Let's Talk About Women In The Military

By Military Women

You asked: I hear a lot about “The Elsie Initiative” in the news. What’s it all about? What problem is it solving? 

We answer: The Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations is a Canadian funded international project to increase the meaningful participation of women in uniform on UN peace operations. Peace operations themselves being a topic of ongoing debate on how to best define, especially given the increasingly complex levels of today’s world conflicts. If you aren’t already familiar with this gem in Canada’s foreign policy learn more about it at http://bit.ly/ElsieWPS.

Last month’s column highlighted the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and why the UN is so interested to increase the number of women on its missions. However, despite all the focus on the topic, the statistics have remained fairly stagnant at around 2-4 % of military and 6-10% of police personnel on UN missions being women. This has left some wondering what, if any, systemic barriers may be holding some women back from “being all they can be”? 

Lucky for us, as part of its Elsie Initiative support, Canada commissioned an independent research project to answer just that question once and for all. The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) based out of Switzerland researched what, if any, UN deployment barriers are still being encountered by uniformed women. DCAF identified 14 barriers to the successful deployment and full integration of uniformed women on UN missions. These barriers were organized into six categories: (1) equal access to opportunities, (2) deployment criteria, (3) the working environment, (4) family constraints,
(5) equal treatment during deployment, and (6) career-advancement opportunities. You can download and/or read
the DCAF report at https://www.dcaf.
ch/elsie-initiative-women-peace-
operations-baseline-study. 

To give an example of the barriers, one was “lack of adequate family-friendly policies”. In many countries there were few national mechanisms offered for child support options should a parent deploy especially for the longer UN tours. DCAF recommendations include consideration of more family UN duty stations and institutional encouragement for men to take parental leave and receive child/elder support considerations where needed in order to normalize this accommodation for all parents.

Another barrier will be no surprise to readers; “sexual and gender-based harassment”. One of the many DCAF recommendations being to focus on leadership’s roles in addressing workplace culture. When workplace harassment is left unchecked by leadership, the resulting permissive environment is known to promote, not only more widespread harassment but, the occurrence of more serious events such as sexual assault and sexual coercion to also occur. 

Another barrier that you might not have thought of is “lack of appropriate medical care”. There have been recommendations made to include at least one female physician and one obstetric and gynaecological specialist on all UN mission medical teams.

The DCAF report names barriers women are encountering from around the globe. Every UN mission participating county is however unique, so have been encouraged to consider completing its own national baseline barrier assessment study as well. Canada is leading by example on this front and has contracted DCAF to just that. So, stay tuned for that upcoming DCAF report on what, if any, deployment barriers are still being experienced by Canadian military and policing women. When we know better, we can do better. 

P.S. If you don’t know all about the amazing Canadian icon Elsie MacGill, after whom the Elsie Initiative is named, please Wikipedia her and/or read about her in one of the many books available on this inspiring Canadian trailblazer!

Operation Windsor (4/5 July 1944)

(Volume 26 Issue 6)

By Vincent J. Curtis

In the pursuit to Mons, the Canadian Corps employed an embryonic form of blitzkrieg. Infantry and tanks, supported by artillery, would advance in the morning. Overhead, allied aircraft would bomb and strafe exposed German positions in the rear. The advance would go for 7,000 yards and then stall, having moved beyond range of supporting artillery and being well within range of German guns.

The Germans learned from defeat, but had the Canadian commanders of World War II upped their game? It seems not. Hans von Luck, in his book Panzer Commander, described the British tactical method in Operation Goodwood (18/19 July 1944): “As almost always with the British, they carried out their tank attacks unaccompanied by infantry, as a result, they were unable to eliminate at once any little anti-tank nests that were lying well camouflaged in woodland or behind hedges. The main attack broke down under our defensive fire.”

Let’s return to our hero of last month, Lieutenant William F. McCormick, 1st Hussars. In an article published in the Waterloo Region Record on June 8, 2011, McCormick recounted the events of June 11, 1944. “Ordered into action, McCormick arrives to a terrible scene: a field of Sherman tanks burning quietly with no enemy in sight…An order crackles over the radio: Advance. The order is repeated, Advance. Then a new request, “Who will volunteer to advance?” McCormick orders his tanks onto the battlefield…McCormick spies enemy soldiers sitting calmly by their trenches. They look like they’re watching a sports event… He opens fire on them and advances into the wheat field. Wham! The tank to the left of him is hit…Wham! A shell explodes into the tank on his right. McCormick thinks the fire is coming from his right flank. Before he can find a target, a shell explodes into his tank…[The 12th SS] destroyed 37 tanks and damaged 13 others.” No infantry screen for the tanks there, either. New methods were needed in a hurry.

Operation Windsor was conducted to capture Carpiquet village and airfield, both D-Day objectives that McCormick himself had in his grasp. Carpiquet stood between the Canadian 3rd Division and Caen. Major General Rod Keller turned the planning over to Brigadier K.G. Blackader commander of the 8th Canadian infantry brigade (Queens’ Own Rifles, Chaudière, North Shores). The 8th would be reinforced with an attached battalion (the Royal Winnipeg Rifles) and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade. (Fort Garry Horse, Sherbrooke Fusiliers, Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, elements of 79th Armoured Div).

The plan was for a set-piece battle. The infantry would advance behind a creeping barrage, supported by tanks on both flanks. In the air, two squadrons of Hawker Typhoons would provide tactical air support.

Proceeding north to south: a diversionary attack by the Sherbrooke Fusiliers was made against Francqueville. The main attack against Carpiquet village was made by the North Shores and Chaudière. The Queen’s Own were to pass through and take the airport control buildings. The RWR supported by Fort Garry Horse would seize the airfield hangers south of the village. The approach by the RWR did not go well. Infantry were subjected to unsuppressed German mortar fire as they advanced across open ground towards the airfield and took fire also from the south bank of the Odon River. Late in the day, the depleted RWR reached the airfield hangers but were unable to dislodge the German defenders. The Fort Garry Horse encountered a battlegroup of Panther tanks and were “overwhelmed.” The RWR were ordered to withdraw under cover of darkness, leaving the airfield in German hands.

Next day, the Germans made three counter-attacks against Carpiquet village, and were repulsed with heavy losses.

Two more battalions behind the RWR would have taken the airfield. But it was clear that new combined arms methods were needed, and new methods for the timely suppression of enemy defensive fires had to be learned.

Going Out With a Bang

(Volume 26 Issue 6)

By Jim Scott

There are so many ‘third rails’ in politics that it has become contentious to even mention a topic lest a self-appointed do-gooder paint your forehead with a target and condemn you for even daring to think on a topic for which you are, (to them), clearly unsuitable. 

So, I’ll play it safe and just ruminate on immigration for a bit.

What? I’m not qualified? My skin colour, language or place of birth mark me out as a troublemaker whose opinion, a priori is tainted by just being me?

Apparently, there are only two ways to get along in this world and that is to have no opinion or hold the One True Opinion approved by the select group who can scream the loudest at rallies. Fair enough, they’re paid well to be there and hold up pre-printed signs so I guess they’ve earned the right to dictate.

Or perhaps, we should see this crap for what it is and admit that expressing an opinion is what we’re all entitled to do. One hundred thousand dead Canadians in a dozen countries attest to that.

Listen, lots of opinions are stupid. People are bags of chemicals acted upon over time by hundreds of influences good and bad. If you think your chemical soup is better informed than mine, you could be right. That’s your opinion, and so be it.

As for topics about which people might have an opinion, there are not many where you can put all your facts in a basket, arrive at a conclusion, and then move on. Your opinions will always bite you in the ass. Your facts will often be out of date or incorrect/incomplete in a different context, and your conclusions, even if eloquently and completely expressed, will likely bounce off the next person you talk to.

That’s in the nature of education, debate, discussion, learning and maturing. It used to be a hallmark of civilisation to have an open mind, but it seems we’re entering, (re-entering) a medieval period where your open mind is seen as a sign that you don’t quite “get it”. There is a practiced technique of public persuasion that uses noise, humiliation and other discomforts to make sure fellow citizens hold no obvious opinions or the One True one. Since the average person is quite willing to be polite and go along to avoid confrontation, the loud, brash, organised, motivated ‘advocates’ hold more sway with weak-kneed politicians and media types than the majority. With no-one providing counter-arguments or nuance, the relentless press of the advocate’s position entrenches itself in public policy.

