BRITAIN AND CANADA: The Ties That Bind

Volume 26 Issue 5

By Todd Robson

When looking back at the great wars of the 20th century, we have access to textbooks, newsreels, the writings of historians, and even grainy, black and white films that try to capture these events in a factual manner. Quite often those stories give us a look at the historic proportions of certain events and their outcomes, but the personal stories of the soldiers who answered the call to serve their country, who fought in the battles, and ensured our freedom, are seldom told. 

History is best understood through the stories and mementos of those who lived it. A medal heroically earned and awarded, a piece of the uniform worn each long day during the war, or a personal handwritten letter sent home from an ocean away – it’s those items that capture the deeply personal side of war and the life of a soldier. Historic artifacts and personal items create a compelling story and preserve the memories for family members, for future generations, and for museum curators who are diligent in their efforts to illuminate the past and to keep the ongoing narrative of the world’s history. 

Honorary Colonel Kevin McCormick of the Irish Regiment of Canada, serves as President and Vice-Chancellor of Huntington University, in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. Over the span of two decades, HCol McCormick has funded and conceived initiatives such as the Crown and Canada and Project Honour and Preserve, in an effort to find and repatriate military items and artifacts.  He ensures that they find their way back into the hands of their rightful owners, or are given to museums and organizations that will share the story of each item, so that the personal sacrifices of soldiers will be not be forgotten.

“The donation of items such as these, in many instances over 100 years old, is not merely about the physical item but the personal story contained within it,” said McCormick. “To hold one of these historic medals or handwritten notes in your hand and realize it represents a greater story – the life of a young man going off to fight in World War I, leaving a wife and children behind in service of both his country and the world – is truly inspiring.”

Through Crown and Canada in particular, McCormick promotes British history and British military history while raising awareness of the honoured role of the Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her family in our nation’s history, and especially the role it holds within the Canadian Armed Forces. On his own time, and self-funded, HCol McCormick has travelled more than 100,000 kilometres finding, acquiring and then returning artifacts and items pertaining to British and Canadian history and heritage to museums, families, or governments.

“I’m very proud to play a small role in ensuring that the rich history of the British military is both preserved and honoured for future generations,” said McCormick. “Canada and Britain have a long history of military service and collaboration. I have travelled across Canada in an effort to ensure that the contributions of the British military, in concert with the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces, are celebrated with great respect.”  

If families can’t be found, HCol McCormick repatriates the items to museums and governments. They find rightful homes in Canadian institutions and national landmarks such as the Royal Military College of Canada, the National War Memorial, various national battlefields, the National Peace Tower, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and many others. With special attention and focus, McCormick has also made presentations and donations to numerous British museums and military units.  This past February, HCol McCormick was recognized for his work through the Crown and Canada initiative in the House of Commons.  He was joined in Ottawa, for the official reading and a presentation, by the Honourable Harjit Singh Sajjan, Minister of National Defence of Canada.  Also on hand that day was the most Senior Military Adviser for Britain, Brigadier Nicholas Orr.

“It is becoming of increasing importance that we recall not just the sacrifice of these soldiers but the sheer horror of the wars and the tolls they took on families, our country and nations around the globe,” said Brigadier Orr, United Kingdom Defence and Military Adviser and Head of British Defence Liaison Staff, for the British High Commission.

According to Brigadier Orr, who has also served previously in Canada at CFB Gagetown, in the Tactics School (1995-1997), and in CFB Suffield, (2001-2003), HCol McCormick’s efforts are recognized and appreciated both at home and internationally.

“In Canada, America and Britain, we know museums can’t exist by themselves. Kevin’s efforts are ensuring they are able to change, refresh their offering - continue to be living. Kevin’s work keeps museums around the world alive, with new sides of history. We need constant reminders of our history or else we forget at our peril. These objects are living reminders and show people the horror of war and that we must never return to that time or place again,” Orr reiterated.

HCol McCormick has been acknowledged and thanked for his efforts on Parliament Hill and even Buckingham Palace. In 2018, HCol McCormick was personally invited and attended the 70th Birthday Patronage Celebration of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. On that occasion he made a donation to the future King consisting of historic military scrolls and other artifacts, dating back to 1872, bearing the signatures of members of the London Irish. The items were accepted by retired Major General Sir Sebastian J. Roberts and given to the regimental museum. 

For HCol McCormick, at heart, the mission is to preserve history for generations to come, while raising awareness about the inextricable link between Canada’s military history, Britain and the Royal Family.

“Members of the Royal Family continue to hold roles within many of Canada’s military units and in doing so are powerful symbols of the relationship between Britain and Canada,” says HCol McCormick.  “Our two nations fought side by side, through two world wars, which is why I endeavour to honour and preserve the military history of both Canada and Britain. I am compelled by history to educate and make sure no one takes for granted the peace, security and amazing sacrifices so many young men and women made so that we could enjoy the lives we live in freedom
today.” 

FILLING A NEED: A Career Made To Order

By Jim Scott

Early on, Helen Goldie grabbed the reins of a career that has suited her just fine. Like a recruiter’s dream, she says she saw a pamphlet for the Canadian Armed Forces and took it home. It doesn’t happen in every household, but this time, the pamphlet worked.

“I took it home to show my dad, and he showed me a box of memories as he had served with the British [Royal] Air Force Military Police in the Second World War. His father served with the Royal Artillery in WWI.”

Over four decades, Helen built a solid career and a good life. The flexibility of Canada’s military and Commissionaires has allowed her to serve in many locations, have great experiences and raise three sons.

“Most of my career I served as a full-time reservist. As a single mother of three boys it was nice not being deployed. When I was in Afghanistan, my sons were in their twenties and had left home. Their support was always there and still is. I was able to maintain contact through the internet, so that helped whenever they got worried.”

A life-long career in the Logistics Branch has seen Helen posted to CFB Trenton in Ontario (1976-78), to a variety of British Columbia units including the 103 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Corps in North Vancouver (1978-80) and eleven years with the Royal Westminster Regiment in New Westminster BC (1989-2000). Aside from a month’s assignment at an American airbase in Thule, Greenland, her furthest job afield was in Afghanistan in 2009-10. It may also have been her most profound.

“It was challenging being in a war-torn country. You look at things a lot differently after seeing the horrible conditions. I did not take things for granted ever again.”

Every war zone has a multitude of tasks to be performed, from the monumental to the mundane. The logistics tail makes up a majority of any modern armed forces, and every task is vital to achieve the over all mission. In the ‘asymmetric warfare’ zones Canada commonly finds herself, there are risks on every street corner but Helen never lost her sense of humour.

“One time, while enroute from Kabul to Kandahar, I was tasked as a US Dollar Courier carrying $100,000. I would take this trip once a month,” she says. “My briefcase was always questioned; airport authority wanted to open it, but I had a special letter from NATO stating the case was only to be opened by the head cashier in Kandahar. I would tell them it was a secret recipe for Canadian chocolate chip cookies and they never asked again!”

Helen says for most of her tour she was a driver out of Camp Souter, Kabul and worked as an Administrative Assistant in the orderly room there.

