The world is entering an age of tragedy, a cascading series of wars and conflict, an era of permanent crisis, warns Robert Kaplan, the veteran foreign correspondent and author.
Political leaders will be faced, not with an easy choice between good and evil, but between what is acceptable, what can be achieved, and whether one alternative is less evil than another, he says.
The Canadian Armed Forces has received more than 21,000 applications from permanent residents eager to join the chronically understaffed military full time — but CBC News has learned that less than 100 of them have made it into the regular force in the year since they were allowed to sign up.
In 2022, the federal government lifted a ban on permanent residents enlisting in the military after the country’s top commander warned of a critical shortfall in personnel.
Gen. Wayne Eyre, chief of the defence staff, said that given the “significant number of demands around the world, there’s just not enough Canadian Forces to do everything.”
Much as the rest of Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are broken-down. The chief of defence staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre, is “concerned about our overall readiness.” This spoken by a man used to doing the best he can with the little he is given; what we called in my time in the army a “can-do” attitude.
Canada is still standing in line for equipment it planned to buy 12 years ago
Ottawa is a city of plans. Many plans. Sometimes you find there are plans to have a plan. But as the old Scottish poem says, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men often go awry.”
More than a decade ago, as Canada’s war in Afghanistan was grinding to its conclusion, a plan was drawn up to rebuild, refresh and re-equip the army for the future.
It withered and died over several years — a victim of changing defence fashions, budgets, inter-service and inter-departmental bureaucratic warfare and political indifference.
“…The problem is Canada is not in a position to come up with the billions of dollars needed to meet the benchmark, and the federal government appears to lack the desire to reach it. Reports suggest that just weeks after reaffirming its pledge, the federal government looked to cut defence spending by $1 billion (Brewster, 2023). Without significant adjustments to planned spending, Canada is stuck in a lose-lose situation: accumulate billions more in debt to reach the target or further disappoint its allies by failing to uphold the renewed pledge.”
Like every army ever, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have always been predominantly male. And, as a country with a majority of the population being of European descent, its members have been predominantly white. These facts should be uncontroversial.
But unlike every army ever, the CAF is using the identities of its historic membership to promote an ethos of guilt and shame within the institution. This isn’t fixing the present recruitment crisis and it’s doubtful that it ever will — but this approach has the firm support of scholarly military voices, the latest example coming to us from Paul Mitchell, a defence studies professor at the Canadian Forces College.
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is experiencing a near 20 percent decline in its ranks due to attrition, with recent data indicating a loss of thousands of volunteers.
According to information presented in an Inquiry of Ministry in the House of Commons, the attrition rate over the past three years reached 19 percent, with 15,176 members leaving compared to 12,793 new recruits joining the force, as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Over the past decade, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have lost 10 veterans for every nine new recruits they have added. Over the past three years, the decline has accelerated to 10 lost for every eight added.
No wonder our core troop strength should be 72,000, but we are currently limping by with fewer than 62,000, one of the lowest per capita rates in NATO.
With the generally benign Pax Americana of freedom of the seas, stable financial institutions, and deterrence of direct, large-scale attacks on open societies under increasing assault, it’s good to read headlines like “Latest wave of U.S., Britain strikes on Yemen’s Houthis had support of Canada.” Good here meaning “bad” because it’s false… and worse.
That CP story, following puzzling modern journalistic practice, cited something the Department of National Defence said without providing a link to what’s surely readily available online. However, I did track it down and it’s this: “Joint Statement from Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States on Additional Strikes Against the Houthis in Yemen.” So we didn’t even unleash a barrage of press releases. We just fired off one manufactured elsewhere.
“To dream the impossible dream.” These words, sung by Don Quixote in Man of LaMancha, reflect a sentiment often felt about the state of Canada’s national security. For decades, our positions on foreign policy, defence and security could only be evaluated as weak. And this is not a partisan perspective: since at least the end of the Cold War, successive federal governments have done as little as possible in these policy areas. Why does a G7 country – one of the richest in the world – systematically prioritize these sectors below virtually all others? We continue to do this while Canada benefits from the international order, which is now clearly at risk.
The Canadian military is demanding soldiers support tampons in men’s bathrooms to promote LGBT “inclusion.”
According to a leaked Canadian Armed Forces memo, the Commanding Officer of the 4th Canadian Division Support Group (CDSG) of the Greater Toronto Area Detachment, Maj. Robert P. Ryan, threatened soldiers who dared to throw out tampon dispensers which had been placed in men’s bathrooms as part of the military’s new “inclusion” policy.
The military has no greater responsibility than protecting Canadians, Defence Minister Bill Blair says, and his government will continue to call in the troops to respond to emergencies when needed.
In an interview on Wednesday, Blair was asked about comments from senior military leaders who say the government is overly reliant on the Armed Forces at home, putting their training and other missions at risk.
… Rohani is frustrated with the way the 97,000 members of Canada’s armed forces are often treated as a cultural punching bag, targets of endless criticism. And he is especially taken aback by a recent edition of The Canadian Military Journal, in which 13 essayists argue the country’s armed forces are thoroughly racist, colonialistic and sexist, and need to be remade from scratch.
Canada is exceptionally fortunate to have one of the most dedicated and professional militaries in the world. The brave women and men who serve in our armed forces are committed to protecting Canadians and the values we stand for; ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Just 77 applicants have successfully enlisted in a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) program that aims to recruit immigrants, according to a briefing note for Defence Minister Bill Blair.
Between Nov. 1, 2022, and Nov. 24, 2023, the CAF received 21,472 applications from permanent residents. Of those, 77 permanent residents were successfully enrolled by the end of that period, according to the Dec. 11, 2023 briefing note, which was first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
