Jody Thomas and Mike Day Have Something to Say

DND Deputy Minister Jody Thomas, now retired, has been speaking out (US DoD photo)

By Tim Ryan and Newell Durnbrooke

You have to give former National Defence deputy minister Jody Thomas credit. At times she appears to be the master of distancing herself from the decisions or issues that previously took place under her watch.

Take for instance, the F-35 purchase. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government wanted to buy 65 of the U.S.-built stealth fighters in 2011.

Then, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau increased that number to 88 jets. That 88 figure was recommended to the Liberal government by the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces as the right amount of fighter jets needed by Canada.

But on April 1, 2025, Thomas was questioning whether 88 was indeed the right number of aircraft to purchase. “Eighty-eight doesn't allow for attrition,” she said in an interview with CBC’s The Current. “It doesn't allow for multiple deployments at the same time. And so I think that it is time to look at capability requirements and truly what needs to be purchased to meet those and meet our international and domestic commitments.”

You don’t say. But who was Deputy Minister of the Department of National Defence between October 2017 and January 2022 when the fighter jet purchase was conceived and presented to the Trudeau government? Well…come on down Jody Thomas.

The same CBC interview contains some choice comments from Thomas about the need for Canadian companies to have more of a role in providing equipment to the country’s military.

This debate largely stems from the issue of the U.S. control over systems being installed on the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) ships.

But this isn’t a new issue.

The Ottawa Citizen reported in December 2020 that Canadian defence industry officials had previously warned Thomas and Bill Matthews, then deputy minister at the procurement department, about the potential dangers of U.S.-controlled technology and the lack of Canadian content onboard the CSCs.

Officials with various firms had been complaining to politicians and media outlets that the Canadian Surface Combatant project had fallen far short on its promises of creating domestic employment. There was little work for Canadian firms, besides the politically-connected Irving shipbuilding.

But Thomas told the executives they were hindering the project and she characterized their efforts as being those of sore losers. “I think there’s still too much noise from unsuccessful bidders that makes my job and Bill’s job very difficult,” she said, referring to Matthews, deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada.

Interestingly, that the now retired Thomas seems to have a different view. During the interview on CBC’s The Current, Thomas stated that more emphasis should be placed on buying Canadian systems, instead of American equipment. “We obviously need to be interoperable with the United States,” she said. “NATO is interoperable with the United States, but we don't need to be quite as integrated as we are.”

“I also think we need to see where we're going to invest in Canadian capacity in Canadian industry,” she added in her CBC interview. “We're never going to have the defence industrial base that the United States has, but we do have some niche areas where we are really, really technically advanced, and I think that's where we should be investing in Canadian technology and anywhere where we can see an opportunity to accelerate existing programs.”

Retired Lt. Gen. Mike Day has accused CBC of “teribble (sic) reporting.” (Esprit de Corps file photo)

Retired Lt.-Gen. Mike Day continued his attacks on the CBC but at least this time he didn’t go after the corporation’s defence journalist Murray Brewster (as he has in the past). For his latest on X, the social media platform, Day jumped into the issue of the ongoing debate on whether to continue funding the CBC. (Most Canadians support funding the CBC…right wing types don’t). Day noted in an April 6, 2025 tweet that Canada benefits from government support of the public broadcaster. But then he added: “The CBC provides absolutely teribble (sic) reporting.”

Day’s latest foray into media slamming was reminiscent of his April 9, 2024 comments on X, again about the CBC. “Gvmnt funded CBC has 0 coverage of the Def Pol UPdt.”

Day’s claim was inaccurate, as the CBC had indeed been covering the Defence Policy Update with a variety of reports.

Retired Col. Brett Boudreau, who had senior positions in the Canadian Forces public affairs branch, responded to Day’s comment with this view: “An unfounded and unreasonable take that panders to the CBC haters.”

Boudreau pointed out that if Day needed a “whipping boy” for the lack of perspective and explanation of defence policy since April 2022, then the retired general only had to look at the Canadian Forces and his fellow senior officers who have remained silent for years and have said little in public.

CBC journalist Murray Brewster also responded to Day, pointing out the broadcaster’s “wall to wall coverage.”

Who knows what motivates Day, the former head of Canadian special forces. But some have suggested he is still smarting from the media coverage about the military police investigation into allegations of special forces wrongdoing in Afghanistan.

That investigation looked into allegations that unarmed Afghans were executed by members of Joint Task Force Two during the Afghanistan war and that special forces officers tried to cover that up. The case also involved additional allegations of wrongdoing by Canadian special forces…all of these allegations coming from a former member of JTF2.

CBC first broke the story in 2010 and in October 2024 reported on new details that the former JTF2 soldier is now suing the federal government. Day has been named in the lawsuit.

The CBC reported that the JTF2 soldier, Claude Lepage, is claiming he was shunned by JTF2 and pushed out of the military after he denounced Canadian troops' alleged involvement in the killing of unarmed people in Afghanistan. The lawsuit contains a number of details about attacks on Afghan civilians.

In response to CBC News questions, Day wrote that the allegations that led to the military police investigation known as Sand Trap have been "consistently refuted" and that airing them has a "direct impact on the well-being of those accused and exonerated of these acts."

"They have repeatedly been proven innocent," he wrote, "and yet once again they will be the victims of media attention that will doubtless dwell on the salaciousness of the fictitious events."

It should be interesting to see what comes out of this lawsuit….or whether federal government secrecy rules over special forces operations prevent any information from being made public in court by Claude Lepage.

Canadian general who advised giving Trump what he wanted joins right wing think tank

Retired Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie (US DoD photo)

By Tim Ryan

Retired Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie has a new gig….he joins the stable of “senior fellows” at the right-wing think tank, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Leslie, the former Canadian Army commander, has had quite a journey over the last decade plus.

In 2013 he was a staunch Liberal and supporter of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

“My name’s Andy and I’m a Liberal,” Leslie boasted at the time. “I wanted a leader I could follow heart and soul,” he said pointing at Trudeau during a rally.