Returning to Canada in 2010 saw Helen fulfill a multitude of roles. She had a five year stint at a Vancouver CF Recruiting Centre, (successfully handing out pamphlets, no doubt!); several postings around CFB Esquimalt and a job with 39 Canadian Engineer Regiment in Chilliwack. Presently she works with the 307 Royal Canadian Sea Cadets in White Rock BC. Aside from her duties as reservist and mother, Helen has also found time to serve her country and community in another way and in yet another uniform.

“In 1996 I joined Commissionaires. I have always worked on-call security roles for either the RCMP, military bases, or as standard security. I have had a variety of jobs, some part-time and some full-time, depending on what works for the site.”

Her dual roles as a Reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces and Commissionaires security guard has allowed Helen to form friendships, develop skills and knowledge, and travel while getting paid. The flexibility and control that is available with these careers is a feature that anyone can take advantage of. Students and other young people looking to start careers seriously think about picking up that pamphlet and getting started.

“Depending on your needs, in the military, full or part-time, there will always be great opportunities provided throughout your career and after.” Helen says, adding: “Commissionaires will provide the same support, opportunities and camaraderie.”

Raymond Taylor: A Lifetime of Expression through Painting

By Mateo Peralta

From the complex mechanics of war planes to the disciplined organization of military officers, illustrating scenes from battlefronts is no easy task. 

It takes a detailed eye and extraordinary amount of talent, and Canadian artist Raymond Taylor has possessed just that throughout his life and extensive career.

Using watercolors and canvas as his preferred means of painting, Taylor has recreated vast landscapes, human portraits, and renditions of some of the most consequential fighter jets of modern history.

Taylor could have never imagined the arts-focused career he would dive into after being born and raised in the Eastern Beaches area of Toronto during World War II. 

While Canadian soldiers battled abroad, the young Taylor’s own family upbringing drew him into the world of art.

“My father always wanted to be an artist, but circumstances didn’t allow that to happen,” Taylor recalled. “He came from a family of four boys and after his father died in a workplace accident, they didn’t have the means to have a good education which was frustrating and difficult for him.”

He started drawing at the age of ten, during one of the most pivotal periods of Canadian and global history and it was the images of war he witnessed that got the ball rolling for him as an artist. 

“I was 14 when World War II ended and I remember a lot of war movies coming out that really glorified things,” he said.
“I was in a very impressionable age and I was drawn by the color of the uniforms and country bands.”

This fascination spawned his extensive commercial arts career after he graduated from the Ontario College of Art (now known as the Ontario College of Art and Design) in 1952. 

Taylor proceeded to work as an artist and director in Toronto studios and engraving houses for a period of fifteen years. After spending the year of 1967 in London, England as an illustrator, Taylor returned to open his own Toronto studio in 1968.

He spent decades as a commercial artist while painting on the side and achieving great feats as an artist with his 1970 design on the Canadian Dollar, the 1978 Canadian Dollar, and two 1988 Olympic coins. 

It was in 1986 when Taylor had one of the most transformative and influential periods of his life and career. He moved to the Canadian Air Force base of Baden-Soellingen in West Germany where he produced local landscapes and portraits along with his arresting military paintings.

With his own son Scott (Esprit de Corps’ publisher) in the military at the time, Taylor’s year-long stay at the military base with his wife put his fascination with the military in a personal light. 

“It was quite a remarkable experience. We were in a foreign country but everybody on the base and surrounding area was incredibly friendly. We had very close access to life on the military base along with the beautiful German countryside and German culture,” Taylor said.

On the side of his commercial career, Taylor had recreated stunning scenes of Canadians at war, but following his time in Germany, his paintings took on a new life. 

“I would see something that was picturesque and would get inspired. I would see a person or landscape and create it in my own style.”

When he began painting, it would take him approximately a week to finish a piece, but after years of experience he had the process down to a day or two.

Since finishing his career and entering retirement, Taylor has developed a more nuanced view of his art and military images in the age of modern warfare.

“So much of it back then really was propaganda. With so many drones and so much being mechanical now, you can’t really glorify any of it and so I haven’t had that much interest lately to do military painting,” he said.

Nevertheless, Taylor is grateful for the opportunity to have created artwork for some of the individuals who needed it and valued it the most.

“It was initially just a memento for the people on the base, sometimes of the different soldiers so that they would have something to take back home and it really meant a lot to them,” he said.

Selling the war-based paintings was never the initial plan for Taylor and he described how much he appreciated being able to use his talents in recognition of such an important subject and era.

“It’s gratifying just to be able to paint and share it.”

THE RELUCTANT LIFER: Kathy Johnson Has Found her Place

Kathy as a proud Commissionaire

(Volume 25 Issue 10)

By Jim Scott

For someone who has been coast-to-coast and served overseas, Kathy Johnson seems to be quite a “homer.” She was born “at the foot of the Devil’s Back,” in Greenwich Hill, New Brunswick, and hard by the enormous Canadian Forces Base Gagetown training area. Even though she has travelled far and wide throughout her life, Kathy has found herself back on home turf as she happily carries out her duties at a Canadian Forces warehouse.

You could say, similar to Tolkien’s hero, she has been “there and back again,” though, that was never her intention. Kathy says she was in high school when a well-meaning principal urged her to apply to Katimavik, the national program founded in 1977 to give Canadian youth the opportunity to travel and experience Canada. She was reluctant to do so, partially because she didn’t believe she would be chosen. To her surprise, she was selected and sent to Esquimalt BC; an abrupt transition she describes as “not exactly the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“We did a military service phase at the naval base; rappelling and training like we were in boot camp. Within two weeks, I was homesick and ready to go home. My mother said: “No, you’re not,” and that was it. I stuck it out.”

Rappeling in Esquimalt BC, Katimavik 1981.

Back in 1981, Katimavik participants were paid $1 per day and $1,000 for completing a nine-month rotation. Kathy cashed in on that bonus, returned to Saint John, and signed up with HMCS Brunswicker naval reserve unit shortly thereafter. After seven years as a reservist, taking courses and working on the Halifax dockyards and CFB Stadacona, Kathy became a beneficiary of the Regular Force Direct Entry program.

“I was posted to CFB Uplands in Ottawa and was sent on a UN tour to the Golan Heights in 1990. These were very tense times in the Middle East.”

This was, in fact, the time of an eight-year Iran-Iraq conflict, followed by a US/Arab stand-off against Saddam Hussein. Tensions in the Gulf region were taut and after Saddam invaded Kuwait in August 1990 it was inevitable that the UN, urged on by the American government of George Bush Sr., was going to have to commit to action. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney offered three RCN ships, the destroyer Athabaska, frigate Terra Nova and supply ship Protecteur, as well as an augmented squadron of CF-18s (409, The Desert Cats), and force protection troops from the Royal 22e Regiment and Royal Canadian Regiment to be based in Qatar.

Kathy was a member of Operation FRICTION. She recalls spending six months training for war including “NCBW drills,” which involved sporting the clumsy Nuclear, Chemical, Biological Warfare suits on a moment’s notice.

“I liked my time there, and actually requested a six-month extension,” she says. “Other than some Scuds (Chinese-designed missiles) flying about, we weren’t really threatened.”

Rations Clerk For United Nations in Golan heights Israel, 1991

Kathy returned to Canada and in 1991 and married a military man whom she met in the Gulf. They spent some time in Calgary, had two daughters, and returned to Gagetown in 1996 after CFB Calgary was shut down. It was at this time that Kathy left the Forces and chose Commissionaires as the next phase of her career.

