Clik here to view.
Military cadet organization to cut staff numbers in half
Canada’s military cadet program hopes to cut its full-time administrative staff by half and redirect the savings into more programs for youth, says the organization’s top officer. Rear Admiral Jennifer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Replacement for Aurora surveillance aircraft deemed unaffordable
By David Pugliese Ottawa Citizen Canada’s air force concluded almost two years ago that the Conservative government’s plan to buy new maritime surveillance aircraft was unaffordable, leaving it little...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canadian frigate HMCS Regina seizes 132 kg of heroin off the east coast of...
The Canadian frigate HMCS Regina seized 132 kilograms of heroin from drug runners in the Indian Ocean this week. National Defence says the warship intercepted a boat March 31 off the east coast of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Everything’s shipshape when it comes to military procurement, Defence...
By David Pugliese Ottawa Citizen The Department of National Defence is pushing a new public message about its purchases of military hardware: whether it’s submarines or ships, it’s all a success story....
View ArticleClik here to view.
National Defence urged to follow U.S. in publicly reporting military sexual...
OTTAWA — U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel last week delivered a clear message: sexual assaults will not be tolerated in the American military. It was similar to what Defence Minister Rob Nicholson...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Petawa soldier killed, four others injured in training crash on Alberta base
THE CANADIAN PRESS WAINWRIGHT, Alta. — A lieutenant-colonel has been killed in a vehicular accident during a training exercise on a northern Alberta military base. Military officials confirm Lt.-Col....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Defence Department hamstrung in efforts to convert former U.S. presidential...
OTTAWA — Converting U.S. President Barack Obama’s surplus fleet of helicopters for use in Canadian search-and-rescue would be a complicated process that would break promises National Defence made to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canada talks tough on Ukraine, while slashing $2.7-billion from 2015 defence...
OTTAWA — Stephen Harper has been one of the toughest-talking leaders throughout the Ukraine crisis, yet newly released figures show National Defence is expected to face an even deeper budget hole in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fisher: NATO looks for Harper’s tough talk to be backed by action, defence...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a chance to prove that he is not “all hat and no cattle” at the NATO leaders’ summit in Wales this week. No other leader in the 28-country trans-Atlantic alliance has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remains of 4 First World War soldiers from Winnipeg identified
WINNIPEG – The federal government has identified the remains of four First World War soldiers from a Winnipeg-based regiment who killed while advancing on a small village in northern France nearly a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Military advance team heads for Kuwait next week to prepare to battle ISIL
OTTAWA – Defence Minister Rob Nicholson says an advance military team will leave Trenton, Ont., for Kuwait next week as Canada gears up to join the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq. In a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Den Tandt: Stephen Harper intervenes in purchase of new missiles: Source
Prime Minister Stephen Harper settled a dispute between Treasury Board and the Defence Department to approve an $800-million, sole-source purchase of next-generation Sea Sparrow missiles for the Royal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Den Tandt: Canadian military may get its $3.1-billion back
Even as the Harper Conservatives have deployed CF-18 fighter jets to Eastern Europe, and now to Kuwait to join the air war against Islamic State, the Canadian Forces have seen their funding slashed....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Den Tandt: Tories’ love for the military is all hat, no cattle
Question: For how much longer can the federal Conservatives shamble along with a national defence and procurement posture that is disjointed, underfunded, poorly understood, chronically secretive and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nothing to fear from common defence with Americans, says Canada’s defence...