It seemed to be love at first sight. "This is the guy I've chosen to follow in terms of a vision for Canada,” Leslie stated.

The retired lieutenant general was a loyal soldier to the Liberal government but after he was passed over for a cabinet position Leslie eventually soured on his good friend Justin Trudeau.

Since leaving politics, Leslie has repeatedly taken aim at his former party. (Some veterans, however, have criticized Leslie, questioning why he was silent when his former party screwed over military personnel and the Canadian Forces).

These days, Leslie is in good graces with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s team. Recently Conservative defence critic James Bezan promoted Leslie’s appearance before a parliamentary committee, calling it a “scathing assessment of Trudeau’s mismanagement.”

But Leslie also took a lot of flak for his Feb. 19, 2025 social media comments which were seen as supporting U.S. President Donald Trump and the American campaign against Canada. Leslie took to X to question why Canada was not fixing “the things that are causing US angst?” He included border security, defence and the trade imbalance in that list. “It’s not that hard,” Leslie claimed.

You can read about that here:

https://www.espritdecorps.ca/feature/trumps-threats-divides-ranks-of-retired-canadian-military-officers

Leslie’s comments prompted Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne to question why Canada should give into Trump’s threats: “Why are ex-military guys counselling surrender?” Coyne asked on X.,

That was followed by almost 500 comments from the public about Leslie’s post, many not complimentary towards the retired lieutenant general.

It’s not surprising to some that Leslie would join the fold of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. The institute has been funded by Trump allies. That includes money from the Charles Koch Foundation (Koch, a billionaire is a key Republican financier). On Jan. 27, 2025 the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that Charles Koch had put $20 million in a war chest to support Trump cutting taxes for the rich and rolling back regulations hindering Trump-aligned companies

You can read about those links here:

https://www.espritdecorps.ca/media-watch/bill-blair-caught-misleading-journalists-on-arctic-project

RMC’s Howard Coombs slams gov’t for failure to deal with Trump

RMC’s Howard Coombs (in Canadian uniform) doesn’t think much of the government’s efforts to battle Trump (US DoD photo)

By Tim Ryan

Royal Military College associate professor Howard Coombs has been getting a lot of press lately for some of his views on how Canadians would react to a U.S. invasion.

Such nightmare scenarios have become fodder for news media reports ever since U.S. President Donald Trump started his bully talk about annexing Canada.

Coombs, director of the Queen's Centre for International and Defence Policy, doesn’t think too highly of his fellow citizens, figuring that they love the good life too much to cobble together some kind of insurgency against American invaders.

He told CBC’s Front Burner in a Feb. 18 podcast he expects Canadian collaborators to run a Vichy-type of government for the Americans.

And Coombs didn’t hold back about what he thought about the Liberal government’s efforts to deal with Trump. “Honestly, we are in a state of disarray right now,” he told the CBC. “Our government is not effectively reacting.” In terms of central resistance on an economic front, it didn’t seem like anything was happening, he added.

Coombs was again being interviewed on a potential U.S. invasion in late March. In a March 30 Canadian Press news service article, Coombs claimed that the U.S. military would try to limit the amount of destruction and death aimed at Canada to prevent creating a disaffected population. Coombs, who served with American troops and was a Canadian advisor in Afghanistan, claimed such a strategy was successful in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Really?

The U.S. military’s indiscriminate use of firepower in both countries significantly contributed to the rise of an effective insurgency against the Americans. Increasing civilian deaths in Afghanistan as a result of U.S. and NATO firepower helped strengthen the Taliban.

Approximately 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed during the U.S. occupation, with a significant number caused by trigger-happy American troops.

Bill Blair Caught Misleading Journalists On Arctic Project

(left to right) Defence Minister Bill Blair (U.S. DOD PHOTO), Richard Shimooka (MACDONALD-LAURIER INSTITUTE PHOTO), Former Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier

By Newell Durnbrooke

Can politicians be trusted to tell the truth? Many Canadians would likely say ‘no’ to that question. Politicians spin information to their advantage in trying to sell the public on their narrative.

It often is left up to the news media to call them out on their fibs and spin.

And boy did that happen in spades with Defence Minister Bill Blair.

Blair was in was in Iqaluit March 6 to announce that the government was going ahead with developing what was being called northern support hubs. The first of these hubs would be located in Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Inuvik, N.W.T., Blair said.

Blair claimed the government was investing $2.67 billion into the project. Originally the budget had already been publicly released as $218 million.

It took some excellent probing by a journalist with Cabin Radio, a top notch news media outlet based in the north, to undercover the ruse. Here is how Cabin Radio described the situation:

“Asked by Cabin Radio about the $218 million and the smaller figure for the next five years, Blair replied: “I’ll be announcing a substantially increased investment in the northern operational support hubs today. It’s about $2.67 billion and it’s our intent to move quickly so that could be done over the next five years.” When the interviewer, repeating back Blair’s answer, said that would mean more than a ten-fold increase in funding, Blair said his government had “come to the realization that there’s a huge opportunity and also a requirement to invest in the North.”

He added: “Last year, before we issued our defence policy update, there was very tepid support for additional defence spending among Canadians. But their world has changed, and Canadians are now insisting that we make investments.”

Later, at a press conference, a Radio-Canada reporter asked Blair: “Last year, you announced $218 million for this infrastructure. Today, it’s $2.67 billion. I was curious what motivated this increase?”

“Conversations that we’ve had with our partners in the North and with the Canadian Armed Forces,” Blair responded.

But it was all a scam. There is no new money, as the Department of National Defence admitted later. It was all about using a different accounting procedure to give the impression there was new money.

Blair was caught out but sadly he has not apologized for trying to mislead reporters.

There were also some other suspicious aspects of this announcement. Neither Blair nor the Department of National Defence/Canadian Forces could provide details about where the other hubs would be located or a timeline for when these hubs would be built.