Since that transition, her life has not been without disruption and tragedy. Her marriage fell victim to the stress of the military lifestyle, and in 2013, she lost her younger daughter to bone cancer.

Commissionaires rallied behind her, every time.

“They have always offered support and consideration for individual needs,” she says. “Whatever you need, they are there for you.”

When medical tests indicated she was suffering ill-effects from shift work in her Security classification, she applied for steady hours on the Accommodations side. Although she lost a competition for the position of Barracks Warden, the successful individual is now her boss and she says “he’s a nice guy!”

Steady hours, good pay, a team that works with and for each other, and options to accommodate every employee makes Commissionaires a great choice for a next posting.

“Don’t tell them that I love what I do!” Kathy joked. But I’m sure they are aware.

TELFER SCHOOL HAS A MASTER PLAN: Providing Tools To Tackle Modern Procurement And Infrastructure Issues

(Volume 25-4)

By Eric Ross

The University of Ottawa - Telfer School of Management’s Master of Business in Complex Project Leadership Program (MBCPL) is the only educational resource of its kind in Canada specifically dedicated to providing managers and executives with the knowledge and techniques required to successfully deliver complex projects.

At a time when failure to understand and properly manage complex projects routinely makes national headlines, the need has never been greater for an Executive Master’s degree program dedicated solely to skill development for leaders of large, complex projects. Traditional project management is centered around projects with a fixed scope, a linear and unbending sequential approach to following a pre-set plan, and the predominant goal of delivering on time and on budget. This is no longer sufficient when it comes to the delivery of projects with expansive, quickly changing scope, multiple stakeholders and changing demands.

RCN Commander (ret’d) Robyn Locke is a graduate of the Telfer MBCPL and 2018 recipient of Esprit de Corps Women in Defence and Security award

Project complexity rises with the number of stakeholders, the interconnectedness and codependency of activities and approvals, the unclear or unshared goals and expected outcomes, the cultural barriers, the technical challenges, and evolving nature of those elements over time. Such complexity impacts large capital procurement projects, equipment capitalization, integrating information technology/systems, innovation and R&D, guiding organizational change, and large-scale business transformation efforts. Areas such as these require a new level of education and professionalization that traditional management techniques and understanding fail to adequately provide.

Successful delivery of a complex project involves much more than simply managing time and budget when it pertains to projects at the national level or involving massive corporations and multifaceted institutions. If the project does not adequately address all the specific needs it is intended to solve efficiently and to the client’s expectations, being on time and on budget will be a paltry balm when it comes time to deliver the project to the public or the stakeholders.

Telfer’s MBCPL program recognizes the knowledge gap that exists in modern Canadian industry and government environments when it comes to complex projects and addresses that gap in a way no other program in Canada can.

Telfer’s program helps managers and executives avoid the pitfalls that have become all too common in complex projects. Those enrolled in the programs are taught: To recognize complexity early on, to identify and engage key stakeholders, to understand the fundamental reason(s) why the project exists, and fully understand what the desired outcome needs to be, to consider the real effects of possible outcomes, to understand who are the ultimate clients of the effects of the project, and to identify major risks in the project environment early and recognize their likely impact.

Thanks to its unique position as the only Executive Master’s degree program in Complex Project Leadership in Canada, Telfer is privileged to have some of the brightest minds and most accomplished professionals enlisted in its MBCPL program. On April 9th, 2018 Esprit de Corps magazine hosted a cocktail reception to honour this year’s winners of Esprit de Corp’s annual Top Women in Defence Awards. Among this year’s winners were two women Telfer is proud to count among the many accomplished women and men enrolled in the MBCPL program. Alanna Jorgensen, the Director of Maritime Equipment Program Management, and Cdr(retired) Robyn Locke, a Naval Architect formerly with the Department of National Defence, represent the best Canada has to offer and will no doubt lead the way when it comes to tackling the complex projects our nation will face in the coming decades. Telfer is also proud to list two previous Top Women in Defence Award winners among those enrolled in the MBCPL program: Anne Healey, the General Manager of Group Business Development for BAE Systems and LtCdr Melanie Blanchard, from the Royal Canadian Navy.

Complex projects now have to contend with not just budgets and timelines, but also multiple stakeholders and political/social conditions that shift back and forth through the life of the project.

When asked about how the MBCPL program has affected her outlook, the way she works, and the benefits she has seen in her day-to-day work environment, Cdr(retired) Robyn Locke said:

“This course has been great for forcing me to examine the strategic picture. In any task I do, I now take more time to consider the wider context, the perspectives of the different stakeholders, and the outcome we are trying to achieve before I dive in to solution mode. I also spend much more time communicating my intentions than before. It is so important to get the right buy-in all along the process for a successful outcome. In my day to day, the MBCPL has taught me to ask broad questions to really frame a task. I think I like to focus on the outcome to make sure I am solving/working on the right challenge.”

With candidates of the caliber that are reflected in the recipients of Esprit de Corp’s Top Women in Defence Awards, the outlook for Canada’s ability to tackle complex projects only gets brighter.

On May 8th, 2018, MBCPL will be hosting its 2nd Annual Seminar on Advances in Complex Project Leadership, which is the perfect showcase to understand the type of complex projects that candidates are taught to deliver successfully. The seminar is not only a resource for the Master’s candidates, but also an informative and educational event for government and industry leaders. The seminar provides the opportunity to hear from other accomplished leaders as they discuss how they have adapted their decision-making abilities and knowledge of global best practices to help them tackle some of the most dynamic and interesting complex projects in Canada.

This year’s seminar will be one of the premiere public events in the field of complex project education. It will be an ideal place to gain insight into the importance of professionalizing complex project leadership as well as learn how others have delivered large, complex and inherently risky projects in the Infrastructure, Information Management, Health and Defence sectors. The seminar provides attendees with the rare opportunity to network with a wide array of knowledgeable peers from across the public and private work spaces.

Master of Business in Complex Project Leadership

2nd Annual Advances in Complex Project Leadership Seminar

INFANTEER TO COMMISSIONAIRE: Gerry Fraser Embraces Transition With No Intention Of Slowing Down

Gerry’s Force Protection Platoon in Kabul 2011, 3PPCLI

(Volume 25-04)

By Jim Scott

THERE WAS NEVER any doubt in Gerry Fraser’s mind. He would don a uniform and serve his country. The question may be: Is he ever going to hang it up?

“I always wanted to be in the military,” he said. “I wore a sergeant’s military dress shirt for my kindergarten picture.”

Gerry, born in Burlington ON in 1972, moved to nearby Hamilton for high school. With graduation approaching, he was job-hunting when an opportunity presented itself.

“I joined the CF on March 14th 1991. After graduating in February, I was out looking for work when I passed by a Recruiting office,” he says. “ I wrote the aptitude test, and they gave me a free lunch.”

“Two weeks later I was in Cornwallis [Nova Scotia].” If transitioning from a teenage civilian to a soldier of the Queen ever presented Gerry with second thoughts, they don’t appear in his record. He says that in addition to two domestic operations, he deployed on seven overseas tours: Croatia in 1992-93 with 3rd Battalion, Bosnia in 1997 and 2000 with Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), Kandahar in 2002 and 2008, and Kabul, Afghanistan in 2004, and
2011-12.