Am I suggesting there is no redeemable benefit that can come of this technique? Mais non!  Such an opinion would be absurd surely! I suppose we wouldn’t have a 40-hour work week, paid maternity leave, or old age pensions unless advocates somewhere made it clear to the powers-that-be that discomfort was coming for them in the form of mass demonstrations if they did not share the wealth. Universal suffrage required years of busted heads and jail time so you and I could vote.

But there are extremists in every extremist group that insist that victory requires yet more pushing, more destruction of property, more discomfort. Ironically, they desire the revolution come to a halt when they have what they want. Revolutionaries are notorious for viciously cracking down on other revolutionaries who won’t accept the opinion held by the ones who have achieved power. If their heads weren’t in baskets, the reactionary regime would say; ‘I told you so!’

But I started on immigration and there I will bravely end: as the grandson of immigrants I pronounce it good! Well, sometimes, if well run. Our country can use all the talent it can get, even if the poorer countries from whence we draw it are worse off. Uh, that doesn’t sound intrinsically good. Maybe good-ish? That’s my opinion and I’ll stick to it. For now.

Let's Talk About Women In The Military

By Military Women

You asked: What is the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and why is it important to Canadian military women?  

We answered: UN studies demonstrated that state conflict resolution and peace processes are more effective and long-lasting when diverse voices are invited to sit at the table, especially women’s voices. Studies also showed that the design and delivery of foreign aid is more effective when the needs of diverse groups, particularly women, are specifically considered. Directly impacted women are often the best sources to identify their own needs and potential vulnerabilities in conflict or humanitarian situations.  

To act on these findings, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was passed in 2000. It was the first resolution to acknowledge and address the disproportionately negative effects of armed conflict on women and girls. Canada was a signatory to it, and the eight subsequent resolutions that together are referred to as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. It calls on the international community to promote: 

• women’s meaningful participation in all conflict-prevention and conflict

• resolution mechanisms and mainstreamed gendered perspective into all peace and security activities and strategies, including peace operations, stabilization missions, and counter-terrorism;

• human rights and gender equality of women and girls including protection from sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation, and preservation of their sexual rights and access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services; and 

• more deployed women in uniform (military and policing). 

I hear you say: “I understand a bit more about what WPS is, but what does this all have to do with Canada specifically?” 

Canada committed itself to an ambitious 2017-2022 National Action Plan or “C-NAP”. Each impacted department has its own implementation plan on to best support the C-NAP. Implementation partners (IPs) continue to grow in numbers but Global Affairs Canada is the lead along with DND/CAF, RCMP, Public Safety, Immigration, Justice, and Women and Gender Equality, (WAGE was formerly Status of Women, renamed after becoming a government department in December 2018). Progress reports are made by the IPs twice a year to civil society representatives. Many of the representatives coming from the Women Peace and Security Network – Canada, a non-profit collaboration of various non-governmental organizations and individuals all committed to the promoting and monitoring of the WPS agenda. 

Let’s look specifically at the DND/CAF implementation plan and why its important to all Canadian military women as well as women abroad. Its one of the UN’s WPS priorities to increase the number of women in all security roles including in the military. In alignment with this priority, the CDS has committed to increasing the number of women in CAF to 25% within the next 10 years, which hopefully will result in more women trained and available for UN deployments.   

Here’s where the rubber meets the road for military women. CAF has fully supported the WPS agenda and integrated gendered perspectives on operations. CAF strives for equitable care and support of civilian impacted women when on operations outside of Canada. However, there is a growing realization that leading by example for WPS has to be inclusive of the “domestic” agenda; how CAF is supporting its own women in uniform. As discussed in last months article, operational effectiveness requires all soldiers, women or men, to feel respected and included and have any special support needs considered. Although it may be named Women, Peace and Security – its goals and aspirations can’t be achieved without the full support of everyone, men and women, both at home and when abroad.     

To learn more search “UNSCR 1325”, “Women, Peace and Security”, “Canada’s National Action Plan” or check out WPSN-Canada.org

Andrew In Wonderland

(Volume 26 Issue 5)

By Michael Nickerson

Gather round, people. For today’s lesson I’d like you to consider two specimens. On the right here we have Andrew Scheer’s brain. Seems normal enough, don’t you think? What you might expect from a low-key, average sort of mind. Nothing fancy. Some might even call it healthy. 

Now let’s compare that with what we have here, which is Andrew Scheer’s brain on drugs. It’s a disturbing sight to be sure. We’re not exactly certain what drugs this brain has been exposed to, but it’s quite clear that whatever it was, it’s caused severe damage to the cognitive areas outlined here and here. Kind of like a side of deep-fried Spam if truth be told.

So why are we making this comparison today? Well as fate would have it, Andrew Scheer is not just the leader of the Canada’s federal Conservative party, but thanks to circumstances few would have predicted even a year ago, Mr. Scheer has an excellent chance of becoming Canada’s next prime minister. I think you will all agree that having unimpaired, if not overly spectacular, cognitive abilities  is generally considered a fine and reassuring quality when considering the office of prime minister.

As the saying goes you should never judge a book by its cover. Well, nor should you ever judge a brain by how hot and greasy it might appear. No, we in the science community depend on actions and statements from which to draw our objective conclusions. And objectively we’ve concluded that the future prime minister was on at least one occasion, high. Very high.

Consider if you will his recent speech in Montreal on foreign and defence policy. The usual Conservative staples were all there, from the promise of new jet fighters and a rejuvenated submarine fleet, to joining the US ballistic missile defence program and generally tying our can to Donald Trump’s tail. Questionable to be sure, and also unlikely to ever happen, but what one might expect from our good friends on the right. 

And then Andrew Scheer became stoned. There’s simply no scientific doubt. Ponder this chemically compromised statement: “I’m very committed to depoliticizing the entire procurement process,” Scheer opined, which is of course akin to committing to dehumidifying the oceans, or decalcifying your fibula, even dealcoholizing a mug of beer! You can’t have one without the other, people.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but in a functioning democracy a process that involves the spending of billions of dollars will inherently be political. Parties represent their members’ interests, MPs their constituents’ interests, and they will debate and defend those as they should. It is time consuming, at times wasteful, and an almost always infuriating process. 

This is why we have become so alarmed at Mr. Scheer’s recent comments, for he seemed to be suggesting not just the impossible, but the nonsensical. In a clearly pharmaceutically induced trip to Wonderland, Andrew Scheer, by his own admission, sincerely believes that all the parties can come together, put aside their interests and mandates, hold hands, and sign off on billions of dollars no matter how that may sit with those who elected them. Now everybody raise a hand if they think this is a good idea? What, are you on drugs too?

Not only is it not a good idea, it goes against everything a democracy should be. When things are important you hash them out, argue and fight for those you represent. Anything else is not only wildly idealistic, but misses the whole point of the process in the first place. What’s required then is a leader and a government that understands this, accepts it, and works to minimize its excesses and maximize the benefits of consensus in a relatively timely manner. 

Clearly Andrew Sheer does not understand this, which is why we are here today. Reach out to your MPs, to friends and families and plead with Mr. Scheer to just say no. Say no to drugs, Andrew. We need a clear head at the helm of this great nation, not another trip down the rabbit hole. Fried Spam just won’t cut it.

Let’s Sow Some Dissent!

(Volume 26 Issue 6)

By Michael Nickerson

Great news! I found my dream car. It’s long, low, red, and ends in “ghini.” However there is a small problem. You see, it’s a tad expensive; a couple of million to be precise. So I hope you will forgive this article, but I need to make a little extra pocket change, and what a better way to do that than sow some dissent in the military! Pays big bucks to be a disruptive jerk don’tcha know.

