Nov 24 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The NATO principle of one-for-all and all-for-one was the reason it — and by extension Canada — went into Afghanistan, but that assumption is being sorely tested by a U.S. administration that is in a hurry to wind things up. Hurry might be a relative term, though, considering Washington’s military involvement in the country is […]
Nov 21 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — It was an ominous beginning to an ominous conversation about how western democracies should face the growing authoritarian reflexes of China on the world stage. One of the marquee panels at the Halifax International Security Forum, held virtually this year, began on Friday with a grainy, grey video of an elephant being chased and eventually […]
Nov 15 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — It has taken more than a year, but injury claims filed by a handful of former language and culture advisers who served side-by-side with Canadian troops in Afghanistan are finally going before Ontario’s workplace injury commission for adjudication. The advisers carried out some of the most dirty and dangerous assignments of the war, including gathering […]
Nov 10 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — One of the country’s former top military commanders is helping to lead a push to honour some veterans of combat in the Afghanistan war with Canada’s highest military honour — the Victoria Cross. Former chief of the defence staff general Rick Hillier is among those behind a grassroots campaign and an upcoming documentary that will […]
Nov 3 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The federal government is determined to consult with victims of misconduct before fully enshrining victims’ rights in Canadian military law, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told a House of Commons committee today. It’s been over a year since Parliament passed legislation to insert a victims’ bill of rights into the separate but distinct justice system of […]
Oct 24 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — It’s not the Space Force you may have heard about. Still, NATO’s newly announced “Space Command” boldly takes the seven-decade-old institution where no international military alliance has gone before. Most of its leading members and adversaries have sought individual advantage in the final frontier over the decades. And while the European Space Agency is a […]
Oct 22 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Five years into the Canadian military’s formal crackdown on sexual misconduct, some victims still report being bullied, harassed and singled out by superior officers, according to a new study by an agency of the Department of National Defence. In at least one instance, a female artillery officer reported she was threatened with public humiliation and […]
Oct 6 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The federal government is in the market for another used icebreaker that could be converted for use by the Canadian Coast Guard on the Great Lakes — much to the dismay of shipbuilders across the country. A request for proposals to acquire an existing light icebreaker was posted on the government’s procurement website in mid-September. […]
Oct 2 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The federal government has quietly settled a lawsuit filed by survivors and family members in the wake of a suicide bombing outside the Canadian embassy in Kabul four years ago that killed 15 Nepalese Gurkhas and Indian private security contractors, CBC News has learned. The former soldiers injured in the attack and the widows of […]
Sep 29 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — A Canadian military reservist whose membership in two far-right groups is being investigated by the army has spoken publicly about the matter for the first time, telling a local print and online publication in British Columbia that the allegations against him are “rubbish.” Erik Myggland, who belongs to the Canadian Ranger Valemount, B.C. patrol, spoke […]
Sep 20 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — When the grizzled leaders of the Afghan government sat across a table for the first time from the equally hard-bitten commanders of the Taliban last week, there was air of collegiality no one was expecting. Those observing the moment recognized that the two sides saw — perhaps to their own surprise — how much they […]
Sep 17 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Canada’s elite special forces are looking for some outside intelligence advice — a move that one expert said is likely meant to make the highly-trained special forces section less dependent on allies, notably the Americans. A request for proposals was posted late last week to the federal government’s tendering website asking private contractors to submit […]
Sep 9 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Royal Canadian Navy’s move to change the titles of its junior ranks has no legal force, says a former military lawyer. In the interests of making the service more inclusive, the RCN is replacing all references to “seaman” in the English-language ranks (ordinary, able, leading and master) with gender-neutral terms.
Sep 4 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — One of the country’s leading human rights groups is urging Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan to turn all suspected acts of racism, white supremacy and hateful conduct within the Canadian Armed Forces over to a specialized task force of military police officers or the RCMP for investigation. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center laid down a […]
Sep 2 2020 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Seventy-five years ago today, a little-known Canadian colonel — a half-blind veteran of the First World War — sat pen in hand before a dark cloth-covered table on the quarterdeck of the American battleship U.S.S. Missouri. Allied warships had assembled in a long, grey line in the stifling heat of Tokyo Bay — a mute […]