Articles by Murray Brewster

May 19 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — An extraordinary and significant little slice of history unfolded this spring in Britain that had nothing to do with royal nuptials. The event, which passed almost unnoticed on this side of the Atlantic, was the remarkable disclosure by the head of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) that Britain had launched its first-ever military-style cyber campaign […]

May 17 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — National Defence is looking for a few good instructors to show its technicians how to protect military vehicles from hackers. A call was issued recently on the federal government’s tendering website looking for experts in a field defence officials say is a growing area of concern for the Canadian Forces — particularly as more and […]

May 16 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Federal officials running the country’s multi-billion dollar shipbuilding program are refusing to say how badly off-track the schedule is for the delivery of new naval supply ships and the Canadian Coast Guard’s planned heavy icebreaker — even though they’ve known since last fall. A revised schedule has been presented to Public Services and Procurement Canada […]

May 15 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — A fundraising drive to help pay legal bills for Vice-Admiral Mark Norman — accused of leaking cabinet secrets — has netted almost $120,000 in donations. Nearly 1,000 people — among them a former federal cabinet minister and retired naval officers — have stepped up to contribute. Norman’s case returns to court Tuesday; two days have […]

May 3 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Only a little more than three dozen ex-soldiers were reimbursed over a two-year period by the federal government under a highly-publicized program meant to help them find post-military jobs, says an internal Department of Veterans Affairs audit. Under the career transition program, introduced by the former Conservative government in 2012, veterans were given up to […]

Apr 24 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The scene, which unfolded on a Toronto street Monday, is something straight out of a counter-terrorism officer’s worst nightmares. Security analysts call them “soft targets” — unsecured public spaces where a lone attacker can do maximum damage. The incident — in which man drove a van into a number killing 10 of them and injuring […]

Apr 22 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — A gathering of G7 foreign and security ministers got underway in Toronto on a slightly informal note with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland inviting her counterparts to her home for Sunday brunch. It was a light, relaxed affair that stands in contrast to the heavy agenda they face over the next couple of days in […]

Apr 20 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Canadian helicopters going to Mali will be outfitted as they were in Afghanistan, and will fly their missions the way they did there, senior military commanders said Thursday. The country’s military operations command, Lt.-Gen. Steve Bowes, and the director of the strategic joint staff at National Defence headquarters, Maj.-Gen Al Meinzinger, testified before the […]

Apr 17 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Lawsuit personally names former foreign minister Lawrence Cannon, who blocked Abdelrazik’s return from Sudan. A sweeping $27 million lawsuit against the federal government brought by a Sudanese-Canadian who was detained overseas — and not allowed to return home for six years — is headed back to court, CBC News has learned. The Justice Department had […]

Apr 10 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The country’s second-highest-ranking military commander will appear in court today to face a single charge of breach of trust in an extraordinary case that will offer a new test of the RCMP’s sensitive investigations unit. The charge against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was laid last month following nearly two years of Mounties investigating an alleged leak […]

Apr 4 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — It was one of those rare displays of opposition unanimity in the House of Commons that aren’t flashy, but are definitely hard to ignore. On at least three occasions last week, a member of the Conservatives, the New Democrats or the Groupe Parlementaire Québécois (the splintered remains of the Bloc Quebecois) rose to ask basically […]

Mar 28 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Up to $10 million worth of weapons originally purchased by Canada to help Kurdish fighters beat back ISIS could end up in the hands of the Iraqi government, or helping to support NATO’s military training mission, said Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. The federal government originally promised the materiel — grenade launchers, sniper rifles, mortars, anti-tank […]

Mar 26 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The talk turned testy and personal Monday when Finance Minister Bill Morneau appeared before a House of Commons committee to defend the Liberal government’s latest budget. He tangled with Conservative members of the finance committee who attempted to take him to task over the growing size of the federal debt and questioned his commitment to […]

Mar 26 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The federal government’s market debt — the debt on which Ottawa pays interest — has topped $1 trillion for the first time, finance department documents show. It is a milestone, says former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page. The threshold, he said, highlights the urgency for the Liberal government to have a strategy to both balance […]

Mar 24 2018 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Canada is considering how it can contribute to an expanded NATO training mission in Iraq, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Thursday. The military alliance, which already has a small team in Iraq instructing local security forces in bomb disposal, has announced it will step up its efforts in the war-ravaged country by opening new military […]