Funny thing is, I didn’t really know my true earning potential until recently. I was just happy to submit my ideas and hit the pub on the proceeds. Ah, but now I see the light, and it’s all thanks to Canadian Army Maj. John McEwen. Perhaps you heard of him? He is an Info Ops Practitioner (whatever that is) and self-proclaimed social media guru who recently took both Scott Taylor and David Pugliese to task for “sowing dissent” with their “garbage” in such inconsequential publications as the Halifax Chronicle Herald and the Ottawa Citizen, to say nothing of this very magazine. Major McEwen’s gripping critique can be found on LinkedIn, that busy hub for rebuttal favoured by social media experts everywhere.  

Now no one likes to be criticized, but the old theory was that without dissenting opinions, there wouldn’t be much change to the things we all really would like to see improved. Galileo pointed out that the earth isn’t the centre of all things, which helps to know when you want to go to the moon, if nothing else, and Newton made it clear that falling apples weren’t just a nasty trick by God. All very useful that, but it won’t buy you a Lamborghini.

And that’s where Maj. John McEwen opened my eyes. As he so adroitly pointed out, Scott and David weren’t doing what they do because they see problems and injustices to be corrected. Nope, they were doing it for money! Huge bags of cash! They’ve been running all over Ottawa in their fancy cars as if they’ve owned the place for years; living high and living large. I was just never able to put two and two together until now.

So when I say that it’s a national tragedy that some 5000 Canadian veterans are homeless in this country, I’m not jumping on the current media bandwagon concerning the issue, I’m just trying to earn enough to reserve a seat so I can bid on my 1971 Miura and drive with the big boys in journalism. The fact that Diane Claveau, a graduate of the Royal Military College in Saint-Jean, Quebec and an eight-year veteran is now living out of a van is simply information I can use to make money, not make a change. So let’s sow some dissent. Cha-Ching!

Sadly I haven’t earned enough yet, so let’s keep going. Did you know that it was recently reported that after four years, Operation Honour was and is essentially a bust? Sexual assault and misconduct has not changed one bit during the entire tenure of Chief of Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance, and despite all the well-meaning attempts by many to change military culture the whole thing’s a complete failure. 

I obviously don’t type those words out of some sense of concern for military personnel who have been assaulted, or worry that a toxic work environment is leading many to give up a career they dreamed of. I certainly wouldn’t be typing such silliness to embarrass senior brass so they wake up and deal with a problem that sullies the good name of the majority of soldiers in this country.  

No sir, I do it for the big payday. I couldn’t care less about the men and women in uniform in this country, our veterans, or their families. I’ve always been in it for the money. It’s just that until recently I didn’t understand how lucrative it could be. Thank you, Maj. McEwen…let’s sow some dissent indeed!

A Day Of Missed Opportunities

(Volume 26 Issue 5)

By Vincent J. Curtis

In June we celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day, regarded as the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime. The greatest success that day, in terms of ground gained and objectives met, was by the Canadians coming off Juno beach.

Nevertheless, a close study of the movement off Juno leaves one with the impression of opportunities lost on account of failures of leadership.

The senior Canadian leadership of World War I were militia officers, civilian professional men, who had not commanded anything above a battalion before the war.  They reached Corps and Division command on account of proven worth. They had no preconceptions about how war should be fought. They learned from Julian Byng the value of battle studies, and of applying the lessons learned (and adding new wrinkles of their own like sound-ranging) to the next battle. That’s why Vimy Ridge was such an astonishing success.

Prior to D-Day, the allies had landed in Sicily, Italy, and Anzio. The Sicily invasion went well in part because the commander of the American forces, the audacious LGen George S. Patton, Jr., exploded off the beaches. He wanted to beat Montgomery to Messina, and he wasn’t going to do it “protecting Monty’s left flank” through the central mountains of Sicily. Patton immediately sent a “reconnaissance in force” in the direction of Palermo, creating space and confusion, and got there practically unopposed.

The failure was at Anzio. The landings caught the Germans completely by surprise. The road lay open to Rome and to the complete dislocation of the German Winter Line – had the landing force moved off the beaches. But no, MGen John Lucas had to establish and consolidate first, and the resulting delay gave Kesselring time to react. He blocked movement off the beaches for four months.

Such were the lessons which ought to have been known. The French military theorist Ardant du Picq taught that a small force cannot afford to get involved in a melee because in a melee its organization, the real strength of the force, is lost.

In practical terms, this means that a superior attacking force can afford to by-pass pockets of resistance because doing so involves the defence in a melee. None of the lessons; of the importance of gaining space rapidly, of the value of by-passing small pockets of resistance, of closest infantry-tank coordination were applied by the Canadian commanders on D-Day.

The objective in the Commonwealth sector on D-Day was the capture of Caen. The Canadian landings began at 08:00 hours, but not until 14:30 was the beach deemed secure and movement inland ordered by Major General Rod Keller, Commander of the Canadian 3rd Division. The advance would not last long nor go far.

A troop of Sherman tanks, No. 2 Troop, C Squadron, 1st Hussars, led by Lieutenant William F. McCormick, nevertheless did their job. They found an unopposed route from Camilly on Phase Line Elm all the way to the objective: Phase Line Oak, the Caen-Bayeux rail line and the Carpiquet airfield. Despite frantic signalling, McCormick was not reinforced. Where was his Squadron Commander? His Regiment Commander? Why wasn’t anyone wondering where their lost Troop was? And why were the Canadians digging in back at Phase Line Elm with four hours of daylight remaining and an open road ahead?

They were digging on order from British Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey because the British 3rd Division on Sword was being attacked in flank by elements of the German 21st Panzer Division. Three divisions halted because one of them was counterattacked. The Canadian 9th Brigade halted three miles from Caen, the farthest inland of any allied force.  The rest of the day was wasted. In the night the Germans moved in the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitlerjugend) and then the Panzer Lehr Division. Caen wasn’t captured until a month later.

Many life-saving opportunities created by surprise that day went unexploited from a lack of Patton-esque audacity on the part of senior Canadian leadership.

Imaginary Hobgoblins

Volume 26 Issue 5

By Jim Scott

With the 2019 pre-election, election campaign already in full throat, Canada’s illustrious political parties are constantly jockeying to pounce on every tongue-trip that opposing leaders may or may not be guilty of. Since Mr. Trudeau isn’t likely to repeat his Ravi Shankar impersonation any time soon, Conservatives are beating the policy bushes to highlight Liberal failings on the economy, environment, immigration and justice. The Trudeau Liberals ran on a left-wing, ‘spend it like ya got it’ platform, and in office made that look like roadmap for fiscal restraint, so the pickings have been easy. Bags of taxpayer money for infrastructure and defence were hung out on the side of the tracks, but the gravy train never picked them up. Seems it’s easy to announce billions for this or that but actual governing is hard!

As four years of furious virtue-signalling turn into two months of attracting voters, Liberals are not-so-subtly reversing themselves on what they once held dear. They have decided individuals skipping border entry points may not be refugees after all. Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced intentions to de-regulate our red-tape choked economy, and the carbon tax supposed to drive our behaviour toward environmental utopia, will now be another government program to take from half the ‘middle class’ and give to the other half.

Even so, leopards can only deny their spots for so long. Keen-eyed Liberal operatives finally cornered Conservative leader Andrew Scheer meeting with a bunch of nefarious representatives of marginalised, social pariahs. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was first out of the Twitter blocks with fiery condemnation. Andrew Scheer, horror of horrors, met with…

Oil industry executives!

Now, fans of petroleum, (you know who you are!), may appreciate that a Prime Minister-in-waiting might not see anything wrong in meeting with an industry group that generates $100’s of billions and 100,000’s of thousands of jobs for the Canadian economy. But Liberal conspiracists want us to believe that the meeting,
(“Behind closed doors!” Went on for hours!”), was all about a secretive cabal plotting to make Canadians heat their homes and drive their cars with that foul-smelling liquid that oozes out of the very ground we walk on. Vote Conservative and you’ll never get that $5,000 (taxpayer) subsidy
for that new Tesla you’ve had your eye on!

As H.L. Mencken said, the art of practical politics is to set up hobgoblins and promise to protect frightened voters from harm. In aid of this Liberals have perfected the art of straddling every fence to appear to be all things to all people. How soon we forget that this Liberal government bought the Trans Mountain pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $5.2 billion, (borrowed from Export Development Canada), to keep that option open for the oil industry. The Parliamentary Budget Office reports that the government collects revenues from oil flowing through the existing infrastructure ($33M minus $17M operating expenses); just another way Minister McKenna’s tweets are financed by “dirty oil”!