The whole event came off as a public relations exercise…false claims and few details to give the appearance that the Liberal government was actually doing something about Arctic sovereignty when it really wasn’t. It still remains unknown whether these hubs will be ever built.

But the whole episode shows the value of a news media that is knowledgeable about the issues it covers and is not scared to push back against politicians. It also indicates that journalists should carefully examine in the future all statements coming from Bill Blair and closely look to see whether they are truthful or not.

The F-35 debacle continues to get a lot of media coverage in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney told journalists March 17 at a news conference in London, England that Canada is looking for another option to the F-35 stealth fighter jet. Discussions have already happened with the French and British on potential replacement aircraft and whether they can be built in Canada.

The reason of course is the increasing belligerent U.S. and the fact that the Lockheed Martin F-35 is entirely controlled by the U.S. as well as that American defence company. That, as some analysts, have pointed out is a strategic vulnerability for Canada.

But not all analysts are supportive of the government’s decision to look at other potential options to the F-35. In a March 18 article on the Global News website, Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, had harsh words for those who are putting Canadian patriotism ahead of collective North American defence.

“Grow up,” said Shimooka. “This is cutting off our nose to spite our face.”

Shimooka suggested U.S. President Donald Trump would never use U.S. control over the F-35 against Canada.

Has Shimooka been living under rock? He is angered by Canadians who put their love for their country ahead of the defence of North America? Has Shimooka not been reading the news about where Trump appears fixated on annexing Canada and destroying our economy? Hundreds of thousands of Canadians could be facing unemployment because of Trump’s threat and Shimooka is only concerned about whether we can protect the Americans?

Also, strangely absent from the Global News story written by Sean Boynton are the details about who funds the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. The right wing think tank where Shimooka is a senior fellow is funded by the Charles Koch Foundation (Koch, a billionaire is a key Republican financier). On Jan. 27, 2025 the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that Charles Koch had put $20 million in a war chest to support Trump cutting taxes for the rich and rolling back regulations hindering Trump-aligned companies. Boynton also didn’t report in his article that the Macdonald-Laurier Institute has received money from Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-35.

The same Global News article also had this doozy from Conservative defence critic James Bezan. Bezan accused the Liberals of playing politics with the process to replace the CF-18s, saying the Royal Canadian Air Force “should have had new fighter jets by now.”

That’s pretty rich considering that Bezan was part of the Stephen Harper government which originally ordered the F-35 and then backtracked and put the acquisition on hold. None of that detail is included in the Boynton article.

Are Canadians boycotting travel to the U.S.? Not according to former Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier.

On March 8, Hillier retweeted the claim that there is no boycott by Canadians of U.S. travel or any cancellations of such trips. It’s all just fearmongering by the Liberals, or so it was claimed.

Hillier took to social media on March 13 to claim that U.S. customs clearance lines in Ottawa and Toronto were jammed packed with Canadians heading to the U.S.

Sure Rick….On March 16, 17, and 18th, U.S. and Canadian news outlets carried the real story – Canadians were cancelling their American vacations and trips in February to U.S. were down by 500,000 such visits.

Hillier hasn’t been shy about showing support for the U.S. He went on X Feb. 15 to complain about Canada and throw his weight behind Trump supporter Kevin O’Leary’s proposal for a common dollar, integrated border and immigration requirements and common economic approaches with the U.S.

The response by Canadians on social media to the retired general has been less than kind. Some have called him a traitor while others say he should just move to the U.S. since he seems to like it down there so much.

James Bezan blasted by Canadian veterans who remember Conservative betrayal

By Tim Ryan

 Conservative MP James Bezan was on X on Jan. 10 going after the Trudeau Liberals about their record on defence spending and support for the Canadian Forces.

“The Trudeau Liberals have destroyed our military,” Bezan tweeted.

It is probably safe to say Bezan didn’t expect the blowback from Canadian Forces veterans that came next.

There were a couple of hundred comments pointing out how Bezan and the Harper Conservatives were far worse when it came to the Canadian Forces as well as the treatment of veterans.

Bezan was blasted by the commentators as a liar who was part of the Harper government which not only went after veterans but made significant cuts to the Canadian Forces. (Bezan was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in September 2013 as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.)

Readers may recall the Conservative government’s court action in which $700,000 was spent to ensure the Harper administration was under no obligation to provide veterans with any special treatment. Pensions as well as veterans programs were cut.

And who can forget Harper minister Julian Fantino’s insults to a delegation of veterans as well as cutting jobs at veterans affairs. Bezan was silent throughout all of this, seen by a number in the defence community as failing to support veterans and the Canadian Forces.

Harper also ignored the NATO spending guideline despite signing on to the initiative in 2014. Instead, the Conservatives instituted significant cuts to the Canadian Forces budget. At the time, journalist Murray Brewster reported that involved $2.5 billion in cuts. In addition, the Harper government postponed $3.1-billion in capital spending on equipment, Brewster reported.

Interestingly, Bezan in his tweet was citing a March 18, 2024 article Jack Granatstein wrote for the Conservative-linked Macdonald Laurier Institute. The article lays blame on all of the problems the Canadian military has faced since the Second World War squarely on the Liberals. Granatstein conveniently avoids any criticism of the Harper era in his article.

Canadian Army still trying to polish the Light Tactical Vehicle turd

The Canadian Forces public affairs branch continue to try to promote the Light Tactical Vehicle despite growing criticism. (DND photo)

By Newell Durnbrooke

How many times can you try to polish a turd? Apparently more than once. The Canadian Army is still trying to convince the public and its own troops about the value of its purchase of the new Light Tactical Vehicles (LTV) for its personnel deployed to Latvia.

On Jan. 4, 2025 the Canadian Joint Operations Command highlighted on social media, the Canadian Army podcast which has tried to put a positive spin on the LTV.

Alex Buck of  the Canadian Army Command and Staff College has also been trying pretty hard to sell the value of the LTV.

But the response from those on Facebook and X has been less than complimentary at times.

“Don’t forget to promote the incompetent clowns who worked on procuring that,” responded one of a number of individuals.

