Apr 24 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — In the military, they call it “painting a target.” And it apparently came as a shock to the crew of a lumbering Japanese patrol plane last December when a South Korean warship locked onto them with its fire control radar.
Apr 16 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Federal lawyers have signalled a partial surrender in their fight with Vice-Admiral Mark Norman’s lawyers to keep the contents of some federal documents and memos secret during his trial. Marie Henein, who represents the former vice-chief of the defence staff, told court at the opening of a two-day pretrial hearing on Tuesday that she’s been […]
Apr 15 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The politically charged competition to replace Canada’s aging fleet of fighter jets will rocket forward at the end of May as the federal government releases a long-anticipated, full-fledged tender call. There are four companies in the running: Saab of Sweden, Airbus Defence and Space out of Britain, and the American firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin. […]
Apr 8 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — A House of Commons committee has told the Liberal government that Canada should help Romania get its helicopters into Mali to avoid disrupting the ongoing United Nations peacekeeping mission there. On Friday, the all-party committee tabled a report from its fact-finding mission to the West African country in February. It recommends that the helicopters Canada […]
Apr 8 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Joint Task Force X. It’s a mysterious codename with a touch of Cold War cool. And it might become more familiar to Canadians in the coming months as the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians begins, bit by bit, to peel back the curtain of secrecy around military intelligence activities. The joint task force, […]
Apr 5 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Federal Conservatives made a pitch today — in the wake of the SNC Lavalin affair — to turn the criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman into the spinoff political scandal of the spring. While the pace of the SNC-Lavalin scandal could start slowing down now, following the ejection of both former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould […]
Apr 5 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — It was a surreal moment for Truman Tremblay. On March 23, the former RCMP officer and military reservist — who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder — had just arrived home in Kamloops, B.C. from a spring break vacation. In his mailbox he found an official-looking letter addressed to his wife. Moments later, his speechless wife […]
Apr 2 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — A key psychological questionnaire for veterans about post-traumatic stress disorder was quietly rewritten late last year by Veterans Affairs Canada, CBC News has learned — a move experts say will make it harder for suffering veterans to qualify for disability benefits. The form, which is filled out by doctors treating veterans with PTSD, was revised […]
Mar 30 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — They’re two sides of the same political and judicial coin: SNC-Lavalin and the Mark Norman trial. The all-consuming, breathless political drama over the SNC Lavalin scandal has rocked the Liberal government to its foundations. The grinding courtroom fight in the breach-of-trust case case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, the military’s former second-in-command, is somewhat less flashy, […]
Mar 28 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — A SNC-Lavalin contract with the Department of National Defence (DND) worth half a billion dollars comes up for renewal next year — when the Montreal-based engineering giant is expected to be on trial over corruption charges. The pending expiry of the $507 million contract to support the servicing of minor warships and auxiliary vessels, signed […]
Mar 26 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — The Supreme Court of Canada debates today whether the Canadian military has the constitutional authority to try its own members for serious crimes like sexual assault and murder — a case that some legal observers are calling a once-in-a-generation event. A military appeals court ruled last fall that the inability of soldiers, sailors and aircrew […]
Mar 22 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — They were the forgotten among the forgotten. Nearly 20 years ago, when Veterans Affairs Canada documented the “discrimination and outright fraud” perpetrated against the country’s aboriginal war veterans, it deliberately excluded former Métis soldiers. David Chartrand, vice-president of the Métis National Council, said he could never understand “the insult,” nor why senior Veterans Affairs officials […]
Mar 16 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — What’s in a name? When Shakespeare asked, he was talking about romance and roses. Apparently, the question applies to naval ships as well. A series of internal briefing notes show the Canadian navy pushed back hard against the former Conservative government’s plan to name the long-delayed, yet-to-be-delivered supply ships after War of 1812 battles.
Mar 15 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Federal finance officials were concerned last summer by the threat of a diplomatic and trade crisis with Saudi Arabia exploding to draw in other countries in the region — potentially putting billions of dollars in direct investment in danger — newly-released documents reveal. A briefing note prepared for Finance Minister Bill Morneau just days after […]
Mar 13 2019 — Murray Brewster — CBC — Two of the three companies that competed for a federal contract to deliver job placement services for Canada’s veterans were disqualified for “not having sufficient experience” — even though one of them was doing the work already for Veterans Affairs, CBC News has learned. The $10.4 million contract ended up going to an Oshawa, Ont.-based […]