Canadian armed forces

James Bezan blasted by Canadian veterans who remember Conservative betrayal

By Tim Ryan

 Conservative MP James Bezan was on X on Jan. 10 going after the Trudeau Liberals about their record on defence spending and support for the Canadian Forces.

“The Trudeau Liberals have destroyed our military,” Bezan tweeted.

It is probably safe to say Bezan didn’t expect the blowback from Canadian Forces veterans that came next.

There were a couple of hundred comments pointing out how Bezan and the Harper Conservatives were far worse when it came to the Canadian Forces as well as the treatment of veterans.

Bezan was blasted by the commentators as a liar who was part of the Harper government which not only went after veterans but made significant cuts to the Canadian Forces. (Bezan was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in September 2013 as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.)

Readers may recall the Conservative government’s court action in which $700,000 was spent to ensure the Harper administration was under no obligation to provide veterans with any special treatment. Pensions as well as veterans programs were cut.

And who can forget Harper minister Julian Fantino’s insults to a delegation of veterans as well as cutting jobs at veterans affairs. Bezan was silent throughout all of this, seen by a number in the defence community as failing to support veterans and the Canadian Forces.

Harper also ignored the NATO spending guideline despite signing on to the initiative in 2014. Instead, the Conservatives instituted significant cuts to the Canadian Forces budget. At the time, journalist Murray Brewster reported that involved $2.5 billion in cuts. In addition, the Harper government postponed $3.1-billion in capital spending on equipment, Brewster reported.

Interestingly, Bezan in his tweet was citing a March 18, 2024 article Jack Granatstein wrote for the Conservative-linked Macdonald Laurier Institute. The article lays blame on all of the problems the Canadian military has faced since the Second World War squarely on the Liberals. Granatstein conveniently avoids any criticism of the Harper era in his article.

 

RCN a No-Show On News Coverage for HMCS Protecteur launch

The new HMCS Protecteur was launched Dec. 13 but the Royal Canadian Navy public affairs did its best to ingore the event. (Seaspan photo).

By Newell Durnbrooke

It’s not every day a new ship is launched for the Royal Canadian Navy.

So when the new HMCS Protecteur supply/replenish/joint support ship was launched on Friday, December 13, 2024 you would think it would be a big deal. After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and RCN commander Vice Adm. Angus Topshee attended the event.

But it was pretty much radio silence out of Canadian Forces/DND and RCN public affairs branches. There was no news release sent out to journalists. There was no backgrounder outlining the capabilities of the new vessel sent out or put online for journalists/the public, as has been the case previously. No photos were proactively sent to reporters. No journalists were contacted to conduct interviews with senior RCN personnel about the new ship.

Now Seaspan directly contacted journalists and proactively provided them with photos and information.

But the official public affairs branch of the Canadian Armed Forces, with its hundreds of public affairs officers, was a no show when it came to what is known as the mainstream news media (ie, print, radio and TV) as well as any information on its public website. Go to the main DND/CAF page and you will page news releases about Bill Blair, etc. but nothing on the new ship.

Instead, the RCN publicity was focused on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). On late Friday, Dec. 13 it posted a photo of the new ship on Facebook. On X, it had a tweet the day before and a tweet of the day of the launch, with some photos. Maybe that is the way to go for publicity these days…who knows.

Despite the lack of RCN/CAF outreach, journalists did show up for the event.

The speeches were covered live on the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) since the prime minister was involved.

The Canadian Press news wire service, produced an article that was carried in many newspapers. TV crews, again those invited by Seaspan’s initiative, showed up and that resulted in some coverage.

The irony of course is that senior Canadian Armed Forces officers continuously complain about the lack of positive news coverage from mainstream news outlets….yet they don’t lift a finger to promote a positive news story when they have one.

Our troops are living in horrible conditions – Will Gen. Carignan do something?

By Tim Ryan

The Canadian Armed Forces chaplain service submitted an Oct. 29, 2024 briefing to Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan. The briefing outlines a summary of assessments by military chaplains about the current welfare of the Canadian Armed Forces.

It contains this paragraph:

“The poor conditions of many Singles Quarters (SQs) at Bases and Wings have led to significant discomfort and dissatisfaction among personnel. This situation negatively impacts morale, as inadequate living conditions can diminish overall well-being and motivation.”

This has been an ongoing problem for years. The last Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre didn’t do anything about the problem. Maybe CDS Gen. Carignan will?

Here are some photos taken by the soldiers themselves of their living conditions on the bases: