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Treasury Board seems to have ruled out the first option. The second option — moving entire units to where military personnel can afford to live, seems like an obvious choice — but it doesn‘t seem to be happening. Senior leadership prefers to bang their heads against the PLD brick wall, I suppose.

Isn’t it the case that such a waiver would only be needed for a 12 month tour? As I understand it, an annuitant can do a 6 month tour without a waiver.

Canada’s Francophone proportion of population is shrinking — Statscan forecasts 17-18% by the mid-2030’s, and the population of Quebec tracks older than the national average. A breakdown of Canada’s fighting age population may show even worse numbers. Valcartier has absolutely been a success...

You had me at the fighting brigades reporting to a staff-heavy headquarters in Montreal. The Canadian Army goes full circle back to where it was when I joined — albeit out of Long Point, since we’ve divested most of Saint Hubert.

And the GG’s office includes a number of capabilities that would still need to be performed in a Republic — most notably heraldry and honours. Republics still need badges and medals.

I just had a discussion with a colleague about the latest set of incomprehensible doublespeak issued from on high. I mentioned that I knew enough to ignore it, and so did he, but there is a risk in briefing this kind of nonsense to the troops — some of them might actually try to do what they are...

The whole “encircle and bypass” thing works in some areas, but not very many. Sometimes urban sprawl means one city connects to another which connects to another. Sometimes the bridge, highway or rail yard you need to continue your advance is located in the center of the city. Sometimes natural...

A few unmanned vehicles and some smoke grenades wouldn't have kept Mosul in one piece, and it sure won’t save Seoul if things kick off on the DMZ. Wishful thinking, at best.

Leaning heavily into becoming a tank-heavy force runs into a logistical issue — most of our bases aren’t suited infrastructure-wise to tanks anymore (if they ever really were, Petawawa, Valcartier, I’m talking to you). Bridges are an issue, and we’ve ripped up most of the rail infrastructure...

There’s a whole book published on the subject, and uploaded to the Government of Canada website. On the negative side, it was published in 1980, so it is a little dated. On the plus side, it’s a fascinating peak into the CAF of over 40 years ago. Some of those traditions have faded during my...

All of that would work fine if there are enough logisticians to fill those gaps — which appears not to be the case. There is a risk the RCN will drive away people who actually wanted to sail at the same time they can’t actually attract, train and retain their replacements.

During Montreal’s gang war in the late 1990’s there were plenty of targeted killings (162 dead in all) — but the weapon of choice seemed to be explosives. Organized crime will always find a way — that’s why they are organized.

There is a strong argument that the Commonwealth’s regimental system is designed and suitable for peacetime service, to give garrison soldiers in places like India and Hong Kong something to organize their cricket leagues around. The British Army, who invented the thing, certainly seem quick to...

Crews will be USAF. Previous media reporting on the subject quoted the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, Lieutenant Genreal James Slife, who has a background as a helicopter pilot (MH-53 Pave Low). There’s more to the USAF than fighter pilots...

That is certainly an… interesting interpretation of UK citizenship law. So the theory is that Princess Elizabeth was born in London as a British Citizen, but her citizenship was stripped upon the death of her father? And, similarly, her Uncle David (ex-Edward VIII) lost his British citizenship...

Dude, I don’t know what planet you’ve been living on, but that’s not a thing. I went to Chilliwack in 1992, and my high school standard hair was very lightly trimmed by the CANEX barber. And the potential nurses in my platoon? They learned the then-standard military art of the French braid, and...

329 families with motives. Plus whatever else he was up to. He was still living openly in the community, and it seems that he felt safe there. Personally, if I had been publicly declared as a major suspect in the biggest terrorist attack in a country’s history — I’d be keeping a much lower...

All of the support functions are the most important bit. It really doesn’t matter what the mix of manoeuvre units are if the medical, signals, intelligence and EME communities are all deeply, deeply broken in the regular force and lack a credible reserve component to lean on for augmentation...

It is certainly odd that a document that states “Date modified: 2022-01-18” contains the line “A F2025 Warning Order was issued in March 2022,” — clearly somebody isn’t telling the entire accurate truth. Or is using time travel. Whats the situation with Francophone schools in Edmonton these...

That’s an interesting analysis. Actually, by extension, women-only conscription might be legal, even without the notwithstanding clause, if it had as its stated objective increasing the proportion of women in the military, a profession where they were historically underrepresented. Could keep...