“And here I am thinking the Iltis was a bad idea,” commented another.

Samuel Sutherland, a Canadian fighting in Ukraine, said the LTV would be easily destroyed by a drone flying four kilometres away.

Others compared the $400,000 price-tag of the LTV to the cost of a Toyota Land Cruiser at $85,000 which they argued did about the same job – transporting light infantry to the frontlines.

So why the continued promotion of the LTV?

In late July 2024, the Canadian government announced it was spending almost $36 million for 90 LTV for the Latvia mission. The vehicles, were built in the United States by General Motors Defense, and are based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 pickup truck and have also been bought by the U.S. military.

The public affairs pitch from the Canadian Army was that this vehicle was a game-changer. Canadian Army commander Lt. Gen. Michael Wright claimed the purchase was not only improving the service’s operational readiness, but was “also enhancing its deterrence posture on the eastern flank of NATO.”

But the Canadian Armed Forces public affairs branch seemed caught off guard by the immediate negative reaction as taxpayers and soldiers questioned the high cost for a glorified pickup truck. Others pointed to the many problems with the LTV, such as lack of protection from drones and other battlefield weapons.

When the Ottawa Citizen newspaper asked basic questions about protecting the troops from the cold and elements (since the LTV doesn’t have doors or a roof), the public affairs branch couldn’t respond.

So the Army tried to smooth things out with a series of social media posts throughout the fall and a PR puff-piece on the DND website. On Nov. 20, 2024 the Canadian Armed Forces tried again on X with a tweet about checking out the “cool “ photos of the LTV at Petawawa. That prompted another blast of sarcasm online. “CAF rips the roof and doors off a GMC suburban, then calls it tactical and military grade,” commented one individual.

The ongoing responses suggest promoting the LTV as a great purchase might be a continual uphill battle.

RCN a No-Show On News Coverage for HMCS Protecteur launch

The new HMCS Protecteur was launched Dec. 13 but the Royal Canadian Navy public affairs did its best to ingore the event. (Seaspan photo).

By Newell Durnbrooke

It’s not every day a new ship is launched for the Royal Canadian Navy.

So when the new HMCS Protecteur supply/replenish/joint support ship was launched on Friday, December 13, 2024 you would think it would be a big deal. After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and RCN commander Vice Adm. Angus Topshee attended the event.

But it was pretty much radio silence out of Canadian Forces/DND and RCN public affairs branches. There was no news release sent out to journalists. There was no backgrounder outlining the capabilities of the new vessel sent out or put online for journalists/the public, as has been the case previously. No photos were proactively sent to reporters. No journalists were contacted to conduct interviews with senior RCN personnel about the new ship.

Now Seaspan directly contacted journalists and proactively provided them with photos and information.

But the official public affairs branch of the Canadian Armed Forces, with its hundreds of public affairs officers, was a no show when it came to what is known as the mainstream news media (ie, print, radio and TV) as well as any information on its public website. Go to the main DND/CAF page and you will page news releases about Bill Blair, etc. but nothing on the new ship.

Instead, the RCN publicity was focused on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). On late Friday, Dec. 13 it posted a photo of the new ship on Facebook. On X, it had a tweet the day before and a tweet of the day of the launch, with some photos. Maybe that is the way to go for publicity these days…who knows.

Despite the lack of RCN/CAF outreach, journalists did show up for the event.

The speeches were covered live on the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) since the prime minister was involved.

The Canadian Press news wire service, produced an article that was carried in many newspapers. TV crews, again those invited by Seaspan’s initiative, showed up and that resulted in some coverage.

The irony of course is that senior Canadian Armed Forces officers continuously complain about the lack of positive news coverage from mainstream news outlets….yet they don’t lift a finger to promote a positive news story when they have one.

Our troops are living in horrible conditions – Will Gen. Carignan do something?

By Tim Ryan

The Canadian Armed Forces chaplain service submitted an Oct. 29, 2024 briefing to Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan. The briefing outlines a summary of assessments by military chaplains about the current welfare of the Canadian Armed Forces.

It contains this paragraph:

“The poor conditions of many Singles Quarters (SQs) at Bases and Wings have led to significant discomfort and dissatisfaction among personnel. This situation negatively impacts morale, as inadequate living conditions can diminish overall well-being and motivation.”

This has been an ongoing problem for years. The last Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre didn’t do anything about the problem. Maybe CDS Gen. Carignan will?

Here are some photos taken by the soldiers themselves of their living conditions on the bases:

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James Bezan, Macdonald Laurier Institute caught in Russian spy debacle

Conservative MP James Bezan and the Macdonald Laurier Institute have been caught up in a Russian spy debacle, the Globe and Mail has reported

By Tim Ryan

A prominent Conservative member of parliament and a high-profile right-wing think tank have been caught up in a media story involving an accused Russian asset.

Conservative MP James Bezan and the Macdonald Laurier Institute were reported by the Globe and Mail newspaper to have been involved with the Free-Nations of Post Russia Forum held Nov. 19 in Ottawa.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute and the League of Canadian Ukrainians were organizers for the conference that was supposed to have been anti-Kremlin event. MacDonald Laurier Institute fellow Marcus Kolga, who is billed as a “disinformation expert”, also spoke at the conference. Ludwik Klimkowski was also there to represent Tribute to Liberty, the organization behind the Victims of Communism memorial in Ottawa.

The forum was held at the Wellington Building; that building contains MPs’ offices and committee rooms and is part of the parliamentary precinct.

But the Globe and Mail also reported that one of the speakers at the event was a Russian political consultant recently accused by the FBI of working for Moscow’s spy agency.

Nomma Zarubina, who appeared at the forum, was arrested in New York on Nov. 21, after returning home from the Ottawa conference, the Globe reported.

