Canada has received its first pair of new F-35 fighter jets, with Ottawa still deliberating over how many of the American planes it will buy.
The Royal Canadian Air Force announced Friday on social media that it received the two Lockheed Martin jets, sharing a photo from Phoenix, Ariz., showing one plane with a maple leaf roundel.
Another triumph for the Master Negotiator!
U.K. opts against joining Canada-led defence bank, pledges co-operation
OTTAWA — The deadly fire at CFB Wainwright started due to military training on a grenade launcher range and was allowed to keep burning because it was impossible to reach and deemed not to be a threat, Canadian Armed Forces officials said Thursday.
Several investigations are now ongoing to figure out exactly what happened in the incident last Saturday that killed four soldiers and injured dozens more, with 13 still in “critical” condition and 14 others requiring serious care at hospitals in Alberta, according to military and health officials.
The Canadian military’s safety rules identify October as a high-risk month for grass fires at CFB Wainwright and recommend holding live-fire exercises early in the morning to minimize the risk of igniting a blaze, according to a document obtained by Global News.
The details are contained in the military’s current Range Standing Orders for CFB Wainwright and raise new questions about the safety precautions in place before Saturday’s deadly blaze, which killed four Canadian soldiers and injured 39 others.
The inquiry will take a year. Can the victims sue for negligence?
On Saturday evening, news started circulating about a serious fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta. Defence Minister David McGuinty gave a rare Saturday evening statement confirming that there had been injuries and deaths, but he didn’t say much more. Like many Canadians, I went to bed Saturday night thinking about the soldiers’ friends and families who would be worried sick and desperate to know more details.
Canada’s top military commander committed on Monday to publicly releasing the findings of the investigation into the fire at the training range in Wainwright, Alta., which claimed the lives of four soldiers and left dozens of others injured.
There are three separate parallel investigations underway — two military and one civilian, said Gen. Jennie Carignan, the chief of the defence staff, in her first interview since a sudden brush fire swept through an exercise area at the sprawling military base.
The mother of one of the men killed in a deadly fire at an Alberta military base says her son was a bright light who wanted to serve his country.
Pte. Aidan Goulding, from 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, died Saturday after a grass fire swept through Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, killing four soldiers and leaving dozens more grievously injured.
The Suffield Research Centre is in the heart of Alberta’s Big Sky country and is also blessed with Canada’s sunniest skies, making it the perfect testing ground for one of Canada’s most critical areas of innovation: drone and counter-drone technology.
Once the main training ground for the tank crews of the British Army, the British gradually withdrew and left entirely by 2024.
But today, the base is buzzing with activity as militaries urgently rearm with new technologies.
Nothing new to add except confirmation that 4 military members are casualties.
Fatalities and injuries at CFB Wainwright; Edmonton hospitals under code orange
Canada’s defence minister has confirmed that there were people killed and injured in an incident Saturday afternoon at CFB Wainwright.
“I’m saddened to share that there have been both fatalities and injuries as a result of an incident on the base,” David McGuinty said in a statement.
Details remain sketchy, unconfirmed reports of as many as 10 dead and up to 150 injured.
https://t.co/SlGUrysUIi
— Jeff Semple (@JeffSempleGN) October 18, 2026
National Defence statement …
More than two dozen Jewish members of the Canadian Armed Forces who made claims in a $150-million racial discrimination settlement against the military were told they did not meet the racial identity criteria, according to the Canadian Jewish News.
One member, Capt. Rabbi Jonathan Jaffit, is taking legal action.
I was pleased to have been asked to contribute to the analysis of Canada’s defence spending and related metrics by the team at Benchmark Canada. I commend the process and believe it will be helpful in informing public discourse and debate about defence spending and the rebuilding of Canada’s military and security capabilities. With that said, however, building and maintaining an effective military is a complex undertaking and we should be careful what conclusions or inferences we draw from the analysis. I will refrain from focusing too much on the data itself, and instead I will try to provide context and a broader understanding of the implications of what the analysis tells us.
The Canadian military is on the verge of another round of internal belt-tightening, despite an enormous influx of cash from the federal government, CBC News has learned.
It appears to be a combination of past and current budget initiatives colliding with the expectations and demands associated with the gush of defence spending.
The Department of National Defence has been told to focus its billions of extra dollars on priority areas, including the purchase of much-needed new combat equipment.
The radars watching over Canada’s Arctic region were designed when the Soviet Union was a country. The Royal Canadian Navy’s frigates and the Royal Canadian Air Force’s fighter jets are nearing the end of their useful lives. As Canada looks to reinvigorate its defence sector with billions of dollars in new spending, years of neglect may have left Canadian Forces short of the equipment they need to fight alongside their allies.
Canada is expected to put 25 per cent of its 2026 defence budget toward major equipment, according to NATO data compiled by Benchmark Canada, a Macdonald-Laurier Institute project that ranks the country against its allies. That would exceed NATO’s 20 per cent guideline for a second consecutive year, but leave Canada ranked 28 among the 31 allies measured.
The Liberal Party has left us poor and defenseless while courting dubious allies..
The Canadian Armed Forces faces a federal human rights hearing after a sexual minority military officer alleged she was denied marriage counselling because she was unmarried.
Blacklock’s Reporter says Capt. Corrin Haag filed a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act, claiming military personnel discriminated against her based on marital status or sexual orientation when she sought relationship counselling in 2023.
This will cripple Canada’s armed forces for at least a year.
OTTAWA — The military’s former top soldier says there is a risk the United States will step in to defend the Canadian Arctic under the pretext Canada isn’t up for the job — one reason that he argues the federal government must maintain increases in military spending, even if it means sacrificing social programs.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Star on Tuesday, retired Gen. Wayne Eyre said Canada must, by showing it is capable of protecting the North, defend against “help” that would violate the country’s sovereignty over the vast region. While multibillion-dollar plans to do that are in the works, including through the construction of new over-the-horizon radar stations, icebreaker ships and military support hubs in the Arctic, “speed of execution” is now key, Eyre said.