Meanwhile, wending its way through the Senate is Bill C-69, seen by the oil industry as a final straw to kill their golden goose. With regulatory uncertainty and new roadblocks for actual infrastructure investment, C-69 should make sure only Venezuela and Saudi Arabia can ever sell oil in Canada. For a government trumpeting a one-month gain in jobs, (supposedly 107,000 in April although StatsCan is only “certain” of 77,000 or so), it is odd they are tone deaf to the folks who do most to create those numbers they like to claim.

All our taxes, tariffs, regressive policies and interference are presented as a for-our-own-good kind of thing, (as if we couldn’t run our own affairs if allowed to), and I don’t expect over-reaching government to be logical, but is it too much to ask for our elected servants to just stick with one program? If you want to finance a government that sticks its nose into everything, try being friendlier to your Golden Geese!

Let's Talk About Women In The Military

(Volume 26-2)

By Military Women

Welcome to a new guest column. With over 15% of the Canadian Armed Forces and 10% of all Veterans Affairs Canada clients now female, we approached Scott Taylor for space to add more of an active female voice to the magazine, and surprise! he said… “Yes”!

Having just celebrated its 30th year in print, Esprit de Corps started about the same time the Canadian Armed Forces started gender integration activities in earnest; moving from most occupations being closed to women in 1989, to having women in all occupations today. Throughout this interesting and challenging journey for both men and women, there wasn’t a regularly featured female military perspective. Who knew that all we had to do was ask!

So here are the rules of engagement. This is an opinion column. We will respond to questions as factually as possible but, in the end, all opinions expressed here are ours. You, dear readers, are free to agree or disagree with our opinions, although hopefully not with the facts. We look forward to hearing from you. In fact, we’re hoping this column will be a conversation starter – with us, with your family and friends, with colleagues – about questions on women in the military that come up even 30 years on. 

Let’s talk about pregnancy, maternity leave (and parental/paternity leave) and the impact on operations. Let’s talk about female recruitment and retention specific issues. Let’s look at the buzzwords of the day, like diversity, intersectionality, gender equality and gender equity, and talk about their relevance (if any) to today’s military. 

What are the gender-related questions you have, but are afraid to ask in public? Some we’ve heard range from “Why do we still need Employment Equity?” to “How will we know when Op Honour has been successful?” We’ll do our best to answer them. We’ve been hearing these types of questions and concerns for a while now, sometimes as hallway muttering, so let’s have these conversations, even if they may be somewhat sensitive.

Well, it’s March and there is a “women’s history month” theme to this edition of Esprit de Corps, so let’s start the first “Let’s Talk “with a question we got from a friend. We look forward to your questions.

You asked: 

March 8th is International Women’s Day. Seriously. Why do we celebrate it? Aren’t women already equal? And speaking about equality – when’s “International Men’s Day”? 

We answer: 

Excellent questions. 

International Men’s Day is a real thing! It started in 1992 and is celebrated on November 19th in over 80 countries, including Canada (you didn’t know that did you, admit it). The day focuses on men’s health, improving gender relations, gender equality and promoting male role models. The first Canadian celebrations were in Vancouver in 2009, but it has been spreading across Canada since then. International Men’s Day is part of “Movember” – a worldwide moustache growing charity event held every November to raise funds and awareness for men’s health. The Aussies have put together a great website of information at InternationalMensDay.com. Check it
out.

International Women’s Day is on March 8th. We actually have Soviet Russia to thank for these celebrations. On March 8, 1917, women gained suffrage in Russia and celebrations were held annually thereafter. This Russian holiday was made an international holiday by the United Nations in 1975. The day is set aside not only to acknowledge women’s achievements but to focus on elimination of all discrimination against women including barriers to women’s full and equal participation in society. Some people encourage wearing of clothing in the colour purple for this day. See InternationalWomenDay.com as one source for more
information.  

The CAF has achieved so much in the last 30 years, with full integration and equal pay. Yet, there are still positions and ranks that women have not been appointed to. And there are still those who will greet the next breakthrough with the muttered comment, “Well, she only got that job/promotion because she is a woman.” That’s an example of why International Women’s Day is still important to the CAF. And did you know that it can still cost a woman more to be in the CAF than it does a man? We kid you not. It costs a woman more to dry clean a uniform, to get a haircut, and even to shower, shampoo and use antiperspirant, just to name a few items on the “pink tax slip” – but we can talk more about that in a future column.

Lost In The Shuffle

(Volume 26 Issue 2)

By Michael Nickerson

Justin Trudeau is having a bad month. He might end up having a bad year when all is said and done, but let us focus on his current woes. The smell of scandal, the sniff of hubris, and the stench of incompetence in the air has Team Justin™ starting to crack at the seams. The promises and commitments of only a few years ago now seem little more than lies and clichés. And the infighting has only just begun; good Canadian political theatre at its finest.

The New Year started with Scott Brison resigning as head of the Treasury Board, ostensibly to spend more time with his family. Whether accusations of meddling with the navy supply ship procurement on behalf of Irving Shipbuilding were a factor in his sudden exit is open to speculation, but with the trial of Vice Admiral Mark Norman coming this summer and Brison on the witness list, things are sure to get much more interesting before election time.

Regardless, his departure triggered a bit of a cabinet shuffle on a cold day in January. There were smiles and hugs all around as ministers got promoted, took on new portfolios, and generally made nice with their boss for being part of federal cabinet. Well, one assumes that was the idea anyway, but Jody Wilson-Raybould had other ideas.

Moved from the Justice portfolio to Veterans Affairs, Wilson-Raybould looked about as enthusiastic as an entrant in a live worm-eating contest. Despite the odd platitude about the importance of the ministry, it was clear the former attorney general was not pleased. 

 As we all now know, she didn’t even last a month before resigning under even more scandal-laden clouds than Brison, namely the potential prosecution of SNC-Lavalin and who might have pressured who to go easy on the ethics challenged engineering giant. And just about everyone, from opposition MPs to pundits, to disheartened and disenfranchised First Nations, have stepped up to the whipping post to take turns publicly flailing Trudeau for broken promises and abuse of trust. 

Which is hard to argue really so full speed ahead on that score. What should be very troubling to Canadian veterans, and current members of our armed forces who will inevitably join them, is the almost complete lack of outrage concerning the impact this will have on those who have risked their lives for this country. The revolving door of ministers at Veterans
Affairs, and the almost unanimous conclusion that being appointed to deal with the issues facing veterans is akin to being sent to a penalty box was made starkly clear by the public debate. The whole issue was lost in the shuffle, a footnote at best.

In short, my dear veterans, very few people actually care about you. Sure, they’ll say thanks once a year and name a highway after you, but let’s take stock of the reality. While successive governments have touted their commitment to Canadian veterans, they’ve spent most of their time fighting a return to full lifetime pensions, dragging veterans through the court system, and ignoring obvious problems with transition to private life identified decades ago. Far too many cases of homelessness and suicide continue to this day as a result. 

Much of this has to do with counting pennies and votes, doing the math, and prioritizing accordingly. And that sort of calculus makes it very clear Canadians don’t have the time or inclination to care about their veterans. It’s why being minister of Veterans Affairs is viewed as being either a stepping stone or an act of torture depending which direction on the ladder you’re heading. It’s why the plight of the veterans Jody Wilson-Raybould was supposed to serve was merely background noise to the whole fiasco that is Team Justin™.

I dare say it’s time to stop trusting your government, dear veteran, and start engaging your neighbours, friends, and communities; to raise awareness, to protest and make your voice heard amongst average Canadians instead of your tone-deaf MPs. That, or remain an afterthought.

A Gentleman's 'C'

(Volume 26-2)

By Vincent J. Curtis

Canada’s glacial fighter jet replacement project made a small advance over the last year. The problem is the advance is down the slope of Mount Mediocrity.

The French Dassault Rafale, withdrew from competition because of the requirement for interoperability with the USAF in the air defence of North America; and the matter of economic benefit to Canada. The possible third factor is that the Rafale is conceived more as a deep penetration fighter-bomber than an air superiority fighter.