Kandahar 2008 Security Force Platoon, 3 PPCLI

His military history alone describes a career filled with transitions, and a man who welcomes new challenges.

“While overseas in Croatia, there was a call-out for any personnel wishing to conduct the ‘jump course.’ At the time, I had no clue what a jump course was other than you jumped out of planes.”

Upon completing the jump course, Gerry was quickly posted to Petawawa, ON to serve with the Canadian Airborne Regiment. “What a culture shock it was going from Victoria, BC to Petawawa! It turned out to be the best, and most rewarding part of my military career,” he said.

That career lasted an impressive quarter-century. However, there inevitably comes a time to make the next move in life.

“I wanted to settle down and raise my family. So, after 25 years, nearly to-the-day, I retired.”

“I was rolling into the Reserves when I interviewed for the Account Manager position with Commissionaires Hamilton Division,” he said. It was a familiar feeling of being at the right place at the right time. However this time he was on the other end of an impressive military career. He started working for Commissionaires on March 16th 2016.

The first days of any new job are fraught with excitement, anticipation and trepidation. For military personnel, the civilian world offers much yet often lacks one key ingredient­­—the camaraderie found among sailors, soldiers, airmen and airwomen. Gerry’s solution, is to keep a toe in both ponds.

“The transition was difficult, but Commissionaires has been excellent. They just recently approved an LOA, (leave of absence), so I can deploy to Lebanon for five months.”

Gerry says his “senior leadership courses and operational experience prepared me for management,” and his role with Commissionaires is an extension of his military training.

He points out that Commissionaires has a military culture, and their social mandate to employ veteran personnel creates a family environment with a recognizable ‘esprit.’

“There is a common ground among the veterans in our Division that boils down to a sense pride from serving our country,” he said. “Working alongside those individuals, and exchanging one uniform for another, together, significantly helps with the transition to civilian life.”

Gerry enthusiastically endorses Commissionaires as a workplace for those looking to transition out of the CAF.

“The positions offer flexible hours, and the work is both rewarding and challenging at the same time. For pensioners, it’s helpful as you can use the job to top up your income, while staying active.”

Gerry says he misses the Army and its camaraderie “a lot.” However, given his Reserve activities and opportunities with Commissionaires, it doesn’t look like he’s missing much.

THE GHOSTS OF THE TIFFY BOYS: Mrs. Muir Tells The Story Of Canada's Typhoon Pilots

No. 440 Squadron Flight Lieutenant Harry Hardy in the cockpit of his Typhoon P for Pulverizer during the Second World War. 

(Volume 25-01)

By Anne Gafiuk

Flight Lieutenant Harry Hardy, who flew with No. 440 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, is a proud Second World War Typhoon pilot. During my visit with him in May 2017, Harry had taken a pen and marked another ‘X’ on a list of 19 names. Dated January 17, 2015, this list showed only nine Canadian Typhoon pilots remaining.

After my visit with him at his home in Burnaby, British Columbia, Harry pressed me to interview all nine. “You have to talk to us before we are all gone. Combine our stories into a true picture of a Typhooner’s life and how the Typhoons contributed to the success of the Allied armies as we fought from Normandy to Germany during World War Two.”

He then added, “We are the ghosts to your Mrs. Muir. Do you know the story?” I told him I remembered the TV series featuring Hope Lange as Mrs. Muir and Edward Mulhare as Captain Gregg. “Watch the movie,” he suggested. “Mrs. Muir did a great job for the sea captain.”

Harry is a man on a mission. At 95, he is still spreading the word about the importance of the Typhoons from D-Day to VE-Day. He has spoken to numerous groups over the years with slide presentations generously illustrated by personal photographs and infused with his own first-hand accounts. (One of his talks can be found in three parts on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G23UB-QUdac.)

He approached Langley, British Columbia artist Virginia Ivanicki when there were 36 Canadian Typhoon pilots on his list. “The Typhoon was the plane that did the most to help the Canadian and British armies advance across Europe. As you can see, I push the Typhoon all I can and you would be a great help. My aircraft P for Pulverizer, was the most photographed Typhoon in Canadian squadrons 438, 439 and 440, probably because of her nose art.”

Ivanicki said of her illustration entitled Typhoon Bail Out, Harry J. Hardy, D.F.C., C.D., L.d’H., 12/25/44, (Christmas Day): “I did the painting purely as an homage to Harry to celebrate him and his squadron.”

Robert Bailey of Stony Plain, Alberta and Len Krenzler of Calgary, Alberta, painted pictures depicting the Typhoon in action: Typhoon Fury, Typhoon Warning, Typhoon Target by Bailey; Operation Varsity — Crossing of the Rhine and Clash of the Titans by Krenzler. Surviving Typhoon pilots signed each of the prints, but their numbers dwindled as each successive painting was completed.

Anne Gafiuk with Harry Hardy, a Typhoon pilot. He and the remaining Typhooners were happy when Anne agreed to be their Mrs. Muir.

As a writer, Harry’s plea to me could not be ignored, if only to leave some form of record for historians. To let this last chance slip by would be wilful neglect. I have joined Harry’s mission.

After my visit with Harry, we talk on the phone once a week, sometimes more, discussing what I have discovered about the men on the list. I tell him I was only able to contact five of the men: Doug Gordon (440 Squadron), Frank Johnson (174 Squadron), Jack Hilton (438 Squadron), John Thompson (245 Squadron), and Wally Ward (440 Squadron). Harry makes six. The seventh, Currie Gardner, also of 440 Squadron, is unable to speak with me due to medical issues. I leave messages for two other men, Norm Howe (175 Squadron) and Peter Roper (198 Squadron), but get no response. Emails are undeliverable or their telephone number has a new user. I find other men’s obituaries.

Harry tells me, “Talk to Wally Ward. He might know what happened to some of the Tiffy Boys.” Harry was in charge of the Tiffy Boys in the West; Wally was responsible for the men in Ontario and Quebec.

Doug, Frank, Jack, John and Wally are interested and keen to speak with me, share their stories. Their ages range from 94 to 98. “We’ll help you in any way we can.”

“Come visit,” I hear. If I lived closer they would be guaranteed a personal visit. Frank, John and Wally live in the Toronto area. Doug lives near Ottawa. Jack has just moved to Calgary from Airdrie, and I met with him.

“Send me what you’ve written.” I do. They are pleased. Harry is too.

Harry says to me, “You leave those other guys alone with no mention of those prima donnas! They got their due in the Battle of Britain,” referring to the Spitfire pilots. “This old surviving Typhooner is looking forward to reading your take on the role the Typhoon pilots played as we moved across Europe in the summer and fall of 1944.”

I had heard about Harry a few years ago, but did not meet him in person until I attended the memorial service of Bob Spooner, in Victoria, British Columbia, in August 2016. Bob and I became friends through Gordon Jones. Both Bob and Gordon were instructors at the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan’s No. 5 Elementary Flying Training School in High River, Alberta.

Bob was sent overseas eventually flying the Typhoon, with one of his stories depicted in Robert Bailey’s Typhoon Warning. Gordon remained in Canada as an instructor.

I recall Gordon telling me it was supposed to be him sent overseas, not Bob. He later admitted, “Staying in Canada probably saved my life.” Gordon knew the casualty rates.

Bob shared with me some of his more harrowing stories: the ‘almost’ bailout, the shooting of tanks, trains, railways, and truck convoys. He stressed, “I never shot at people.” He, too, knew the percentages were against him. Halfway through his tour, however, he realized — he knew — he was going to survive and re-established the romance he broke off in southern Alberta when he was posted overseas.

Harry explains, “Say 400 Typhoons roamed over the battlefields of Europe. Any target that was out of range of artillery, the Typhoons were asked to neutralize the problem. In doing so, 665 Typhoon pilots lost their lives, 151 of them were killed during the Battle of Normandy and 51 of them were Canadian. We were always understrength from D-Day to VE-Day. As the pilots were being killed, we could not replace them fast enough from the Operational Training Units in the UK.”

He has many ideas of what I should write about. “Pump the nine of us dry while we are still with you. Your questions rejuvenate our old memories.” Another idea: “Gold Beach (British), Juno (Canadian), and Sword (British) had a combined length of 20 miles. There were 272 Typhoons crisscrossing this area assisting the armies to gain a foothold of Europe. What was it like to fly 100 miles across the Channel, fight until you run out of ammunition and, if necessary, fly a damaged Typhoon back across those 100 miles of water to England? Talk to Jack and to Wally,” he suggests.

“I didn’t get there until August 10th, just in time to take part in the battle to close the Falaise Gap. Imagine the damage that 272 Typhoons could cause under those circumstances. I was involved in the Battle of the Bulge and the Crossing of the Rhine, too. We were involved in train busting, destroying bridges.”

Harry explains the Royal Air Force Typhoon squadrons had rockets. The Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons had bomb-carrying aircraft with cannons. “Each trip consisted of one dive-bombing strike. Our attack sign was ‘Going Down’.” It was like a synchronized dance in the sky.

“We could make four strikes or hits, but if we budgeted well, we could make five! We had 520 rounds. Most of the time, we went home with 20 rounds in each of our planes. After we had dropped our bombs, we went hunting in packs. We would strafe anything: enemy (stationary or moving) and transport was our favourite target. But we only had two hours of gas.”

Harry continues, “We worked on the ground with the army. We were the army’s extended artillery. What they could not hit with their big cannons, Typhoons were called in, sometimes 50 miles behind the lines. We flew 16 aircraft every day, twice a day, and sometimes three times a day! Thirty-two missions a day. Pilots had to double up.  Sometimes we fought over who would do the second Op. We were daylight to dark on the beachhead.”

The army engineers also are not mentioned enough in the stories, he tells me. “They had to level the farmers’ fields and lay down a steel mat, approximately 200 feet wide and 1,000 feet long for us to land on. Give the army full credit for building those landing strips so quickly. Also, you might say a word about the forgotten landing strip defence crew.” He adds, “No one in books that I’ve read has ever given credit to our ground crews for the horrendous job it must have been to move the whole Wing with all its maintenance staff and equipment from strip to strip so fast.”

He asks me to “Explain our living conditions on the beachhead; write about how we lived when we moved into Holland.”

No email for Harry, only the phone and the fax. Harry sends me weekly memos via Canada Post. He writes, “You have caused me to lose a bit of sleep as I dredge the old memory for the facts.” His letters are reminders that time is of the essence for Harry and all other surviving Typhoon pilots:

To: The woman who is going to tell those who are interested in what the Typhoons contributed to the success of the armies as they fought from Normandy to Germany.

From: The Dimming Memory of an old Typhooner.

To: Our potential salvation.

From: One hopeful Typhooner.

To: The woman that’s going to tell OUR story the way it was while we are still standing beside her.

From: One of the nine.

From A potential thorn in your side and very interested observer.

Remember: I’m watching you. If I die first, I’ll haunt you if you let us down.

From: The guy that’s relying on you to bring the Typhoon out of the shadows...1000s of us are watching you. When you are interviewing a front line veteran, remember: the war may be over on the outside, BUT it will never be over on the inside. Dig deep.

Remember: Nine of us are hoping that YOU will tell OUR story the way it has never been told before.

Remember

You are our last hope

Tell it as it was

Don’t be squeamish

Mrs. Muir wasn’t.

Will you be our Mrs. Muir?

Last fall, I travelled to Ottawa to scour Library and Archives Canada and research the Typhoon pilots who did not make it home, adding their stories to the ones I heard from Wally, John, Doug, Jack, Frank, and Harry.

I will be their Mrs. Muir.

Author’s note: Since the article’s writing, two more names have been crossed off Harry’s list: Frank Johnson and Peter Roper.

"PEACEKEEPING" A MISNOMER: Not All Peace Interventions Should Include The Military Or Be Under UN Auspices

Approximately 70 CAF personnel, including Military Police officers, participate in Operation CALUMET, Canada’s participation in the MFO in the Sinai Peninsula. (dnd)

(Volume 25-01)

By Major (ret'd) F. Roy Thomas

Thanks for publishing the article by Paul LaRose-Edwards and the column by Colonel (ret’d) Pat Stogran on the topic of “peace deployments” (Volume 24 Issue 12, January 2018). I would like to add my voice to the question of boots on the ground, the United Nations (UN) and success.

As a veteran of CF service in seven different UN missions, I detest the word peacekeeping! It was conjured up to serve politicians and pundits as a sound byte in the 1950s. Ideally, peace interventions should occur to prevent wars, either internal or between state entities, from starting. My service in Macedonia was on such a mission.

Unfortunately, most missions involve trying to obtain a peace pause in the middle of combat. My service in Cyprus, the Golan Heights, South Lebanon and Sarajevo involved obtaining a pause in ongoing conflicts. Attempts at pauses in the shooting of bullets large and small were, to a degree, largely unsuccessful.

Other peace interventions involve attempting to assist in the termination of violent conflict. My service in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal can be best put in this category. My service in Haiti constituted providing UN security to permit attempts at nation building.

There was and is no template for any form of peace intervention. Each mission is different. Success, for media purposes, can simply be measured by the number of “bullets or shells still killing or NOT killing.” Burials impede peace talks in any mission, whether preventing, creating a peace pause, or terminating combat.

The long peace pause on Cyprus has often been cited as an example of the failure of a UN peace intervention. That is arguable as no bullets have been fired there in a long time. But there can be no disagreement that Cyprus represents an astounding NATO success. Two of the largest armies in NATO, those of Turkey and Greece, have been kept from fighting each other over Cyprus. Moreover, the key UK/U.S. intelligence facility on Cyprus has functioned since independence and still does under the shadow of the UN umbrella on Cyprus. Ironically the Turkish invasion of 1974 involved Canadians coming under fire from one of our NATO allies and thus awarding of some of the first “Canadian vice British” valour medals for heroics under “unfriendly” fire from so-called Alliance friends. The Greeks postured but did not intervene in 1974. Cyprus was and still is a cost-effective NATO success writ large, achieved under UN auspices.

Another successful peace pause has been obtained under the orange not blue headgear of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai. Since the 1980s the MFO has kept Egypt and Israel from combat with only two battalions on the ground, fewer than are found on the Israeli-Lebanese border with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). It can be argued that the number of “boots on the ground” isn’t as important as whose boots they are as an American battalion serves in the MFO. Unlike UN missions, the belligerents, Israeli and Egypt, pay the costs. No doubt United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF) I and 2, and the Sinai Field Mission played a role in this success story which continues today. Of note, direction for the MFO comes from an independent Rome HQ, not anyone at UN HQ in New York.

A third successful peace pause intervention in South America in the 1990s involved neither the UN nor boots on the ground. Rather, the Military Observer Mission Ecuador Peru (MOMEP) was created in 1995 to obtain a peace pause in the combat between Ecuador and Peru. The four guarantors of the Rio Protocol of 1941 — Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States — worked to bring about a ceasefire and created MOMEP. (The Rio Protocol ended the 1941 combat between Ecuador and Peru.) The combination of diplomacy and observers on the ground brought about the signing of an agreement acceptable to the belligerents in 1998 and thus the end of MOMEP. The guarantors of 1941 “made good” on their guarantees. Least anyone doubt the intensity of this fight between South American neighbours, although tracts of land changed hands, a special piece of ground did not change hands but was kept for a memorial to the stalwart defence of one group of soldiers.

It can be noted that the “UN” and “boots on the ground” do not necessarily add up to success in the many scenarios challenging those attempting peace interventions in today’s world. I strongly support careful evaluation of possible missions before any attempt at a Canadian contribution is made. A contribution may not be significant numbers, but rather specialists with significant equipment such as radio jammers (Rwanda, 1994). The first step should be to disown any connection with the word “peacekeeping” and make clear that not all peace interventions will be under UN auspices or involve boots on the ground.

THE "CANADIAN" FACTOR: The Importance Of Canadianizing Our Aerial Forces In WWII

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) students make their way toward Fleet Finch biplanes at an elementary flying school in Windsor Mills, Quebec. Over 400 Finches were built by Fleet Aircraft Limited of Fort Erie, Ontario between 1939 and 1941, and used as trainers for the Elementary Flying Training Schools. All BCATP and “home squadron” aircraft belonged to the Canadian government, unlike many of those flown overseas by RCAF squadrons. (library and archives canada, pl-2039)

(Volume 25-01)

By David MacLellan

The creation of Royal Canadian Air Force No. 6 Group in Bomber Command in 1942 was a very important “landmark” for the RCAF and it did play a major role in Bomber Command’s efforts for the remainder of the war. The adaptation from Larry Rose’s Ten Decisions: Canada’s Best, Worst and Most Far-Reaching Decisions of the Second World War (Volume 24 Issue 10, November 2017) doesn’t, however, properly deal with the real issue of “Canadianization” of the RCAF … there was a huge “elephant in the room” that was not addressed in the article at all.

Not one single aircraft on strength of the RCAF squadrons that formed the group in 1942 actually belonged to Canada, and the RCAF and that situation would continue for years. The aircraft were supplied by the RAF, bought and paid for by the British government. No wonder the British resisted Canadianization — they were just protecting their assets.

How did this situation come to be? You cannot really blame the British; failings in the Canadian government and specifically the policies, or lack thereof, of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King are at the core of this “problem.” King totally failed to insist that the clause in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) ensuring graduates “be identified with their respective Dominions” be followed. This failure would have consequences, not just for the issue of Canadianization. This was very much rooted in the underfunding of the RCAF in the 1930s, King’s initial vision of a “limited liability” war for Canada, and just a general failure of the King government to defend Canadian interests.

A little background. There were no Canadianization issues with the Royal Canadian Navy or the Canadian Army because previous Canadian governments had dealt with British pressure to create “imperial forces” and had owned up to the responsibilities of a sovereign Canadian nation. In 1911, instead of giving money to the British government to build warships for the RN as asked, the Wilfrid Laurier government created the Royal Canadian Navy and, in 1914, the Robert Borden government resisted British pressure to incorporate Canadian soldiers as replacements in British Army regiments, thus Canadians served in Canadian regiments in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and eventually a Canadian Corps was created under a Canadian general, Sir Arthur Currie. The RCAF in the Second World War would be the least Canadian branch of the armed forces because the King government allowed it to happen.

There was an anomaly in this as well. In Canada, the Canadian government / RCAF bought and owned all BCATP aircraft as well as all the aircraft flown and operated by the RCAF’s “home squadrons” — those numbered in the No. 1 to No. 170 block. These squadrons included fighter, army co-operation, bomber, flying boat, torpedo bomber, general purpose, bomber reconnaissance, communications, seaplane, coastal artillery co-operation, composite, ferry, transport, heavy transport, etc. — in other words, what you would expect to find on strength of a “balanced” air force component. The operational squadrons fought and engaged the enemy on both coasts, but primarily the Atlantic where a number of squadrons, No. 10 and No. 162 for example, had major success engaging German forces in battle. There was never a Canadianization issue with the BCATP or RCAF squadrons at home.

When RCAF No. 1 (Fighter) Squadron arrived in England in August 1940, its Hawker Hurricanes came from Canada, bought and paid for by Canada; this was the only truly “modern” war-ready squadron in the RCAF. But this would not be the standard pattern. The squadrons that followed — such as the No. 400 block of squadrons serving overseas — would have no aircraft to bring and the Canadian government would not buy or supply any. The renumbering of No. 1 as No. 401 and all subsequent squadrons formed made sense as a command and control issue. During the Battle of Britain, having RAF No. 1 and RCAF No. 1 in the air at the same did time did lead to some confusion in the heat of battle.

As the number of RCAF No. 400 block squadrons was increased, all were equipped with RAF-owned aircraft. The RAF was totally responsible for the initial supply of aircraft and for replacement/upgraded marks and types as required, not Canada or the RCAF.

The consequences of Canadian government policy meant that:

Thousands of RCAF personnel were assigned to RAF squadrons and not RCAF. (As pointed out and supported by my own research, many RCAF crew in this category didn’t mind at all flying with a mixed Commonwealth crew on RAF squadrons as it made for an all-the-more interesting experience, Empire and “all that” and, of course, they were still getting the job done.)

Often the No. 400 block of squadrons received older, used, less state-of-the-art RAF aircraft.  Highly decorated RCAF No. 406 Squadron commander W/C R.C. (Moose) Fumerton DFC and Bar got in a bit of trouble for complaining publicly about “being sick of receiving clapped-out RAF Beaufighters” while RAF night fighter squadrons seemed to always be first in line for better radar and, more importantly, DH Mosquitoes. No. 406 didn’t get Mosquitoes until 1944, even though there was Canadian production. Until the Canadian-produced Avro Lancaster B. Mk. Xs started to arrive, most RCAF bomber squadrons flew on with increasingly aged Halifax bombers with RAF units getting Lancasters much earlier.

There is some evidence that the RCAF’s use of older aircraft (see point 2 above) lead to higher aircraft losses and casualty rates on the No. 400 block of squadrons.

The RCAF overseas was not a balanced force (unlike the RCAF home squadrons) — too many bomber squadrons and higher casualties.

So, what we really have with the RCAF overseas is the King government’s total failure to articulate and support an RCAF policy that truly represented Canadian interests as a sovereign nation. King abdicated his responsibility and thus created an overseas air force that was not what it could have been, doing a disservice to Canada.

This, of course, is a political discussion and in no way diminishes the enormous contribution to victory made by all of those who served in the RCAF.

