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As I mentioned in an earlier column, the Conservative government quashed the military’s draft of a new Canadian defence policy statement sometime in the late fall of 2006 or early winter of 2007. As of the end of June, no new policy statement […]

The House of Commons was in an uproar April 25 over ongoing allegations that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan regularly turn over their prisoners to be tortured by Afghan secret police, and that the government was covering up the story.

On that very same April 25 the ombudsman […]

Ironic as it may seem, the defence establishment of Canada is actually finding itself in a worse position under the government of Stephen Harper than it was under the prime ministership of Paul Martin. And it is mostly the fault of Martin’s predecessor, […]

The story out of Ottawa in December that Canada had agreed to put an additional half billion dollars into the new stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft program caused barely a ripple in the media and was ignored on Parliament Hill. But it was […]

Over the past decade or so, the United States has often complained about Canada’s foot dragging on defence matters. The Americans had two chief beefs: first, that Canada was engaging in virtual unilateral disarmament; second, that Canada was […]

The first contingent of Canadian soldiers assigned to duty in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan is now back and a second rotation to that battle-scarred area is under way. Last spring the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper secured a parliamentary […]

It wasn’t long after the election of Jan. 23 before a number of differences emerged between the military and defence postures of Paul Martin’s and Stephen Harper’s governments.

For one thing, Prime Minister Harper’s first trip abroad was to Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the high point coming […]

It took the dramatic suicide bombing of Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry near Kandahar on Sunday, Jan.15, for many Canadians to finally awake to the death of Canadian peacekeeping.

Berry’s killing, and the critical wounding of three soldiers who were in the vehicle with him, was only a […]

During this past federal election, Conservative leader Stephen Harper went to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont., to make the first of several announcements revealing his party’s defence platform. Among Harper’s promises was a commitment to establish […]

Quietly, and almost without notice, the great Canadian military experiment in officer education in 1997 is in danger.

Last fall, CANFORGEN (Canadian Forces General Order) 156/05, issued by the Department of National Defence’s Assistant Deputy Minister (Human Resources-Military), announced a new “continuing […]