There remains the following entrants: the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and Sweden’s Gripen E model. None are particularly inspiring.

The Boeing Super Hornet is probably the most sensible entrant of the group. With the United States Navy renewing its commitment to the Super-Hornet program, the RCAF wouldn’t be getting an orphan. Interoperability with the USAF is assured. Economic advantages to Canada will be met with increased work at Boeing’s facility in Western Canada. Finally, the transition from the Hornet to the Super Hornet should be the smoothest of all the entrants. The major impediment to acquiring it is the Liberal government’s spat with Boeing. Boeing accused Liberal favorite Bombardier of receiving unfair subsidies (gasp!), and blocked Bombardier exports to the US. In response, the Liberals cancelled a purchase of 18 Super Hornets that would have filled an RCAF capability gap. Instead, the government decided to acquire aging CF-18s from Crown Assets Disposal – Australia Division.

Which brings us to the Eurofighter Typhoon. A major player in the Eurofighter project is Boeing rival Airbus, who stepped in to save Bombardier from Boeing’s trade action. Airbus partnered with Bombardier to build the C-series passenger aircraft at Airbus’s Alabama facility, by-passing U.S. import rules. Economic benefit to Canada in a Eurofighter acquisition would be for Bombardier to assemble the aircraft from parts shipped from Europe. The problem with this aircraft is two-fold: it is extremely expensive, and it’s crippled by a part shortage. The German Luftwaffe has exactly four of 128 Typhoons flyable because it can’t replace a defensive electronics pod. Without the pod, the aircraft can’t carry out operational missions. Unlike America’s, the European supply chain is lacking in depth.

The Saab Gripen E model excites a lot of people, being Volvo’s take on Lockheed-Martin’s F-16. The problems are all those associated with a small, specialized supplier. The aircraft was designed to meet Sweden’s needs, and its future development will depend upon Sweden’s needs. The economic benefits to Canada remain an open question.

That leaves the F-35, which has been written about extensively in this space. The economic benefits to Canada are already settled if Canada purchases it. Its technical benefits are Gen 5 stealth and whiz-bang video-game technology. The problems are that it is expensive to buy and maintain. Its technology is unproven in actual combat. Finally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swore a blood-oath in 2015 not to buy the F-35 because the Harper Conservatives wanted it.

Three other aircraft not on the list would lift the competition out of mediocrity. The first is Lockheed-Martin’s F-16 V, which would be acquired in two variants: a clean interceptor and air-superiority dogfighter; and a fighter-bomber, for when Canada wants to bomb another third-world hell hole with impunity. The F-16 is inexpensive and cheap to maintain, which means lots of flying time for pilots.

Second, is the brand new F-15X. The USAF believes the Gen 4 F-15 will be front-line relevant beyond the 2050s.

Finally, as proposed here, the Mark 3 Avro Arrow, Canada’s aircraft for Canada’s needs. Russia recently flew two Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela. Only the big Arrow would have had the legs to intercept them over the Atlantic.

However, no career is threatened by opting for the conventional.

Schadenfreude

(Volume 26-2)

By Jim Scott

There are a lot of Canadians gleeful over the present travails of Prime Minister Trudeau with the expectation he will soon be gone. However, there’s a lot of money at stake here and the history of modern politics would caution there’s a lot more manoeuvring to be done before anybody changes residence.

The money of which I speak is not simply in the coffers of Quebec-based engineering giant SNC Lavalin. I won’t belabour the story here. To sum up: the corporation either did or did not lobby the Liberal government to obtain special treatment against being prosecuted for alleged bribery of the Libyan officials, and the PM either did or did not pressure his then Attorney General to apply this special treatment to the case. That Attorney General, the Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould went from that office to Veterans Affairs to backbench MP speaks volumes but does not, as they say on Parliament Hill, constitute prima facie evidence of a crime.

Neither has anything been established in the bizarre case of VAdm Mark Norman.
Accused of leaking Cabinet-level information in a town where even the leaks have leaks, he and his defence team are faced with a prosecution which is also the complainant. Since former Treasury Board Minister, the Hon. Scott Brison, has absconded town we are left with two explosive cases of alleged malfeasance leading directly back to the PMO but no high placed witnesses to testify. The Prime Minister repeats his talking points ad nauseum and seems to dig deeper holes while doing so. 

It has been pointed out that the Rt. Hon Stephen Harper had his share of legal difficulties while in office, as if that absolves the incumbent from his alleged misdeeds now. I’m not aware that PM Harper ever vacationed at a multi-million-dollar private residence of a friend, (who has dealings with the Canadian government), but he did have the inimitable Senator Mike Duffy. You will recall Sen. Duffy got into hot water over residing in Ottawa while claiming expenses for a place in Prince Edward Island which he nominally represented. The PMO kicker was that Harper’s Chief of Staff Nigel Wright, apparently tried to make good with the Canadian taxpayer by re-paying the funds. It blew up in their faces and Nigel did the honourable thing. On February 18, Trudeau’s chief Gerald Butts walked the plank, but it’s not clear if it was for bad talking points or a string of bad ideas.

So, while connected people in politics and business continue to cut deals with each other for the supposed benefit of the Canadian taxpayer, (i.e. “protect jobs!”), observers are left to wonder how much damage can be done to a politician’s reputation with an election looming. Which headline will the voting public recall as the polls open? 

Generally speaking, for three and a half years, most Canadians don’t give a crap about politics. Then, as the feeding frenzy mounts, 60 or 70% of them actually cast a ballot. Of those, as few as 40% decide who the PM is to be for another four years. Since one third of the seats are in the MTV region, (not the music station; Montreal-Toronto-Vancouver), Canada’s gets its own version of the Electoral College in reverse. The US system is in place to keep two or three populous states from deciding the election. In Canada, our seat distribution and riding boundaries are still subject to shameless gerrymandering and our “fly-over” country now encompasses the rest of us outside those three cities. Someone promised to change this, but he benefited from it once, and electoral reform went back on the dung heap.

 As a result, smart money knows it can blast out an emotional message at a key time and place and swing enough seats to change, or keep, a government. That becomes especially spooky given a report from Canada Decides, a group that claimed $6 million in foreign money influenced the 2015 election. One wonders where this money will appear this time and who will cash in.

Wrong Weight Class

(Volume 26-01)

By Michael Nickerson

Everyone loves an underdog. Think David beating Goliath, Rocky thrashing Apollo, you getting a tax refund from Canada Revenue. We all like to root for the horse with the long odds. Millions have been made promoting mismatches. But the trick is to make it believable. Mike Tyson versus your pet cat is just not going to sell. But if anyone actually managed to convince the paying public a duckling has a chance at savaging said cat on live pay-per-view, it’d be a license to print money.

Depending on how you play your cards, such a thing might also get you a seat on the UN Security Council, which seems to be the calculus going through the mind of Justin Trudeau these days. Let it never be said that Justin is not a promoter of the first order. Who else had Canadians believing First Nations would be drinking clean water, Canadians breathing clean air, and the middle class would be so busy and flush with money that they’d happily pay for it all. Admit it. He got you, didn’t he?

He also promoted the idea that Canada would be doffing a blue helmet and getting back to what it does best. I refer not to world championship cricket, because we’ve never been good at that. No sir, I speak of peacekeeping, good old Lester Pearson style UN peacekeeping that is, back when the cold war was young and the NHL still had six teams. We were the little country that could keep the peace, save the world, or as Justin himself recently promoted it at his surprise Christmas dinner for the troops in Mali, “punch above our weight class.”

Now, this is all well and good when you’re doing the promoting and not the punching, but still, it made for quite the show. There in the red corner wearing red and white trunks, weighing in with a small but newly equipped and mission ready force would be Canada, kicking butt, punching hard and high, taking prisoners and flashing peace signs. Let’s get ready to rumble!

Unfortunately for our men and women in uniform, that’s not special enough for Trudeau. No sir, let’s take that plucky middleweight of a force, tie its hands together, pull down its trunks, send the trainers home, and then ring the bell. In his zeal to please the UN, this is what he’s been doing. Our forces are under-equipped for any serious and lasting contribution to stabilizing efforts in Africa or elsewhere, and the foreign aid contributions and diplomatic effort is not commensurate with the hype.