HALIFAX — A more integrated common defence strategy with the United States isn’t a threat to Canada’s sovereignty, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson said Friday. Nicholson said Canada has willingly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nicholson urges Russian president to get out of Ukraine at security conference
HALIFAX — Defence Minister Rob Nicholson called on Russia to get out of Ukraine on Saturday, saying that what’s happening there is “completely unacceptable.” Speaking at the International Security...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Den Tandt: Canadian veterans deserve better
OTTAWA — The Conservative party has made patriotism and support for the military central to its brand. That makes its ramshackle, shoddy and unacceptable treatment of Canadian veterans, revealed in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Maher: No sodomy, no lash and now no rum
When Winston Churchill became the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, he got up the noses of the brass by forcing the Royal Navy to convert to oil from coal. When one (I like to imagine, extravagantly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Den Tandt: Julian Fantino shuffled out because caucus wanted him gone
The key to understanding the Julian Fantino mini-shuffle, an oddly tentative half-firing, is simply this: From a media standpoint, the erstwhile veterans affairs minister is gone. Appropriately enough...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coyne: Corrupting effects of power underlie pointless election speculation
Oh for the love of God, people, would you give it a rest? I have just ploughed through what I would conservatively estimate is the 400th column I have seen speculating on the date of the next election....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Former Tory Brent Rathgeber blasts ‘unelected’ PMO staff for restricting MPs’...
By Sarah O’Donnell and Mike De Souza ST. ALBERT, Alta. — Newly Independent member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber used his autonomy Thursday to take aim at a what he described as a domineering Prime...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MP Brent Rathgeber’s stand is a principled one that should give the Tories pause
On Feb. 11, NDP MP Francoise Boivin moved a motion at the House of Commons justice committee asking that it study allegations raised by Edgar Schmidt, a senior Justice Department lawyer who filed a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canada’s new defence team to focus on budget cuts, long-term plan for military
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper cleared out his entire defence team Monday and appointed new ministers to oversee billions of dollars in Defence Department budget cuts and fix the country’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stephen Harper tweets his cabinet shuffle
OTTAWA — Stephen Harper’s largest cabinet shuffle yet was one befitting the social media age. In an unprecedented move, the prime minister cut out the media middle man in announcing his new cabinet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stephen Harper’s new cabinet features new blood, more women and maintains...
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a larger ministerial team Monday he hopes will help his Conservative government overcome recent scandals and win the next election, injecting new blood...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cabinet shakeup may shift law-and-order agenda into cruise control
OTTAWA — The Harper government has pumped out more justice and public safety policy than, perhaps, any other area since taking office, but a major shakeup this week in those portfolios suggests the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lt.-Gen. Marquis Hainse assumes command of Canadian Army
OTTAWA — A new commander took charge of the Canadian Army Thursday, the latest switch in what has become a wholesale changing-of-the-guard for Canada‘s military leadership. Following a colourful...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NDP MP urges government to back cyberbullying bill
OTTAWA — New Democrat MP Robert Chisholm says he’s hopeful the federal government will lend its support to his private member’s bill or quickly put forward its own legislation to make the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In wake of spying allegations, Communications Security Establishment Canada...
A day after a report raised questions about whether Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency may have illegally targeted Canadians’ private communications, a spokesman for Communications Security...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canada in diplomatic hot water following report it spied on Brazilian government
OTTAWA — The Harper government is saying very little about what Brazil calls an “unacceptable violation of national sovereignty,” following reports that Canada spied on Brazil’s mines and energy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Allegations of CSEC spying against Brazil raise calls for greater oversight...
As Canadian officials worked Tuesday to smooth things over with their Brazilian counterparts following embarrassing espionage allegations, there were growing calls for greater transparency within the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Electronic spy agency embroiled in Brazilian spying controversy looking for...