Ten Decisions author Larry Rose responds: My article, according to Mr. MacLellan, does not deal with the “real issue” of why Canadianization was delayed in the RCAF. He notes that the Canadian aircraft in the UK were British-owned so the British were “just protecting their assets.” Throughout the war, planes, ships, tanks and artillery pieces were transferred wholesale back and forth between the British and Canadian forces. By 1945, thousands of British army trucks were Canadian-made but no Canadian officer went to British army supply depots to “protect their assets.” A much more important issue in the early years was that the British paid salaries for Canadian RCAF members posted to Britain.

Mr. MacLellan is right in pointing out that in 1939 Prime Minister Mackenzie King utterly failed to ensure Canadian control of RCAF air training graduates. This point is made in the book TEN DECISIONS although not in the much shorter Esprit de Corps article. However, subsequently King, Air Minister Charles “Chubby” Power and top officers such as Air Marshal Gus Edwards put enormous pressure on the RAF to Canadianize the RCAF. Ultimately they were successful.

Mr. MacLellan argues that “you cannot really blame the British” for delays in Canadianization. But, as Tim Cook has pointed out, the colonial mindset of many top RAF officers, including Air Chief Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur “Bomber” Harris, delayed Canadianization for years.

CANADA'S DEFENCE PLANNING ADRIFT: No Apparent Operational Focus In Foreseeable Future

Members of the Military Police and the Area Security Force move forward to check their targets after a round of shooting at the weapons range during Operation IMPACT on March 4, 2015. With the CAF’s ‘advise and assist’ role in Iraq suspended, some 200 of our elite forces are sitting idle on the edge of a civil war, without a clearly defined role. (operation impact, dnd)

(Volume 25-01)

By Scott Taylor

As 2017 comes to an end and we plunge forward into a brand new calendar year, it is a good time to take stock of just where Canada sits in terms of international military commitments.

From 2002 until 2014, the sole focus of the Canadian military was the mission in Afghanistan. That failed intervention ate up a fortune in terms of human and equipment resources, propping up a corrupt, despotic regime in Kabul. However, the very longevity of that campaign coupled with the fact that there was never any hope to achieve an actual ‘victory’ made things extremely simple for those planning our military operations.

We simply trained and equipped battle group after endless battle group to deploy into Kandahar to continue waging the counterinsurgency that never ends. Hell, we even built a full-scale mock Kandahar training area at CFB Wainwright, complete with actual Afghan actors, to prepare our soldiers prior to every deployment.

However, with the termination of the Afghan mission, that sense of focus has been lost.

The appearance of the Daesh (aka ISIS) scourge in Iraq in 2014 created a new bogeyman on the scene and Canadians were supportive of the Harper Conservative government’s decision to send in some fighter jets and a handful of special forces trainers to help battle the Islamic extremist evildoers.

That same year saw the onset of the political crisis in Ukraine, which resulted in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Crimea. The Harper government became one of the most strident anti-Russian voices among the NATO alliance and to demonstrate Canada’s resolve, a number of token military assets were committed to NATO’s collective Operation Reassurance in Eastern Europe.

When the Trudeau Liberals came to power in 2015, they pledged to get Canada out of shooting wars and to make Canadian peacekeeping great again.

That all sounded good, but it proved to be far easier said than done. Trudeau did finally withdraw Canada’s CF-18 fighter planes from the anti-Daesh mission in Iraq, but to appease our U.S. allies he also agreed to boost the number of Canadian Special Operations Forces trainers to 200. We also agreed to provide a 50-person field hospital to treat those wounded in the fight against Daesh.

This past June, Canada took the bizarre step of announcing a further two-year extension to our anti-Daesh commitment in Iraq. At the time of the extension announcement, Daesh diehards were fighting a last-stand battle in the city of Mosul, one of their final strongholds in Iraq.

By August, Mosul had been liberated, and the war in Iraq moved into a whole new phase. Those Kurdish fighters that our soldiers had been training to battle Daesh began fighting the Iraqi security forces that Canada’s foreign policy purports to support.

As a result, since late October Canada’s ‘advise and assist’ role has been suspended. That’s right, we currently have over 200 of the best Special Operations Forces soldiers in the world sitting idle on the edge of a civil war, without a clearly defined role, until the arbitrarily announced deadline for withdrawal of March 31, 2019.

We are also spending $134-million annually to maintain 450 Canadian soldiers in Latvia to deter a possible Russian invasion. While no one in their right mind actually believes Russia would invade the Baltic states, Article 5 of the NATO charter makes the entire deployment of Canadian troops a needless expense and a dangerous provocation. As full members of NATO, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are guaranteed the collective defence of the NATO alliance regardless of whether we have soldiers on the ground or not.

As for the long-awaited Liberal promise to return to UN peacekeeping, this amounted to a lot of sizzle but no steak. The mid-November announcement of Canada’s new peacekeeping policy named no specific mission or troop numbers, simply a few planes here, a couple of helicopters there.

We also pledged to use our long-dormant peacekeeping expertise to train the militaries of other countries prior to deploying their soldiers into harm’s way, and we set up a $15-million trust fund to act as incentive for other countries to send their female peacekeepers into global hotspots.

Not exactly a classic case of leadership by example.

CANADA & PEACE OPERATIONS: The 'Civilian' Solution To Bringing Canada Back: Needed, Easy, Low-Cost

The birth of peacekeeping: Lester B. Pearson’s suggestion that impartial military observers could help restore peace during the 1956 Suez Crisis marked the onset of modern peacekeeping with the creation of the first mission known as the United Nations Emergency Force (or UNEF). Over the ensuing decades, Canada became a respected international player through its commitments to Western defence and peacekeeping. But since Afghanistan, Canada has had little peacekeeping involvement. (dnd)

(Volume 24-12)

By Paul LaRose-Edwards

Seventy years after the first United Nations mission, peace operations in name and operational reality have moved on. Canada seems caught in a Cyprus-type peacekeeping time warp from the sixties and seventies. If we look to the future of peace operations, the blueprint is laid out in the UN’s High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO). It’s essential reading for anybody wishing to bring Canada back to UN peace operations. HIPPO looks at all aspects of peace operations, military and civilian. This paper will set out how the civilian side of peace operations holds huge potential as the way back for Canada.

As the phrase “way back” implies, Canada has a long way to go. It’s not just that our preparation for peace operations has stood still; we have actually taken several steps back. Over the past 20 years, Canada has cut back both the military and the civilian components of Canadian peace operations preparation and capacity.

On the military side, over a decade of warfighting in Afghanistan has strengthened the Canadian Armed Forces’ warfighting capacity, but has reduced its UN experience and the ability of the CAF to currently excel in peace operations. This is not necessarily a bad thing if the overriding mandate of the CAF is to be a strong North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) player. But if the Canadian Forces want to return to peace operations and be effective in what is a very different operational context, it needs to re-tool and re-train. In fact, it is possible to apply almost word-for-word the lessons to be learned from what normally would be an out-of-date 1997 assessment of the then pressing post-Somalia need for “Non-Traditional Military Training for Canadian Peacekeepers” by Lieutenant-General Jack Dangerfield et al.

The Civilian Side of Peace Operations

The focus of this paper, however, is different: it’s about the civilian side of peace operations, an option that holds huge potential for bringing Canada back into peace operations, and doing so at a fraction of the cost of Canadian military options.

