# Meet the woman leading Canada’s war on ISIL



## daftandbarmy (22 Oct 2015)

Well done that General!

Meet the woman leading Canada’s war on ISIL

I am a girl, but first and foremost I am a senior officer of the Canadian Armed Forces,” is Brig. Gen. Lise Bourgon’s good-natured response when asked about being the first woman to have ever commanded a Canadian combat mission.

“I am proud to have been chosen, but more as an airman and a soldier than as a woman. If it is another first for women, good.”

The diminutive 45-year-old RCAF helicopter pilot, wife and mother of two has spent the past half year in the Kuwaiti desert leading Canada’s combat contribution to the air war against ISIL in Iraq and Syria. It is a job where life-and-death decisions must be made every day.

Bourgon gives orders to about 550 men and women who use spy planes to gather intelligence about potential ISIL targets. That information and other data provided by coalition partners is used to decide where and when to drop missiles and bombs on ISIL forces and their equipment.

During the first face-to-face interview that she has given in the Middle East, she said that she was “responsible for the aircraft in theatre, where they go and the conduct of operations.”

The Canadian air boss is right now mostly overseeing air strikes in support of a recently launched counter-offensive by Iraqi security forces to retake the strategically important towns of Baiji and Ramadi from Islamic radicals.

Bourgon was among the first generation of women pilots after that military trade was opened to them by the Canadian Forces in the 1980s. She was the first female pilot to command a squadron, and the first to be promoted to lieutenant colonel, colonel and general.

“There are not that many firsts left and that is a good thing,” she said. “When you say first in a way it means yesterday we weren’t as good as we are today. I think this is kind of wrong to say because gender for me is not a question of firsts or statistics or numbers. Gender is about opportunity and chances being provided. At this point I can honestly say there is no longer a difference between women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces. Everyone is given the same chance to succeed.”

Wearing a khaki flight suit, the smart, engaging and undoubtedly brave Quebecer — who flew Sea King helicopters off the pitching decks of Canadian warships for several decades — reflected at length on her weighty duties, which include ensuring that steps are always taken to avoid civilian casualties and factoring in the recent arrival of Russian fighter jets and missile systems in Syria. She also discussed what her task force must do if it receives formal orders from Justin Trudeau’s new government to end the combat mission that Stephen Harper’s government joined last year.


http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/world/matthew+fisher+meet+woman+leading+canada+isil/11459836/story.html


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## Good2Golf (22 Oct 2015)

Lise Bourgon is everything right about leadership and command in the CAF.    

That she is a woman is a tangential benefit to statisticians and the like who see gender higher up the list of important qualities than those people whom Lise leads.

G2G


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## Eye In The Sky (22 Oct 2015)

She was my first Airforce CO, and years later I had the pleasure of being there when she wandered over to "the patio" and joined our conversation about home and normal life stuff.  A great Officer, Canadian and lady in my books.


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