Here is what the Globe wrote:

“The Russian was charged with two counts of false statements, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

A criminal complaint by a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent alleged that she told them she had not been in contact with members of the Russian government or its intelligence services, “when in truth and in fact” Ms. Zarubina was in communication with an agent of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. The FSB is the successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB. The agent alleged in the filing that Ms. Zarubina had been in “regular communication” with an FSB officer since about December, 2020 through 2022 “and had agreed to help the FSB with particular tasks to perform in the United States.”

Zarubina has denied the charges and the allegations that she is working for the FSB.

It is unclear why Bezan used his influence to allow this group access to parliamentary facilities. In response, he told the Globe that the event was organized by the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

But this incident does raise questions such as:

--Why did organizers invite Zarubina to this event?

--How much did this event cost taxpayers?

--What relationship did Bezan and the Macdonald Laurier Institute as well as the other conference speakers have with Zarubina?

--Was parliamentary security compromised by Bezan when he arranged for this group to have access to a secure parliamentary building? This would require a House of Commons security group investigation of this incident.

Names of Nazis in Canada To Remain Secret – Who’s On the List?

Ukrainian askaris standing near the bodies of murdered Jews in Warsaw, 1943. Thousands of individuals who served the Nazis came to Canada after the war. (Photo credit: Bundesarchiv).

By Newell Durnbrooke

The Canadian government is refusing to release the list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who came to Canada after the Second World War.

And now the questions begin on why Canada is hiding the identities of those who eagerly served Adolf Hitler? And who is on that list?

The list, compiled almost 40 years ago for the federal government’s Deschênes Commission, had been requested by a number of individuals and groups using the federal Access to Information law. The list of names is in the possession of Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in Ottawa.

LAC officials consulted in June and July with what they called a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” about whether the list should be made public. Those consulted included members of Canada’s Ukrainian community and other eastern European communities whose members are believed to be on the list.

But LAC didn’t include Holocaust survivors or Holocaust scholars who had advocated for a full release of the list of alleged Nazi war criminals.

Some of the individuals and organizations consulted by LAC argued against releasing any of the information, warning it could be embarrassing or lead to prosecutions of the alleged war criminals. Other stakeholders who advised LAC worried the list would embarrass Canada’s Ukrainian community or be used by Russians for propaganda purposes.

Large numbers of soldiers from a Ukrainian Waffen SS division fled to Canada after the war and some are believed to be on the list. In addition, large numbers of Nazi collaborators from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists or OUN also came to Canada. The OUN has been accused of being involved in the murders of between 50,000 to 100,000 Jews and Poles. The list is believed to also include Nazi collaborators from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The Canadian government’s decision to continue the secrecy surrounding the names of the alleged Nazi war criminals has prompted concerns about why Canada is trying to protect those alleged to have taken part in the murders of women and children.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto noted the secrecy continues to provide the Nazi war criminals who moved to our country with “total impunity,”

“This entire consultation process was stacked from the very beginning to shut out the voices of Holocaust survivors and organizations in order to ensure this shameful outcome,” she told the Globe and Mail. “Nazi war criminals should never have been allowed to make their way into our country and Canadians deserve transparency.”

There are also concerns about whether the records are safe in the hands of the Canadian government, with some suggesting in online conversations that the records could be secretly destroyed. That would erase forever the embarrassing details about the Nazis who came to this country.

Canada has already faced international ridicule when all Members of Parliament gave two standing ovations last year in the Commons to a member of Ukraine’s Waffen SS. Yaroslav Hunka was called “a hero” and cheered by the MPs. Seated near the Waffen SS man was none other than Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre who also applauded for the man who swore allegiance to Hitler.

Holocaust survivors and Canadians who lost family members in the war against Nazi Germany were less than impressed, the Ottawa Citizen reported. Holocaust survivors wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about friends killed by Hunka’s division, the 14th SS Galician, while families of Canadian soldiers killed fighting the Nazis during the Second World War peppered MPs with questions about why they honoured the Waffen SS soldier.

The emails pointed out the stupidity of the parliamentarians for not realizing that Hunka had fought against allied forces during the Second World War.

One Holocaust survivor pointed out to Trudeau that the 14th division of the Waffen SS murdered their friends in Slovakia in late 1944.

Others questioned how members of the Waffen SS were allowed into Canada after the war or pointed out that other Waffen SS members executed Canadian soldiers they had taken prisoner. 

Further reading:

https://thewalrus.ca/why-is-canada-protecting-the-names-of-suspected-nazis/

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/release-secret-list-of-alleged-nazi-war-criminals-in-canada-say-polish-and-ukrainian-groups

Journalist Exposes True Story Behind Navy Claim About Missile “Success”

By David Pugliese

National Defence and the Royal Canadian Navy heralded what they said was a successful exercise off the coast of Southern California. His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Regina was involved in Joint Littoral Targeting Exercise 2024 (JoLTEX 24) at the United States Navy’s Point Mugu Sea Range.

JoLTEX  included firing a surface-to-surface missile against a simulated surface-to-surface combatant, using a Harpoon Block II missile.

“The successful launch of a Harpoon Block II missile at a littoral (or near-shore) target reinforces a critical capability for Canada’s Pacific Fleet,” claimed Commodore Dave Mazur, Commander Canadian Fleet Pacific.

Commander Jeremy Samson, Commanding Officer HMCS Regina, also highlighted the success. “His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Regina’s precise delivery of surface-to-surface kinetic effects during Joint Littoral Targeting Exercise 2024demonstrates the crew’s commitment to combat readiness and their professional excellence,” he stated.

But two days later on Oct. 25, Todd Coyne of CTV News Vancouver reported what really happened.

A RCN missile test was aborted mid-flight after controllers lost communication with the projectile off the coast of southern California, Coyne reported.

The Harpoon Block II missile was lost at sea after it was fired from HMCS Regina, he added in his online article.

Samson admitted to CTV, that the missile's flight was terminated approximately 30 to 60 seconds after it was launched toward a surface target situated about 55 kilometres from the ship. "Without getting into too many of the technical details, there was an issue with the first missile," Samson said in a telephone interview with Coyne.