The peacekeeping force in Mali is a fraction of what it was supposed to be, and will end after exactly one year and not a day longer, logistics and needs on the ground be damned. And we’ve done next to nothing toward helping other peacekeeping requests even when we had the resources to do so, most notably in providing police personnel for critical training (Trudeau promised 150 in the field, instead we sent 15). Not only that, the UN is desperate for female, francophone police personnel which would dovetail nicely with the Team Justin™ promise of more women involved in peacekeeping efforts. Now I know he wants to put on a show for the fans, but this is getting ridiculous.

So if you’re a member of the UN you have to start wondering if you’ve been taken for a ride. Looked good, sounded good, but something just doesn’t add up here; maybe best to put money on a contender with a little more meat on its bones for the big Security Council bout, like Ireland or Norway. People would pay to see that.

Of course the irony of all this is not about who is punching above their weight, but below it. There is no heavier weight class than being a majority government. There you can throw your weight around, do what you want, get things done, follow through on your promises. No, there’s nothing to stop you. Unless you put your guard down and never try. And then you’re just out classed.

Inglis Hi-Power 75 Years

Volume 26-1

By Vincent J. Curtis

As Esprit de Corps’ resident Colonel Blimp, an “old Cold War warhorse,” an archaic ‘death or glory type’, I’d like to put a good word for Canada’s old armaments makers. Specifically, John Inglis and Company.

You would be correct to associate John Inglis with Bren guns, of which it made some 186,000 examples during the Second World War. But it is also famous for the Inglis Hi-Power pistol, which the Canadian army adopted as its standard sidearm in 1944. These self-same handguns are now completing their 75th year of continuous service in the Canadian armament inventory.

The Inglis Hi-Power eclipses in duration of service the Colt M1911, which was the standard issue U.S. sidearm from 1911 to 1985, a total of 74 years. The M1911, another John Browning design, was manufactured for World War I, in the 1920s and 1930s, and then in another massive wave during World War II. None of the guns made in 1911 served all the way through to 1985. The handguns made by John Inglis and in service to this day were made between February 1944 and October 1945.

The Hi-Power was John Browning’s last design, and he did not live to complete it. Working with Fabrique Nationale, Browning sought to develop a pistol that would meet the requirements issued by the French military in the 1920s for a new pistol: a high capacity, semi-automatic in nine millimetre calibre and with a magazine disconnect safety device. Browning’s collaborator at FN was Dieudonné Saive who developed the double-stacked, single feed magazine that is now standard today in practically all modern high capacity pistols.
Browning looked to improve upon his M1911 design, and he had to get around the patents he had sold to Colt. The trigger mechanism in particular had to be changed, in part to incorporate the magazine disconnect mechanism.

Ultimately, the French didn’t buy, and it was the Belgian military that adopted the model in 1935. When the Nationalist Chinese government came to Canada shopping for Bren guns, they asked if Inglis could also make them the Browning Hi-Power which they bought directly from FN before 1940.  Canada’s lend-lease agency, the Mutual Aid Board, agreed to fund the purchase of 180,000, and Britain wanted an additional 50,000. With orders of this scale, Inglis set about to manufacture the Browning Hi-Power in Toronto. With the help of Saive, Inglis developed its own version built upon English measurements instead of metric.

Mass production began in February, 1944. The first allotment was sent to India for transshipment over “the Hump” but the logistical absurdity then became apparent. Besides this, at that point of the war, the Nationalist Chinese were more interested in fighting the Communists than the Japanese, and so the bulk of that Chinese order was cancelled. Canada had thousands of these handguns just sitting around and, with all this production capacity, the Canadian army decided to appropriate them for its own use The Inglis Hi-Power replaced the venerable Webley revolver in Canadian service in late 1944.

Eventually the Canadian army received nearly 60,000 Inglis Hi-Powers in the Chinese and No. 2 Mk 1 patterns. 

After the war, the Hi-Power became a de-facto military standard, and was adopted as a side-arm in about fifty countries. Most of these were made by FN in Belgium after the war. Today, the original Inglis Hi-Power remains in service in Canada and Taiwan. The Inglis tooling and dies were shipped to India’s Ishapore factory and were used to make side-arms for India.

After 75 years of continuous use in the Canadian military and with roughly 14,000 left in inventory, the Inglis Hi-Power is coming to the end of its useful life. FN ceased production in 2017. Fashions are changing. Given the newer materials of construction, it is unlikely that any of the possible replacements – “the plastic wonder 9s” – will serve as long as the all-steel Inglis Hi-Power.

Will the government surplus these old warhorses to the Canadian market place?

To Every Season Turn, Turn, Turn

Volume 26-1

By Jim Scott

Suffering through new year’s prognostications is as irritating as those “fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk” stories that news editors can’t resist when it gets hot in the summer. Every year, valuable air time is exhausted on evening news broadcasts for Talking Head A to say ‘such’, and Talking Head B to say ‘so’. Even well-informed experts can only offer guesses as to where our economy, weather or political circus is going to land next. Within a day, some unforeseen ‘bozo eruption’ can end a career, or send a trade dispute spiralling into a full-blown recession. 

I think it’s safe to predict that of all the predictions some will come true and some not. Or some combination of the two.

As poet Robbie Burns said: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley.” From gas and mining companies that thought they had spoken with everyone concerned, to senior bureaucrats who assumed a computer payroll could not go wrong, someone’s year is going to end up less hopeful than where it started. The safest bets are only a matter of better odds than worse, but there are no guarantees.

Mind you, outside of calendar publishers, why should we attach undue importance to the cycle of hours that end on December 31st and pick up again January 1st? Did something peculiar happen the night of December 31st 2018, (or 2017, 2016 etc.), that suddenly gave everyone a re-set? If you were bad or good in 2018, were you better or worse after the ball dropped in Times Square? As Aristotle explained, good people are those who do good deeds consistently, not just once. Every day requires that we consciously pursue the noble goal of being generous, magnanimous, helpful and even-tempered. 

When we were in school, the cycle of the year included the anxiety and misery of September and the joy of June’s release. As an adult, the weekly cycle appoints Monday to be the day for glum resignation and Friday for downing tools and heading home for a break. We break our days into cycles of activity with a lull around noon for lunch and then renewed efforts to clear up files before heading home. Seems like an odd way to run a $2 trillion economy.

Of course, independent of our designations and our enemy the clock telling us what time it supposedly is, Earth has its own cycle of swinging slightly closer and slightly farther from the Sun as its axis points one hemisphere and then the other toward that vital heat source. Without our help, a year does go by as does each individual day, and we notice our daylight hours change in duration. We all know that a hundred years ago, concerned authorities came up with the notion that they could alter the face of the clock to say it was 6:00 a.m. one morning, but precisely 24 hours later it would not be 6:00 a.m. but 5:00 a.m. Voila! Daylight has been saved! Now farmworkers can use the “extra” hour of daylight to keep producing for the war effort. Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, the clock had come to master every person’s day, and now the government sought to master the clock!

On a recent episode of the comedy “Veep”, idiot congressmen Jonah Ryan and his “Jeffersons” congressional caucus, shut down the US government by voting against raising the debt ceiling. One of Jonah’s favorite whipping posts is Daylight Savings Time but his colleagues are bought off before he can use his imaginary leverage to get rid of the old relic. 

As we all know, much more serious issues are used to bring the US government to halt, but if any of the real-life buffoons over there are listening, I would encourage them to resolve their security issues quickly, and while they’re at it, join my friends in Saskatchewan and get rid of that damn DST!

Of Monstrous Hybrids

(Volume 25 Issue 9)

By Jim Scott

In her 1992 book Systems of Survival, Jane Jacobs described the opposing impulses that inform the activities of government and commerce. The warriors and bureaucrats who learn to lord over others, have a ‘Guardian’ class moral syndrome that includes “Respect hierarchy”, “Be obedient and disciplined”, “Dispense largesse” and “Deceive for the sake of the task”. Diametrically opposed are the moral imperatives of the ‘Commercial’ class: “Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens”, Use initiative and enterprise”, “Be efficient” and “Dissent for the sake of the task.” In a short column I cannot do justice to the depth of the philosophical cogitations that comprise the book, but it will serve to illustrate.

