28 Mar - CC-138 Twin Otter aircraft prepares to take off from Resolute Bay, Nunavut during Operation Nanook-Nunalivut
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IN THE NEWS
May 24
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday he will get to the bottom on why families of soldiers who died in Afghanistan weren’t included in last week’s dedication of the Afghanistan Memorial in Ottawa.
May 24
The Department of National Defence is looking to the entertainment industry to help fill its ranks as military membership continues to languish.
May 24
Beyond Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance's rushed judge and jury execution of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, other issues are starting to make that hefty pay raise given to him this week by Justin Trudeau fall somewhere between inexplicable and laughable.
May 23
Mike MacLean, the RCMP Superintendent in charge of the Mark Norman debacle, said former cabinet ministers could have come forward if they had germane information to the case. In the real world, investigators go to the subjects who may assist an investigation (not the other way around), says former RCMP officer Leo Knight.
May 23
Serco will be acquiring Alion Science & Technology Corporation’s Naval Systems Business Unit, including its Canadian business contracts to the RCN, for $225 million. The acquisition, subject to certain regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the second half of 2019.
May 23
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recommended a raise for Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. John Vance, boosting his salary’s upper limit to $306,500. The announcement was posted on a federal website the day after prosecutors dropped a criminal breach of trust charge against VAdm Mark Norman.
May 23
Statistics Canada has offered a sobering assessment of the Canadian Forces' four-year war on sexual misconduct, suggesting in a new report Wednesday that the military has made only minimal progress on several fronts.
May 23
Canada plans to build up to 18 new coast guard ships at a cost of $15.7 billion in an effort to renew Canada's Coast Guard fleet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday.
May 23
Canada’s top soldier has acknowledged the anger many Canadians felt about the way the Kandahar memorial was unveiled in Ottawa last week – in a shroud of secrecy, without the families of the dead soldiers present, and with ongoing limited public access.
May 22
The U.S. military scrambled five aircraft Monday to intercept two groups of Russian warplanes that flew in opposite directions off the coast of Alaska but never entered sovereign U.S. airspace, officials with the bi-national North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) said Tuesday.
May 22
Trudeau is expected to announce Wednesday that the federal government is buying two more Arctic patrol ships on top of the six it has already ordered from Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding. However, unlike the first six ships being built for the Navy, a government source said the seventh and eighth will be built for the Canadian Coast Guard.
May 22
A number of families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan say they feel betrayed by a decision made by bureaucrats at the Department of National Defence to privately dedicate a memorial last week containing the Kandahar battlefield cenotaph.
May 21
In a trio of notifications Friday afternoon, the U.S. State Department cleared more than a billion dollars in potential weapon sales for three of America’s military allies.
May 21
Norman was in his kitchen in April 2017 when his wife Bev, astonished, called out to him. 'I think the prime minister was just talking about you'. In an exclusive interview with the National Post, Mark Norman tells his story.
May 21
The collapse of the criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman saw that custom accelerated at breakneck speed this week as the Liberal government sought to put as much distance as possible between itself and the failed prosecution.
May 21
Justice Minister David Lametti says he’s satisfied his department did the best job it could in finding, reviewing and disclosing thousands of government documents requested by Vice-Admiral Mark Norman’s defence team.
May 20
A Canadian-made jet delivered to a U.S.-based airline symbolizes the growing presence of Airbus in North America. The A220-100 aircraft was assembled in Mirabel and handed over to U.S.-based Delta Air Lines.
May 17
The CAF confirmed Thursday evening on Facebook that it had held a dedication service at the new Afghanistan Memorial Hall at the National Defence Headquarters in the west end of Ottawa. But that happened three days earlier on May 13. The decision was made by officials to keep the event quiet and to release the news only via Twitter and Facebook at a later date.
May 17
The Liberal-dominated House of Commons defence committee has blocked a pitch by opposition MPs for a committee probe of the criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman.
May 16
There has been discussions that the RCAF's Cyclone helicopter will make an appearance at the CANSEC in Ottawa at the end of May. If approval is received for the aircraft to make an appearance, the Sikorsky helicopter will be flown in to the EY Centre before the show begins May 29 and then remain as a static display.
May 16
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says he supported the chief of defence staff's decision to suspend Vice-Admiral Mark Norman in 2017, more than a year before he was charged with breach of trust for allegedly leaking government secrets about military procurement.
May 15
The CAF, like other militaries, is using social media for its strategic communications. If properly done, that can work well, such as during the response to the flooding in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. If it isn’t done properly it can create problems.
May 15
The Canadian government awarded MDA a $39 million 10-year contract for a new space-based search and rescue technology. The MDA facility in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, will design, build and deliver 10 search and rescue repeaters for DND’s Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) system.
May 15
The House of Commons voted unanimously today to apologize to Vice-Admiral Mark Norman for his legal ordeal, just days before opposition MPs are expected to push for a full-blown House of Commons committee investigation into the handling of the controversial criminal case.
May 14
To keep Vice-Admiral Mark Norman dangling for so long required an extended display of amateur-hour tomfoolery on the part of people at the topmost levels in several wings of the federal administration. Best case scenario is incompetence; worst case is intentional scapegoating. Either way, public trust is in tatters.
ISSUES & IDEAS
A recent Léger Marketing poll surveyed 1,522 eligible Canadian voters. The results suggest that the electorate is looking for a new leader – and the Green party's Elizabeth May is seen as the most knowledgeable, ethical and balanced leader of the bunch.
The caliphate may lie in ruins, but IS leaders and foot soldiers are now well-trained, well-led, combat-experienced, potentially well-financed, and patiently continuing the long-game battle for world domination.
More than two years after breach of trust charges were laid against VAdm Mark Norman, the charges have officially been stayed in court. Norman has denied the charges all along, and has been in a long fight to defend his integrity.
FEATURED ARTICLES 2019 |
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BY DOUG SMITH
Search and Rescue (SAR) has always been an emotional topic because it deals with lives hanging in the balance. Is a contracted service in the best interests of the SAR mandate?
The R9B Innovation Hub being featured at CANSEC 2019, is a platform to celebrate innovative products and services that are designed to help keep Canadians safe and secure, domestically and abroad.
BY BRETT BOUDREAU
The annual CADSI tradeshow CANSEC is set for May 29-30 at the EY Centre in Ottawa. A few months earlier, CADSI attended IDEX, one of the world’s largest military trade shows. But building a presence in the Middle East “is a long-game play,” says CADSI President, Christyn Cianfarani.
General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, issued a CANFORGEN announcing the list of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) General and Flag Officer senior appointments, promotions, and retirements that will occur in 2019.
General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, announced the list of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Colonel and Captain(Navy) retirements, appointments, and promotions, for 2019.