“CAF – Canadian Armed Forces”

The Canadian Forces is facing the perception it punishes the lower ranks for inappropriate activities on social media while allowing senior members in the same situation to escape any sanctions, according to military documents obtained by this newspaper.

The comments made by generals at a June 28, 2022 high-level meeting came following an article in this newspaper which reported on the social media comments about military sexual assault and, in particular, about the woman who had accused Lt. Gen. Trevor Cadieu of rape.

The Israel Defence Forces is pushing its way into Gaza, in a courageous search for hostages. Ukrainians are fighting to dislodge the dug-in Russian forces from their country. Two U.S. aircraft carriers are patrolling the eastern Mediterranean to discourage Hezbollah from escalating the Israel-Hamas War. Iran’s proxies are stepping up their attacks on Israel and the United States, while China is eyeing Taiwan.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre says Canada “has much work to do” to be able to face a declining security situation around the world.

Eyre told Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson at the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa Saturday that he is “very concerned” about Canada’s readiness, after spending much of the past year warning that the world is facing unprecedented security threats amid the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Israel and the Gaza Strip, and rising tensions with India and China.

There continues to be more Canadian soldiers choosing to leave the Regular Force than there are new recruits joining the ranks.

Defence Minister Bill Blair recently told a House of Commons committee the negative trend of attrition outpacing recruitment had been reversed.

I spoke to Lt.-Gen. Steven Whelan not long after military prosecutors withdrew the two sexual misconduct charges that effectively ended his distinguished career. I expected to find a bitter man.

Instead, I found a soldier full of dignity, one who remains committed to rebuilding Canada’s military as a trusted institution.

Rooting out “toxic masculinity” in hockey culture was a central topic at Hockey Canada’s Beyond the Boards Summit in September. “Toxic masculinity” has similarly been a topic in calls to change the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces.

But some academics and others say attempts to root out “toxic” masculinity may threaten masculinity as a whole.

“Suiting up and going out there and playing a physical sport—as a boy, it turned me into a man,” former hockey player Thomas Joseph of British Columbia told The Epoch Times. He preferred to use a pseudonym, fearing professional repercussions for speaking publicly on the controversial topic of gender.

The Canadian military will revisit a new policy banning chaplains from prayer during official functions, The Epoch Times has learned, and chaplains will now have the choice to pray at Remembrance Day ceremonies on Nov. 11.

In an Oct. 30 email seen by The Epoch Times, Chaplain General Brigadier-General Guy Belisle told the chaplaincy he continues to support the “spirit” of the new directive, but leeway would be provided to chaplains following backlash.

Canada’s military must rapidly retool to defend against hostile nations that already “consider themselves to be at war with the West,” a new internal military report suggests.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) also needs to better incorporate “information operations” into their efforts to counter misinformation, and must co-ordinate with “other instruments of national power” during a time of so-called hybrid warfare.

A new study funded by the Department of National Defence says Canada’s CF-18 fighter aircraft force “is in crisis” and suffering from low morale, high rates of departure among instructor pilots and a shortage of maintenance technicians, impairing its ability to meet defence obligations to allies.

The report, by Justin Bronk, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a 192-year-old British think tank, points to a number of underlying causes.

Air force will have to wait even longer to get armed drones, defence department says

Canada’s air force will have to wait a few extra years to get the armed drones it has been promised for more than a decade — because, among other things, the pilotless aircraft require special modifications to fly in the Far North.

The federal government had planned to acquire by 2025 a fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones, built by U.S. defence contractor General Atomics.

Serving military chaplains say a new directive preventing them from leading religious prayer during official functions is causing consternation in the ranks, and is due to the “woke mentality” taking over their organization.

On Oct. 11, a month before Remembrance Day, one of the most important military ceremonies, the Office of the Chaplain General issued a new policy that replaces public prayer with non-religious “spiritual reflections.”

There are few if any military occasions as connected to spirituality and religion as Remembrance Day. While we gather to mark all of those who served, the playing of the Last Post reminds us that our most solemn thoughts are reserved for those who made the ultimate sacrifice and did not return.

We honour the dead. And, for many, we honour the dead in part through prayer. The Canadian Armed Forces has a chaplain program, where, in their own words, chaplains “are responsible for fostering the spiritual, religious, and pastoral care of CAF members.”