In the wake of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s visit to Washington last week, the question arises of how politically vulnerable the alliance is. There is a dangerous dynamic underway that could yet undermine it from within. But, two factors continue to hold the alliance together, despite political cleavages.

The Department of National Defence has halted plans to contract out cleaning jobs at 14 Wing Greenwood and CFB Kingston after pressure from the unions that represent the employees.

The 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act allows the Trump administration to target Russia, Iran and North Korea with economic and political sanctions. The law is being used against a department of the Chinese Ministry of Defense for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles. Its financial assets in the US are frozen and transactions involving the US financial system are blocked.

The Canadian Armed Forces Small Arms Concentration (CAFSAC) is underway at the Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre in Ottawa. Approximately 300 sharpshooters from the Canadian military, Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States are participating in this year’s event.

After speaking on Wednesday to a Parliamentary Committee looking into the state of Canada's military preparedness in the north, MGen William F. Seymour, deputy commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command said it is alarmist to suggest that Canadian sovereignty is under threat. However, Seymour told the committee, “Sovereignty ignored is perhaps sovereignty lost."

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police report 1,747 people entered Canada illegally last month, up by 113 from previous month. Critics blame the arrivals on a January 28, 2017 tweet by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength."

During a short truce, a group of four Canadian Army captains were instrumental in freeing prisoners from all sides of the Vietnam war. In all, the commission would arrange the freedom of more than 32,000 people in the six months before the war erupted again. They helped free Viet Cong, North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese and American prisoners, including a group of 907 women. But the highlight was freeing 516 American pilots (including John McCain) being held at The Plantation in Hanoi.

The memorial to fallen Canadian troops that was once at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan is expected to be officially unveiled sometime in November at the DND campus in west-end Ottawa.The memorial is housed in a secure area and the department is still working out how the public will be able to visit the building that houses the cenotaph.

Canadian veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are out of luck if they expect the government to help them find a service dog anytime soon.

The province of British Columbia is suing 40 companies involved in opioid production. Attorney General David Eby said allegations against drug producers include failure to track their output and to realize some was being diverted to illegal markets.

Syria inadvertently shot down a Russian military plane after an Israeli attack on Syrian positions, killing 15 people on board, Moscow said. The Russian maritime patrol aircraft was shot by by Syrian regime anti-aircraft artillery amid the Israeli attack on Monday, state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

Leona Alleslev, Member of Parliament and former Royal Canadian Air Force officer, left the Liberal party and crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the Conservatives. She is now the party's global security critic.

Experts reveal that bacteria such as anthrax (which occurs naturally in the soil and can infect cattle and wild animals) and foot and mouth disease could pose a much bigger threat than chemical weapons.

The Canadian military is drawing up options to extend its mission in Iraq even as growing political instability and competing foreign interests threaten to plunge the country into yet another cycle of bloody violence.

The CAF is struggling to hit their own targets to get more women, Indigenous people and visible minorities into uniform. And, in an attempt to to boost numbers that have been largely stalled for more than three years, DND will launch a suite of new digital tools aimed at convincing more Canadians to consider a life in the Armed Forces.

Federal prosecutors are acting to have content removed from the internet under the terrorism-propaganda provision of the Criminal Code. Under the law, internet service providers and social-media companies can be ordered to take down material and reveal the identity of the person who posted it. 

Australia has announced approval of the Defence Fuel Transformation Program, valued at $1.1 billion over the next 30 years. The program aims to deliver a "safer, simpler and more assured" Defence fuel network in partnership with industry.

The Lockheed Martin-BAE team pursuing the Canadian Surface Combatant created a stir on social media among defence observers when it suggested earlier this week that its bid had been qualified for the program.

Zakaria Amara is serving a life sentence for his part in a plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto, but for six months, a Facebook page showed what were apparently his prison photos and writings. The account was deleted after reporters notified the company.

By joining the United Nations’ mission to Mali, the Canadian government is hoping to signal Canada’s return to the world of peacekeeping. But in some ways, the UN’s operation in the West African nation looks less like peacekeeping than counterterrorism.

Following shoplifting and assault charges, an Ottawa court has ordered Abdulmati Elmi, 24, to surrender his passport, avoid contact with ISIS influences and meet a number of other conditions. Failure to comply could bring a four year prison term.

Matthew Overton, Executive Director, Conference of Defence Associations and Conference of Defence Associations Institute has announced that Lieutenant-General Christine Whitecross has been chosen as this year's Vimy Award recipient.

The public is invited to attend a ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the Battle of Britain at the Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport (1717 rue Arthur-Fecteau). The two-hour event will commence at 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 16th.

The Canadian Forces says its personnel completed their first medevac in Mali. A CH-147 Chinook and CH-146 Griffon helicopter were used in the mission which involved transporting a United Nations soldier so that person could receive medical aid.

Marijuana becomes legal for Canadians on October 17, including, with some restrictions, members of the armed forces. Senior officers have explained the military's policy and potential impact on operations to close allies.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan today announced that a new Veteran’s Service Cards will be distributed to former and releasing Canadian Armed Forces members who completed basic training and have been honourably released.

When the 364-foot Russian research cruise ship Akademik Ioffe came to a violent stop after grounding on a shoal in the remote Arctic, it took nearly nine hours for a Hercules aircraft to fly in from the RCAF’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, 12 hours for another RCAF plane to come in from Winnipeg and 20 hours for a Coast Guard helicopter to fly over.

Some soldiers are heading home after fighting British Columbia forest fires for almost a month. About 100 land task force members will remain to assist with fire containment. At the height of the effort about 420 Canadian Forces members and three aircraft were engaged in the effort.

Daniel Kueblboeck, a 33-year old German pop singer is believed to have jumped off a cruise ship about 200km north of St John’s on Sunday. Canadian Forces aircraft joined the search.

Australian war crimes investigators visited Canada last year to study how allegations about Joint Task Force 2 special operators were handled. Last week, a Canadian board of inquiry stated that concerns about special forces members had been brushed aside.

In the era of great power competition, the speed at which competing militaries are capable to innovate and evolve could determine who would win in a war. In light of the need for speed, military innovation experts recently tackled the question of whether the U.S. DoD can still move quickly to develop new technologies and capabilities.

With marijuana legalization just around the corner, DND wants to ensure the rules are clear to its more than 100,000 members. According to an internal draft of the military’s cannabis policy, members will be banned from consuming marijuana eight hours before duty, once it’s legalized.