No details were provided

"When you fire a missile on a range, there are safety procedures to make sure the missile is doing what it's supposed to, and losing that communication can cause you to order the missile to destruct," he added.

A Department of National Defence spokesperson told Coyne the precision-guided missile plunged in the ocean within the 93,000-square-kilometre sea range and was not recoverable.

HMCS Regina followed up the failed shot with a second attempt, which "reached its target and fulfilled stated mission requirements," the National Defence spokesperson explained to CTV.

National Defence did not provide a reason why it didn’t acknowledge the failed test in the first place.

HMCS Regina followed up the failed shot with a second attempt, which "reached its target and fulfilled stated mission requirements," the National Defence spokesperson said.

The Harpoon Block II missile, estimated to cost upwards of $2 million each, is not a new weapon for the Royal Canadian Navy, Coyne reported.

 https://bc.ctvnews.ca/canadian-warship-missile-test-aborted-mid-flight-after-communication-failure-1.7087752

COUNTERSPIN: New book on Freeland’s grandfather reveals his Nazi past and role supporting the Holocaust

By Newell Durnbrooke 

In March 2017 a Globe and Mail journalist shook up the humdrum of the Ottawa political scene by asking Chrystia Freeland about her grandfather Mykhailo Chomiak.

Chomiak had come to Canada with his family after the Second World War and had been portrayed as a typical hard-working immigrant. But his past hide something a little more sinister. He had been an editor and propagandist for the Nazis. Chomiak was in charge of

Krakivski Visti , an anti-Semitic newspaper that promoted the Waffen SS and denounced Jews.

Freeland responded to the Globe reporter that claims about her grandfather were part of a disinformation plot by the Russians. An official in Freeland’s office went even farther, telling the Globe the claim Chomiak was a Nazi collaborator was a fabrication.

Freeland’s supporters in the Canadian news media rushed to defend Chomiak.

Paul Wells claimed that during the Second World War all people in Europe led a double-life, co-operating with the Nazis during the day and resisting them a night. (Someone should have informed Wells about the tens of thousands of brave partisans living in forests throughout Europe who fought the Nazis day and night).

Terry Glavin took a different angle, suggesting Freeland knew her grandfather was a collaborator but added that Chomiak’s involvement with the Nazis wasn’t any big deal. Glavin claimed that even discussing the Chomiak issue was to support the Russians.

This type of distortion continued even into 2019 when Greg Reaume, managing editor of CBC News coverage, claimed that “while historical records show Freeland's grandfather did indeed work for a wartime newspaper sympathetic to the Nazis, we do not know what his exact role was.”

It’s too bad Reaume, Wells and Glavin didn’t bother checking in with the Holocaust museums in Los Angeles and Washington. If they had then they would have discovered the true role of Chomiak’s newspaper. It was virulently anti-Semitic and a major force behind drumming up support for the Ukrainian Waffen SS division as well as Adolf Hitler.

Glavin went so far as to claim that Chomiak “had no control over the Nazi mumbo jumbo he was obliged to print as the newspaper’s titular editor.” (Historical records from Chomiak himself show this to be false. The editor was a hands-on and exuberant participant).

Now award-winning author Peter McFarlane in a new book blows the lid off the attempts to whitewash Chomiak’s Nazi past. The book is called “Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today.”

It is a devastating portrayal of Mykhailo Chomiak. McFarlane points out that Chomiak was not only the editor of an influential Ukrainian newspaper celebrating Hitler and promoting a virulent form of antisemitism but he also spent the war working for German military intelligence.

For his research McFarlane travelled throughout Ukraine and Poland. He visited the apartment Chomiak and his family lived in during the war, an abode that had been seized by the Nazis from a Jewish family who was later gassed. Chomiak even went as far as wanting to bill the Nazis for having to clean the apartment because it had once been occupied by dirty Jews.

McFarlane juxtaposes the lives of Chomiak and author Ann Charney, both from the same region in eastern Europe and both who had come to Canada after the war.

While Chomiak chummed around with Emil Gassner, in charge of the Nazi’s press department under Joseph Goebbels, Charney and her mother were being hunted by the Nazis and their Ukrainian supporters.

Charney was two years old when she and her Jewish mother evaded their certain death by hiding out in a hayloft in the Ukrainian countryside.

Visiting Charney’s home town of Brody, McFarlane finds that the local history museum celebrates Ukrainian Nazi soldiers and collaborators while saying nothing about their Holocaust role. That involved executing the town’s 10,000 Jewish residents including all of Ann’s family and relatives. 

When McFarlane visits Chomiak’s relatives in Ukraine, he finds the themes of ethnic hatred and antisemitism strongly in play today in public support for the war with Russia.

McFarlane also obtained Chomiak’s Nazi identification card as well as photos showing the editor with Third Reich figures as well as others with Waffen SS banners. In fact, Chomiak was so valuable as a propagandist for the Third Reich that, as the Soviets fought their way towards Germany, the Nazis moved the editor and his family to Austria so he could continue writing his material.

Chomiak eventually settled in Alberta, where he continued to work for extreme right wing causes, McFarlane writes. In postwar correspondence, Chomiak noted his anti-Semitic views, praising a friend for his “bravery” in publishing about the “true nature” of Jews as a group who controls the press, exploits nations and dreams of global domination.

There is no question McFarlane’s book will be controversial. This isn’t a book that will be welcomed in the world of Ukrainian nationalists or that Canadian apologists.

McFarlane can expect to be attacked personally with the usual drivel that he is a Russian sympathizer or that his book is promoting Russian disinformation.

Some in the Ukrainian community in Canada will likely put pressure on his publisher Lorimer. Hopefully that company stands behind its author and does not cave in to baseless attacks.

In the end, McFarlane has created a highly readable and important book that exposes the Nazi collaborators that came to this country and the network of support that allowed them to thrive.

Attempts To Coverup Names of Alleged Nazi War Criminals Will Only Backfire

By Newell Durnbrooke

Canada’s Nazi war criminal problem is once again coming back to haunt and embarrass the Liberal government, as well as Canadians.