Its operations are tightly guarded, but Internet job postings offer a peek into the inner-workings of the super-secret electronic spy agency at the centre of a diplomatic rift between Canada and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ombudsman unveils Victims’ Bill of Rights wish list, 3-year term renewed
OTTAWA — Renewed for another three-year term Monday, Canada’s ombudsman for victims of crime has unveiled a wish list for the new Victims’ Bill of Rights that could include enhanced powers for her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dismissed soldier wanted ‘to do something important for my country’
OTTAWA – All Cpl. David Hawkins wanted was to serve in the Canadian military, even at the age of 18. “It was all I knew, right? I joined up in high school.” Hawkins was deployed as a combat engineer in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peter MacKay defends $2M cost of Halifax defence forum
OTTAWA — As hundreds of delegates descend on Halifax for a fifth annual global security conference, Justice Minister Peter MacKay is defending the cost of the $2 million event that includes his wife...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canada’s spy chief dodges questions about G20 eavesdropping
OTTAWA — The head of the country’s super-secret electronic spy agency reiterated Thursday that Communications Security Establishment Canada is not allowed to target Canadians or anyone in Canada. CSEC...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Death of three Afghan veterans highlights military’s failure to conclude...
OTTAWA – Questions are being raised about the military’s failure to conclude 70 inquiries into soldier suicides, after three veterans of the war in Afghanistan were found dead in separate incidents...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Told that PTSD would end his career, soldier tried to end his life
By Murray Brewster OTTAWA — The moment the Canadian military told him he was being discharged because of his post-traumatic stress disorder, Master Cpl. Kristian Wolowidnyk felt his life was over. Two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cadets asked to provide own parkas, share uniforms due to military budget cuts
By Dean Beeby OTTAWA, Ont. — Military budget cuts are leaving cadets out in the cold, with a freeze on the purchase of parkas just as winter kicks in. A $2-million chop to the outfitting budget also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Commemorations of historic military events could put current force at risk,...
OTTAWA — The federal Conservative government’s plan to commemorate a large number of military battles and accomplishments in the coming years poses a threat to the Canadian Force’s ability to do its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Another MP ready to leave; a political anniversary; Senate ready for spotlight
From the notebooks of Postmedia News reporters Tobi Cohen, Jason Fekete, Andrea Hill, Jordan Press, Kirsten Smith and Lee Berthiaume: Another one bites the dust NDP MP Jean Crowder says she won’t seek...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New plan for military procurement dilutes power of defence department
OTTAWA – National Defence appears to have lost a key behind-the-scenes battle as the federal Conservative government Wednesday unveiled a new plan for purchasing military equipment. Public Works...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No one gets away clean from the Andrew Leslie expense debacle
Amid the generalized sputtering that has emerged from Liberal Nation following news of retired general Andrew Leslie’s $72,000 move from one pristine Ottawa street to another just minutes away, and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ideally, generals, judges, bank governors should rein in political ambitions
Possibly Andrew Leslie, had he known what he was getting into, might have thought better of this whole politics game. The former Canadian Forces general has been the subject of unrelenting criticism...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Email trail documents Tory job overtures to retired general
MONTREAL — Retired lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie engaged in lively discussions with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office about senior positions with the RCMP and a national museum before becoming...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Conservative message to ethnic voters is starting to look a little creepy
Nobody knows — maybe not even the prime minister — whether he will lead the Conservatives into the next election. Since April of 2013, when Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership, he has been ahead...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Manning Networking conference is a gathering of the Conservative party in...
OTTAWA — So this is what a Conservative convention looks like. After that bizarre lockdown in Calgary last fall — reporters harassed and penned in at every turn, the prime minister’s defiantly empty...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inept recruiting system costing Canadian Forces all kinds of candidates,...
As the last Canadian soldiers returned from Afghanistan this week, those who would follow them into uniform are being stymied by a woefully inept recruiting system where it takes an average of 166 days...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canadian CF-18s destroy ISIS bomb factory and staging area
OTTAWA — Canadian warplanes have gone into action again in Iraq, bombing a militant compound and bomb-making factory in separate raids over the last few days. Defence Minister Rob Nicholson announced...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stephen Harper focused on coming election; Justin Trudeau trips up with Eve...
Stephen Harper has had a fine old week. Which is curious, considering he’s newly short one experienced and skilled foreign minister, one Toronto suburban MP and one formerly devoted retainer, with...
View Article
