precipice and provide the leadership that is required to decisively match actions with the words he delivered in a speech to the NATO Summit in Lisbon last November: “Our Constitution, a harmonious blend of our Islamic values of justice and the universal principles of human rights, is our most important achievement of the last nine years … we need to enhance the checks and balances among the three branches of the state. … We are also committed to strengthening Parliament as an institution. I will work with the future Parliament to strengthen their constitutional role.” ….”
- Taliban Propaganda Watch: More than 20 claimed killed in alleged attacks in Kandahar, Zabul.
- Joshua Caleb Baker, 1985-2010, R.I.P. “One of two soldiers charged with manslaughter in the death of a colleague is a Calgary-based firefighter and reservist with the King’s Own Calgary Regiment. Maj. Darryl Watts was the officer in charge on a training range near Kandahar city, Afghanistan, when an explosion killed Edmonton-based Cpl. Joshua Caleb Baker on Feb. 12, 2010. A longtime reservist, Watts has been a firefighter for more than 10 years and was on military leave from his job at that time. The fire department said Watts promptly informed his superiors of the charges and he remains on active duty. “As far as CFD is concerned, his performance has been exemplary with the Calgary Fire Department,” said acting fire Chief Ken Uzeloc. “His leadership amongst his crew, his professionalism, his competency as a firefighter, he’s very good and the department has never had an issue with Mr. Watts.” ….”
- Libya Mission HMCS Vancouver preparing to head out to replace HMCS Charlottetown.
- “The Conservative government is strengthening the symbolic power of the military in public life by having a member of the Canadian Forces play a prominent role in citizenship ceremonies. In an operational bulletin issued earlier this year, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration said highlighting the service of members of the armed forces is a way to underline to every new Canadian the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship. The bulletin, which describes military service as one of the highest expressions of citizenship, states that members of the military should be seated on the main platform with the citizenship judge, that they can stand in the receiving line congratulating new citizens and that they may give a two- to three-minute speech. Where possible, the bulletin says the preference is for veterans of the war in Afghanistan …. Michael Fellman, a professor emeritus of history at Simon Fraser University, said it’s part of a gradual militarization of Canadian culture under the Conservatives. “The Tories are in a long-range campaign to change Canadian values and make them more conservative,” Prof. Fellman said. “This is a way to show that the military is at the core of the meaning of citizenship …. Major Pete Saunders, a member of the air force who served overseas in support of the war in Afghanistan, has participated in four citizenship ceremonies over the last year … “What we want to impress upon [the new citizens], much in the same way as the RCMP officer, is that we’re here to serve them. We’re not here to beat them down. We’re not here to cause them fear” ….”
- Meanwhile, “Randy Crowell wouldn’t make much of a soldier. He is, by his own estimation, past his prime – “too fat and too old” to join the ranks. The 51-year-old Edmonton dentist does, nevertheless, have a soft spot for those doing what he does not. He’s the type to shake the hands of soldiers he passes in the street, to raise his voice eagerly while singing their praises, and he itches to make a lasting tribute. So began Dr. Crowell’s populist mission: to persuade Edmonton, a military town, to rename a major road “Heroes Boulevard” in honour of its troops. However, his grassroots campaign has run up against unlikely opponents – the city and the Canadian Forces. Local military leaders cringed at the name, city staff say – specifically, they thought that referring to all members of the military as “heroes” would dilute the tribute of Ontario’s Highway of Heroes, the route travelled by processions carrying the bodies of soldiers who died overseas. Local base officials also thought that soldiers, who generally consider themselves to be people doing a job rather than heroes, would be uncomfortable with such a name. The city, meanwhile, balked at the cost of changing signs ….”
- CF-Royals Link (1) “For royal tours to Canada, equerries are chosen from the commissioned officers of the Canadian Forces — typically a major or lieutenant-colonel is appointed for the Queen while a captain is selected for the child of a monarch. Prince William wanted a search and rescue pilot for his equerry ….”
- CF-Royals Link (2) “Prince William has been cleared to fly a Sea King helicopter during a flight demonstration Monday in Prince Edward Island, the Canadian military has confirmed. The 29-year-old prince has flown Sea Kings before, having served in the Royal Air Force as a search and rescue pilot since September 2010. The prince and his wife Kate are to arrive in Ottawa on Thursday to begin a tour that will also take them to Quebec, the Northwest Territories and Alberta, before leaving July 8 for California. The couple is slated to arrive in Charlottetown on Sunday night before departing the next morning for Dalvay by-the-Sea, the waterfront resort where William is expected to board a CH124 Sea King with at least two Canadian military pilots and a navigator. Military spokesman Lt. Tyrone Grande said Wednesday the prince will be on board the aircraft during a so-called waterbirding demonstration, which will involve landing the amphibious helicopter on Dalvay Lake ….”
- Remember this explosion at a Quebec recruiting centre, with this group claiming responsiblity, last summer? Police are still working on the case. “Authorities are confident they will lay charges “in the near future” in the bombing of a military recruitment centre almost one year ago. Canada’s elite counter-terrorism squad set up a command post at the Canadian Forces facility in Trois-Rivieres, Que., Thursday to encourage new witnesses to step forward. “We don’t want to leave any stone unturned,” said Sgt. John Athanasiades, a spokesman for the elite Integrated National Security Enforcement team. “It’s advancing very well and I’m confident that in the near future we will lay charges in this investigation.” ….” Lots of good information and discussion at Army.ca here.
- Oooopsie. “A Canadian sailor’s decision to sneak stun guns, switchblade knives and other prohibited weapons into the country aboard a warship was “an act of childish immaturity,” his lawyer says. Ordinary Seaman Andrew James Yakimak, 22, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Halifax provincial court to a Criminal Code charge of unauthorized possession of prohibited weapons and three Customs Act charges: attempting to smuggle prohibited items, failing to report imported goods and making false statements to border agents. Judge Brian Gibson accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers and gave Yakimak a 15-month conditional sentence. The young man was charged after customs officers searched the HMCS Athabaskan at the Halifax Dockyard on Dec. 2 and found two stun guns, two switchblades, a can of pepper spray and five brass knuckles. Yakimak purchased the weapons at a flea market while the ship was in Florida ….”
- The U.N. extends its peacekeeping mission between Israel and Syria – Canada has two officers involved in that one.