These are tendencies, not hard and fast rules, but if one were to pursue a career in business one would be expected to lean toward open, honest negotiation to the mutual benefit of parties to any agreement. In order for commerce to flourish, these parties, even having met two minutes prior, must have a reasonable expectation that a good or service will be exchanged as agreed upon. If politics or public service is the choice, then in short order our up-and-coming public servant will immediately begin to close ranks, hold information dear, connive and conspire and measure success based on what higher level of authority can be exercised over others.

Human activity is a messy business and all societies have elements from both. There are those who run businesses like fiefdoms and bureaucrats capable of reaching out to create worthy programmes. It is not that our pursuits should be hived off and kept ‘pure’, but that everyone has a stake in examining, questioning and demanding accountability from merchants and politicians. A wide variety of opinions and an open mind toward innovative approaches should be ingrained in public discourse.

On the contrary, we seem at present to be sliding into yet another period where the elected and electors alike cheer on the suggestion we can ‘get stuff done’ if we just trample over the process and shove the so-called solution down everybody’s throat. No political party has a corner on this. Trudeau, while “dispensing largesse”, insists everyone endorse abortion or be excluded from the taxpayer’s trough. Ontario’s Premier Ford, using his office as a hammer, will cut down Toronto’s bloated city council, a court’s ruling notwithstanding. The American president, supposedly business-oriented, pushes allies and enemies alike and uses uncertainty as a policy.
Like his predecessors, he uses executive orders in place of having Congress actually deal with issues. (Mind you, this is a Congress populated by millionaires who have closed ranks on their own self-interest).

These individuals do this because they believe they are right. At any given time, half the population agrees with them. Those that don’t resort to ever more shrill theatrics in order to halt anything from going forward.

There are innumerable examples of guardians interfering in commerce, and commercial giants hoping to impose their will on others. Citizen/taxpayers become so accustomed to being told what’s good for them they forget to ask: “Perhaps, but mightn’t such-and-such be better?” 

At least commerce continues to offer up solutions. Don’t like Canada Post? Ship UPS. No longer a fan of Molson-Coors? Yet another micro-brewery just opened up. It isn’t a ‘free market’ of course. Business proposes, (UBER, Amazon, Walmart), government disposes, (LCBO still rules Ontario’s booze industry. Why?). Slowly, and by no means certainly, people push the agenda toward more commerce and less guardianship. Or sadly, toward more tyranny and less choice and responsibility.

Madam Jacob’s central character concludes: “Some other civilising agent must therefore be necessary…the guardian-commercial symbiosis that combats force, fraud and unconscionable greed in commercial life – and simultaneously impels guardians to respect private plans, private property, and personal rights.” 

Beware the tyrant who asks you what you want. Regard the leader who asks you what you need.

Justin And His Jitters

(Volume 25-08)

By Michael Nickerson

I fear for Justin Trudeau. Well meaning, good looking, even has a few inspiring ideas, to say nothing of his pedigree. How can the man go wrong? The last few years he’s been like a rock star on an extended world tour, wowing the fans, making friends, posing for selfies. But the act seems to be growing a little thin. Stood up here, insulted there; the proverbial prom king is starting to look like an ineffectual nerd with a case of the yips. 

He’s had a bad run of late. There was the fashion trip to India, the presidential snub while hosting the G7, provincial backlash over his environmental endeavours with carbon taxes and pipeline purchases, and the decades-old revelation that his feminist credentials aren’t as impeccable as we all thought. Now thankfully for Justin and his team most of this is happening over the summer months when the electorate is about as engaged as a sun-soaked cat. But you’d think if you were gifted a winning hand on a silver platter you’d take it with both hands and run with it.

Well three cheers for Mohammed bin Salman! Whether you need airstrikes on children, or the kidnapping of a particularly troublesome prime minister, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is there for you. Heck, he’ll even embargo a country if need be. Nothing’s too crazy or unpredictable for the young prince. He might even let you drive a car!

But for Justin Trudeau, he pulled out all the stops with a complete hissy fit over a rather mild rebuke about the arrest of two Saudi citizens who had the unmitigated gall to suggest all is not perfect with the House of Saud. The response has been quite breathtaking: The cancellation of all Saudi Arabian Airline flights to Canada, the recall of some 15,000 Saudi university students, and a ban on all new trade agreements. Take that!

Of course they’ll still sell us their oil, which accounts for some 10 percent of Canada’s imports, and presumably they will still want their $15 billion in light-armored (though not so lightly gunned) vehicles, because the House of Saud likes their toys, especially ones that go bang. Turning oil into weaponry continues to be a favourite pastime there.

Now, in theory, that shouldn’t be much of a pastime here, especially when it comes to a regime rather antithetical to the Canadian values Trudeau has been preaching since taking the helm of the good ship Canada. The latest images of bloodied children and corpses in an ongoing war that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Yemen have many Canadians scratching their heads about why we are helping a nation responsible for such atrocities.

Of course this has been an issue for some time for Team Justin™ and its dogged adherence to fulfilling a Harper era deal to sell the Saudi’s weapons while turning a rhetorical nose up at what they tend to do with them. A disconnect between words and action seems to be a growing theme with Justin and his government. The word hypocrisy comes to mind, but let’s not be harsh. Perhaps it’s just a case of the jitters.

Which makes the gift from the Crown Prince so timely! In this trade-war happy, tit-for-tat age it would be hard to blame Justin for finally ridding himself of this moral albatross bequeathed him by his good pal Stephen. Stand up to the bully and make those words count! Fight the power! Make Canada great again!

Well let’s not get carried away. But put simply, the LAV deal should have never been made and violates trade rules we supposedly hold dear. That the government has hummed and hawed over the deal and hoped people might stop caring is an embarrassment, and it’s also a trend. With little more than a year to the next election, it’s time for Trudeau to do more than espouse high minded ideals and act on them, and this issue would be a great place to start. Just be sure to thank the Crown Prince when
you do.

What Ulster Protestants Know About Terrorism

(Volume 25-08)

By Joe Fernandez

Every July, the Protestants of Ulster celebrate the First Day of the Somme on 1 July, as well as the Glorious Twelfth in commemoration of their 1690 liberation from the tyrannical Catholic fanaticism of James II by William III, Prince of Orange. This year, the Protestant minority community in Londonderry was subjected to repeated petrol bomb attacks by Catholic fanatics who view them as apostates, just as ISIS does with Shia Muslims. The reaction of Ulster Protestants to these depredations can teach Canadians a lot about facing ongoing terrorist situations, such as Alek Minassian and the enhanced Toronto Police presence of 12 July 2018.

Some background is necessary. Until the dawn of the twentieth century, the island of Ireland was British. Just before the First World War, politicians cosseted at Westminster toyed with the idea of withdrawing from Ireland. The Protestants of Ulster, enjoying the freedom of religion guaranteed them by the Resettlement Act of 1690 (from which, incidentally, large portions of the US Bill of Rights are cribbed wholesale), did not want to live under the Vatican. Led by Sir Edward Carson
(a distant relation of mine, in the interests of disclosure), they rejected ‘home rule’. 

In the Ulster Crisis: Resistance to Home Rule 1912-14, A.T.Q. Stewart reported that Canada’s Minister of Militia and Defence, Sam Hughes, offered to raise a contingent to help Sir Edward fight Rome Rule. The First World War intervened and Sir Edward’s Ulster Volunteers put on khaki as the 36th (Ulster) Division, many dying at the Somme on 1, July 1916, while the Catholics stabbed Britain in the back that Easter when Sir Roger Casement and Erskine Childers colluded with Germany.

After 1922, two nations emerged on the island of Ireland, the Catholic Irish Free State—which, according to Padraig O’Malley’s The Uncivil Wars, swiftly ethnically cleansed its Protestant population from 10% to 2%—and Ulster, which, as part of the United Kingdom, preserved the right to religious liberty won by King William in 1690.