Now there are allegations that the federal government and Library and Archives Canada are trying to coverup details about a list of alleged Nazi war criminals who came to this country.

Just a little more than a year ago- in late September 2023 - all MPs in the House of Commons were on their feet cheering war veteran Yaroslav Hunka. Hunka was praised as a “hero” and he was thanked by the speaker of the House of Commons for his military service.

One problem – Hunka served in a Ukrainian Waffen SS division fighting for the Nazis. And just a quick history lesson for all those MPs who appear to be clueless – Canada fought against the Nazis.

What became known as the Hunka scandal turned into an international embarrassment for Canada as Holocaust historians, Jewish groups and the Polish government pointed out Hunka’s unit had been involved in war crimes, including massacres of women and children. (As reported by the Ottawa Citizen, there is no evidence Hunka, now 99, was directly involved in those incidents).

Now we have another scandal brewing at the Library and Archives Canada, or LAC, over a list of alleged Nazi war criminals who came to this country. Media outlets outlined how that list of some 900 names was compiled in 1986. The document was put together by the federal government war-crimes commission led by Justice Jules Deschenes.

Many of the alleged war criminals are believed to be originally from Ukraine and other eastern European nations.

The records have been requested under the Access to Information law and LAC still has to decide whether to release the documents to the public.

In June and July 2024, LAC staff embarked on what is being described as a very dubious process. They consulted with a “discrete group of individuals or organizations” about whether the list should ever be made public. Details about who specifically were consulted are secret but it’s clear from media reports that many of those who provided advice were from the Ukrainian community and possibly the eastern European diaspora. In other words, the communities whose members are likely on the list of alleged war criminals in Canada.

Holocaust survivors and Holocaust academics who advocate for a full release of the list were excluded from the proceedings.

This was a colossal failure on the part of LAC staff and those exclusions have now fueled concerns in some quarters that a coverup in under way…or at least that significant efforts are being made by LAC and the Liberal government to keep this list secret.

It was also not surprising many of the “discrete group” of advisors told LAC staff the list of names of alleged Nazi war criminals should not be released.

They claimed that such action could result in criminal prosecution of the alleged crimes. They also worried that the list could prove to be embarrassing to the Canadian government and the Ukrainian community in general. In addition, they raised concerns the list might be used by Russian president Vladimir Putin for propaganda purposes. (On that last point, if these alleged criminals had been dealt with decades ago there would be no propaganda value for Putin and his ilk).

What was behind LAC’s secret discussions with a select group?

Historian John-Paul Himka, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta who has extensively researched the Holocaust in Ukraine and is an expert on the Ukrainian SS Galicia Division, was among those not invited to participate in the consultation, the Globe and Mail reported.

“After World War II, many Ukrainians who had one way or another collaborated in the crimes of the German occupation retreated westward, fearing repression by the returning Soviet regime,” he told the Globe when asked about the secret LAC meetings. “Many later migrated to Canada, where they and their descendants have dominated the organized Ukrainian diaspora community. They have done everything in their power to distort and suppress the historical record. It is hardly surprising that they wish to keep the investigation into a dark history under wraps.”

Professor Jared McBride, a U.S.-based specialist on Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, outlined in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper how this secrecy is simply going to backfire on LAC and the Canadian government. He pointed out that his researchers using now declassified American government records and other material have already compiled a list of 275 war criminals likely contained in the Canadian records. More names are expected to be added through additional research in the fall.

“Whether LAC likes it or not, these names are going to be released to the public,” said McBride.

McBride also questioned the Canadian government’s continued secrecy. Like Himka, he too outlined how LAC consulted with the very people who want these records to remain secret.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress says it plans to go to court to stop the federal government from making public the names of alleged Nazi war criminals.

The UCC may ultimately be successful in keeping the list secret through their legal action.

But again, that will only backfire as Canadians will always wonder what was being kept hidden from them.

Were Ukrainians who settled in Canada after the war among those who led Jews to the Nazi killing pits? Did that nice Latvian gentleman down the road serve as a guard at a concentration camp? Did the elderly Estonian man who ran the corner store in Toronto help the Nazis round up and torture Jews to death?

The move by the UCC to prevent the list from being made public will also provide Putin’s criminal regime a major propaganda win. The Russian president will be able to claim that Canada is so scared about who might be on the list that they decided to keep the records secret.

There are already false claims circulating from some in the Canadian-Eastern European community that the Deschenes Commission exonerated the 900 individuals after carefully examining all their files. That’s not true.

In the comment section of the Ottawa Citizen, Royal Military College professor Lubyomyr Luciuk, a strong defender of the Ukrainian Waffen SS and some Ukrainians who collaborated with the Nazis, stated the Deschenes Commission report only included the “names of the ‘subjects (not suspects).”

But why would Luciuk claim that?

This ongoing battle is about making public the Deschenes Commission section called “Master List of alleged war criminals resident in Canada with a list of sources.” 

It is actually titled “alleged war criminals.” Not subjects or suspects.

Luciuk also claimed each of the cases “were closed after each case was examined carefully.”

But the commission never conducted separate detailed investigations into the hundreds of individuals alleged to be war criminals, as news media outlets accurately pointed out. Inquiry researchers also determined that because of inadequate government screening after the war “it would be rash to assume that significant numbers of war criminals and Nazi collaborators did not enter Canada.”

(That last sentence is a direct quote from the commission report).

If there are or were Nazi war criminals hiding in our country, then Canadians have a right to know.

We lost 45,000 soldiers fighting the Nazi scourge during the Second World War. So why protect those who fought against our country and enabled the Holocaust?

(Opinion/analysis)

COUNTERSPIN: Who in the Canadian Forces Has it Out for Harjit Sajjan?

Who in the Canadian Forces has it out for Harjit Sajjan? (Dept. of Defense photo)

By Newell Durnbrooke

The knives are out for Harjit Sajjan and the blades are coming courtesy of the Canadian Armed Forces.