Then came the 1960’s. With no sense of irony, given how they had lynched blacks in the New York Draft riots of 1863, and given how their American leader Louise Day Hicks was calling for racial segregation in Boston, Irish Catholic irredentists exploited the image of Martin Luther King to push their Anschluss agenda under the guise of “civil rights.” Protestants and the police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), saw right through this and fought back. The result was the 1969-2004 Operation Banner wherein mainland British units, the RUC and the locally raised Ulster Defence Regiment fought Sinn Fein/IRA (SF/IRA) bombers as well as hardline loyalist paramilitaries.

By 1993-1994, the tide had conclusively turned against SF/IRA. In these years, they killed fewer people than did the combination of the security forces and the loyalist paramilitaries, leading to SF/IRA’s August 1994 “ceasefire,” the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and the winding down of Operation Banner in 2004. Public elements of SF/IRA became elected officials in government, however, it did not mean they stopped being terrorists. They simply stopped operating outside of Ulster. In 2016, they murdered Prison Officer Adrian Ismay, taxi driver Michael McGibbon and deliveryman Dan Murray.

Ulster Protestants born after, or shortly before, 1969, in other words, have lived under the threat of terrorism all their lives. This did not stop them from living and did not convert them into Bill O’Reilly-style fanatics. Colonel Tim Collins’ Rules of Engagement, Captain Doug Beattie’s An Ordinary Soldier and Colour Sergeant Trevor Coult’s First Into Sangin detail how the Protestants of the Royal Irish Regiment (the successor of the Ulster Defence Regiment) fought in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. But Ulster Protestants merely supported, as opposed to instigated Britain’s entry into Iraq. Many Ulster Protestants supporters’ social media feeds often condemning Tony Blair as a war criminal for Iraq, as well as for giving cover to SF/IRA the same way Donald Trump is friends with SF/IRA’s Gerry Adams.

Canada's Leadership In NATO

By Vincent J. Curtis

Before the July 10-11 NATO conference, Prime Minister Justine Trudeau let it be known that Canada planned to “extend its leadership” in Latvia for several more years. He would “deliver a strong message of solidarity” during a visit to that country.

Before the announcement, Canada was scheduled to end its commitment of 450 troops in Latvia in the spring of 2019. The new commitment will see a presence of 540 troops until at least 2023.

Presently, Canada spends 134 million dollars per year on the Latvian deployment. For that much dough, it is fair to ask: how many thousand medium- and heavy-machine guns have been sent to Latvia? How many thousand medium and heavy anti-tank weapons? How many hundreds of guns? What about air defence against helicopters and fast-movers? 

Has ammunition sufficient to sustain thirty days of heavy, continuous battle been stockpiled? How many battle positions have been surveyed, roughed in, and camouflaged? How much digging has been done to harden Latvia’s defenses from a surprise bolt from the blue?

Has serious war-gaming of a Russian invasion taken place?

Those are some of the measures that take the Russian imperial threat seriously. Instead we see Canada contributing half a battalion to a “battle group” that includes soldiers from Albania, Slovakia, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the Czech Republic. The best will in the world couldn’t hold together a “battle group” so composed that was under serious onslaught. 

We see press releases that speak of the creation of a ‘divisional’ headquarters for the three NATO “battle groups” operating in the three Baltic States. It is supposed to be established in Riga, the capital of Latvia; and Canada’s contribution would be of staff officers.

It’s great that NATO would deploy a forward divisional headquarters, except that it quickly will morph from a tactical entity to a political-bureaucratic assemblage, like NATO headquarters itself, or some UN peacekeeping mission HQ. Latvia would be crazy to subordinate its national defence to a NATO forward headquarters that would have to ask the permission of main NATO HQ to fire back. It is quite possible that in the midst of confusion, NATO will wait long enough for serious, tactically devastating, inroads to have occurred in Latvia before issuing the order to resist.

With the drive to bureaucratize NATO’s commitment to the Baltic States, the effort takes on the appearance of a UN peacekeeping mission, which tries to crush the problem under the weight of time and bureaucratic processes. This presents cobwebs against a real onslaught. Peacekeeping missions work when each antagonist lacks the strength to overwhelm the other, and both sides are looking for a face-saving way out of a trial of strength – like Sinai from 1956 to 1967, or Cyprus from 1964 to the present. In Afghanistan, the Taliban lack the power to overwhelm tiny ISAF, and they aren’t winning the endurance battle either.

Russia, however, is a powerful country, and it would be easy for her, at a time of her choosing, to project her military strength against the weak Baltic States. That she has not yet is due to the decisions made by President Vladimir Putin, who isn’t going to risk his prestige on anything less than a sure thing.

Building up NATO’s combat power generally is one form of deterrence against attack. Granting Russia and Putin the prestige he thinks they deserve could be another, indirect, form, and that explains why Trump met with Putin in Helsinki right after castigating NATO countries about inadequate spending.

The NATO effort in the Baltics cannot crush a problem under the weight of bureaucracy. Its purpose must be to decline battle – by turning the Baltic States into such tough and time-consuming nut to crack that their defences won’t be tested. A real sign of leadership by Canada in the Baltics would be to demand more firepower and less bureaucracy.

Home-Duty Conscription As A Tool To Battle Societal Malaise

(Volume 25 Issue 7)

By Joe Fernandez

On 23, April 2018, ten people were killed by a man who ploughed through a Toronto crowd with a rental truck. The suspect, Alek Minassian, is reported to be a member of Incel, an online extremist group that promotes hatred of women and immigrants. 

On the surface, suspect Minassian more closely resembles the recently convicted Québec Mosque mass-murderer Alexandre Bissonette. That the causes and ideologies they acted in the name of are polar opposites is merely a difference in branding. Minassian and Bissonnette are young men who turned to the Internet because they felt unconnected to, and alienated from, mainstream society. In this regard, they resemble Anders Breivik and the Kouachi brothers who carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacres.

With the exception of suspect Minassian, there is one other thing all of these men have in common. Not a one of them did military service. Suspect Minassian volunteered for the Canadian Armed Forces, but did not make it past the selection phase. This suggests a tool to combat the isolation and social malaise that caused these men to do with they did.

That tool is to reintroduce conscription for home duty, a tool which can be multi-use, and can be implemented using infrastructure in place, as well as the examples of Ulster and France.

Canada already has the Royal Canadian Army, Sea and Air Cadets, which take on recruits at the age of 12 years. Making service in the Cadets mandatory, (the choice of branch being left to the individual), offers the possibility of drilling into Canadian teenagers a discipline that is not uniformly standardised across Canadian households. Such discipline would emphasise service to Country before self, thereby counteracting the impulse to indulge in self-pity and to run away to the Internet in the face of adversity. Such discipline would also assist the education process in encouraging conscripted Cadets to pay attention to their teachers just as they would to their NCO’s. This latter effect could counter drop-out rates, and would also be transferable to successful college and university experiences for Cadets, being conducive to them earning their diplomas and degrees, as opposed to allowing them to perceive higher education overwhelmingly as a vehicle for Spring Break. 

Teaching Canadian adolescents the concept of service to Country before self, and reinforcing this concept on a regular basis, would not only counteract the instinct to become self-indulgent, but also teach them they are part of the greater Canadian community; instilling in them a duty to protect and assist that community, rather than harm it because of their own personal frustrations.

Learning is a lifelong process, and if learning is based on membership within an institution, there is the risk that skills, such as discipline, will degrade once an individual leaves that institution. This is plausibly a reason why some Canadian Veterans have problems adjusting to the entirely undisciplined civilian world. Furthermore, Canadians cannot remain Cadets forever. 

Ulster and France offer answers to this stage of the problem. From 1969 to 1992, Ulster had the locally raised eleven battalion Ulster Defence Regiment to help protect the community from Sinn Fein/IRA. Since December 1944, France has had the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité as a reserve and back-up force for the French National Police. The UDR provided extra manpower to the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army and carried out patrols in certain areas, as did and do the CRS. Unlike the regular British Army, the UDR was meant strictly for home use and never deployed on foreign adventures. While there are some CRS personnel who serve in France’s embassies, the vast majority of its 13,000 members and 60 companies serve within France herself.

Canada could easily repurpose some companies of its forty-nine Reserve infantry Regiments as entirely conscript Home-Service Companies tasked with continuing the discipline of the Cadets and with police backup along the UDR/CRS line, reinforcing the ethos of community over self-indulgence.