In late June, the Globe and Mail broke a story, citing sources, that claimed then Defence Minister Sajjan had ordered Canadian special forces to rescue Sikhs in Kabul as the city was falling to the Taliban in August, 2021. The claim was that by focusing on the Sikhs, Sajjan, put Canadian troops at risk and compromised saving Canadians who were scrambling to get out of Afghanistan. Sajjan, who is Sikh, denied the claim, pointing out he simply relayed information to the military about the Sikh group that was trapped in Kabul. He said Sikhs in Afghanistan were not given priority over Canadians or any other group.

Then on July 31 the Globe got another story on Sajjan, again courtesy of Canadian Forces sources. That article reported that Sajjan, currently the emergency preparedness minister, made a request to use 100 Canadian soldiers as a backdrop at a Vancouver concert by a Punjabi pop star. The request was denied.

Both articles raised questions about Sajjan’s judgement as a minister and unleashed a blast of on-line racism against him.

But the timing on the two stories is interesting. Sajjan’s August 2021 request for JTF2 to see if they could help the Sikhs in Kabul was well known in Canadian special forces as well as various commands or organizations, including the Strategic Joint Staff. But why did the news just surface almost three years later? Could it be that some inside the Canadian military view Justin Trudeau’s government as particularly vulnerable at this point and wanted to give the Conservative opposition more ammo to undercut the Liberals?

It is equally interesting that although the information leaked to the Globe and Mail involves a special forces mission, as well as internal ministerial requests, there has been no military police investigation launched into who is behind providing such details to journalists.

Canada’s spy agency found itself the brunt of social media jokes with an August 8 post on X (formerly Twitter) that warned the public they might be the target of foreign agents.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service tweeted a photo of young people partying: “Has a stranger ever tried to inflate your ego? It could be elicitation. Elicitation is a set of techniques used by foreign agents to extract information from you.”

That CSIS tweet sparked a lot of ridicule on X, with users pointing out the stupidity of the claim and noting the average Canadian young person has absolutely no access to any secrets or information that could be used by foreign spies.

“For every person that doesn't call me "a cutie patootie" I'm gonna leak one national secret,” tweeted one individual mocking CSIS.

“I knew he was a Commie because he told me I'm a pleasure to be around,” added another.

Other X users pointed out the hypocrisy of the CSIS posting, noting that an Islamic State operative who was also working for CSIS had smuggled young girls such as 15-year-old Shamima Begun into Syria so they could join ISIL.

“Kind of like when a CSIS operative talked a British schoolgirl into travelling into Syria?,” Ottawa human right lawyer Paul Champ tweeted in response to the CSIS post. “Too bad Shamima didn't get your warning about foreign agents before CSIS ruined her life in the name of national security.”

Then the online debate got real weird. Adam Zivo, a columnist for the National Post, tried to defend the CSIS posting and in doing so revealed that in early 2023 while in Ukraine he worked with Ukrainian intelligence officers on a sting operation dealing with a “guy who seemed to be a Chinese spy.” How did Zivo know the man was a Chinese spy? Well the National Post columnist pointed out that the man “showered” him with compliments and “then brought out some sketchy brownies that he insisted I try.”

Zivo went so far as to wear a wire for Ukraine’s spy agency who conducted a surveillance operation on the man. Zivo also wrote up a report for Ukrainian intelligence. But nothing ever came of it. There were no arrests. Ukrainian intelligence just shrugged. Zivo admits his claim his brownie -offering friend was a spy was never confirmed.

But Zivo’s revelation on X unleashed a blast as users questioned his ethics and truthfulness. Some suggested Zivo was full of BS (Zivo has claimed previously that he provided advice to the Chief of the Defence Staff although he doesn’t go into details about which CDS that was. Military sources say they don’t know what Zivo is talking about). Others questioned whether it was ethical for a Canadian journalist to be working for a foreign spy agency.

Journalist Luke LeBrun pointed out on X that while Zivo was working for Ukrainian intelligence he was also writing a series of pro-Ukrainian government stories in the National Post. “Some of the columns he filed as a foreign correspondent for the National Post overlap with his time as a foreign intelligence asset,” LeBrun pointed out. “Some columns even overlap with the interests of said intelligence agency but (unsurprisingly) don't disclose his clandestine side gig.”

Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister, had a Aug. 9, 2024 column in the National Post claiming Canada is being left behind by its allies and is no longer being asked to become involved in “freedom-defining wars.”

All of this is happening- or so Abbott claims - because Canada isn’t reaching its two per cent of GDP goal on defence spending as required by NATO.

In making his argument about Canada being a laggard on defence spending, Abbott points out that for decades, “Canada has punched below its weight; in more recent times, it has largely opted out of any serious military commitments — in Vietnam and Iraq, for instance.”

Thank God that was the case. As everyone knows, Vietnam was a total disaster; 58,000 U.S. personnel were killed along with 523 Australians. Up to three million Vietnamese died in the bloody conflict that the U.S. lost.

The estimated cost of the war in Vietnam for the U.S. was $176 billion, the equivalent of around $1 trillion in today’s dollars.

The Iraq war cost the U.S. more than $1 trillion and more than 4,400 killed and 32,000 wounded. The debacle created by that war is still being felt in the Middle East.

In his column Abbott also craps on the Canadian Forces’ commitment to the Afghan war, calling it an “early quitter” in that conflict. It should be noted that more than 40,000 Canadians served during the 12-year Afghanistan campaign. In total 165 Canadians were killed – 158 soldiers and 7 civilians. In contrast 26,000 Australians served in Afghanistan and 47 were killed.

Abbott only lasted two years as prime minister as he was unpopular with voters and increasingly out of step with what Australians wanted. He is a climate change denier who later lost his seat because voters wanted someone who took seriously the climate crisis that Australia now finds itself in.

It's not surprising that Abbott is now a visiting fellow with the right-wing Macdonald-Laurier Institute, which has pushed the narrative about how Canada is failing.

(Opinion/Analysis)