The civilian side of peace operations is the major theme of HIPPO. It makes clear the essential point: peace operations are not military operations, they are political operations that require military assets. The very first of the four essential “shifts” set out by HIPPO is: “First, politics must drive the design and implementation of peace operations. Lasting peace is achieved not through military and technical engagements, but through political solutions.” (Emphasis in original) Underpinning all of this is the need to expand the civilian side of peace operations. This is precisely where Canada can help.

To spell out the specific requirements, the Panel emphasized that UN peace operations “range from special envoys and mediators, political missions (including peacebuilding missions), regional preventive diplomacy offices, observation missions (both ceasefire and electoral missions) to small, technical specialist missions (such as electoral support missions), multidisciplinary operations both large and small drawing on civilian, military and police personnel to support peace process implementation (and have included even transitional authorities with governance functions), as well as advance missions for planning.” It went on to say that peace operations include “mediation and electoral specialists, and human rights, rule of law, gender, police and military experts.”

If Canada wants to get back into peace operations, the civilian side is the way to go from almost every perspective:

Need: As HIPPO showed and as the UN Secretary General just reiterated in September, there is a pressing need for more emphasis on the political/civilian side of peace operations.

DFID Humanitarian Affairs Officer Heidi Carrubba and CANADEM Consultant Perseverence Ganga (right) monitor a food distribution site in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in November 2016. CANADEM quickly deploys experts to support UN agencies’ personnel needs during rapid-onset humanitarian emergencies and disasters. CANADEM rosters a bank of qualified experts, which the UN hires from as needed. (canadem)

Easy: Canada can easily contribute on the civilian side as Canada has a huge roster of experienced individuals with current hands-on UN field experience in all of the areas of expertise set out by HIPPO.

Low-Cost: This civilian option is of low cost to Canada particularly in comparison to any military contribution.

So how can Canada move forward on the civilian side of peace operations? It’s useful to review some of the civilian peace operations capacities that Canada developed, and then ‘lost’ over the past 15 years.

Pearson Peacekeeping Centre

For a short time, Canada had a civilian peace operations training centre. The Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre (PPC) was established in 1994 with a mandate to train Canadian civilians, albeit with small numbers of military and police students, in order to achieve a degree of joint training. For the first five years the standard model was for a course to run for two weeks with 30 students composed of 26 civilians including diplomats, two serving military, and two serving police. Over time the federal government started to question the cost of training civilians. To survive financially, PPC started to take on extraneous contracts to train foreign police and foreign military including military exercise support. By 2006, it was training very few civilians, and when it finally closed in 2013 it was not training any civilians. Meanwhile, other countries, particularly European, have greatly increased their training of civilians. They recognized that just as military members benefit from training in field leadership, field management, operational planning, etc., so do civilians benefit from field training to maximize their performance and, incidentally, to advance professionally in UN operations. Perhaps it is time for Canada to reinvent that civilian training institution with its original mandate to train Canadian civilians.

CANADEM

Canada’s Civilian Response Corps started life in 1996 as a Foreign Affairs mechanism for Canada to inject more of its best experts into international field operations. For example, by 2005, after nine years of CANADEM efforts, Canadian civilians in the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) peace operations alone reached an all-time high of 287 individuals. In a comparative analysis, Canada and the U.S. were tied for the lead as both had six per cent of all civilian posts; UK/France had four per cent, while Australian/Germany had two per cent. And this was inexpensive for Canada as CANADEM merely rostered and advanced candidates, but the UN hired and paid them.

In a step backwards in 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government cut the funding for CANADEM to promote UN staffing of Canadians. In 2017, after a decade of inaction, the result is a drop in the number of Canadian civilians hired by the UN, and a reduction in Canadian presence and impact within the UN. In UN DPKO peace operations alone, Canada dropped by 35 per cent from 287 Canadian civilians in 2007 to just 187 Canadians by 2016 while the number of Americans and some others went up. Perhaps it is time for Canada to re-establish that showcasing of Canadian field experts.

Canada Corps

In the late 1990s, DFAIT and CIDA had youth internship programs that gave young adults a chance to learn and gain valuable field experience and skills in coping with challenging situations. This also helped them get jobs in their field upon completion of their internship. (yci.org)

A government program created to help developing and unstable countries to promote good governance and institution building, Canada Corps was a concise concept announced by Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2004 that soon had three very different operational visions: by the independent co-chairs Gordon Smith and Julie Payette; by DFAIT (now Global Affairs Canada); and by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). Without clear initiating direction from the PM and the election a year later of a new government inimical to the UN and international service, Canada Corps morphed into a minor CIDA project that duplicated various functions of other parts of CIDA. It slowly disappeared.

However, the vision of the independent co-chairs Smith and Payette had been similar to what many European countries have evolved. Entities such as the Norwegian Emergency Preparedness System (NOREPS), Germany’s Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF), and Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy sit outside of government departments and provide a platform to coalesce, prepare, and advance their nationals in international service with the UN and other international organizations. The Smith/Payette vision of Canada Corps sitting outside of government had four pillars: Rostering, Deployment, Youth, and Training. Their intent was to both increase the number and capacity of mid-level and senior Canadians working internationally, but also to bring along the next generation of internationalists.

While Canada failed to fully operationalize Canada Corps, the need remains and the various European models continue to expand and grow. Perhaps it is time for Canada to re-initialize Canada Corps starting from the Smith/Payette vision and draw further from the many advanced European models.

UN Youth Field Internships in Challenging Situations

At the beginning of the DFAIT and CIDA youth internship programs in the late 1990s, NGOs like CANADEM had the latitude to send interns to challenging situations that would enable those interns to prove themselves in the field and enhance their ability to get follow-on jobs. For example, in those early years CANADEM sent over 200 interns to UN field operations for minimum six-month placements in relatively risky zones, comfortable in the knowledge that the UN was committed to protecting them and that the interns had received sufficient vetting and preparation in order to further mitigate risks. The results were two-fold:

The immense challenges facing the UN in those posts almost guaranteed that interns would be encouraged to move into substantive work and the ‘school-of-hard-knocks,’ learning invaluable field skills including the ability to handle crises and challenges.

Then, their resumes had hard evidence that they were individuals who could survive and deliver in tough UN field situations. This resulted in a 95 per cent success rate for those CANADEM interns in finding follow-on jobs.

But over time the Canadian government became increasingly risk adverse. At one point CANADEM was even forced by Canada to pull out two interns based with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a very safe downtown Jakarta, Indonesia, all because of a Canadian travel advisory for Indonesia reflecting the situation in far-off Ache province. Meanwhile, CANADEM was encouraged to send multiple interns to the UN in Barbados; needless to say, none of those individuals was able to get a follow-on job as they could not demonstrate evidence of their ability to handle difficult living conditions or crises. Perhaps it is time to bring back challenging UN youth field internships for young Canadians looking to prove themselves and build strong field resumes that will get them hired.

Conclusion

If Canada wants to get back into peace operations, the civilian option is an immediate solution. As HIPPO makes clear, more civilian contributions by member states are needed. Moreover, it’s an easy option for Canada, which has thousands of qualified civilians with current UN experience. And this civilian option is substantially less costly than the military side of peace operations.

How to move forward? Why not look at reinventing PPC, make better use of CANADEM, do a better job of advancing the next generation of Canadian field experts in international service, and merge all of those efforts into a Canada Corps that emulates many of the European models.

LIJSSENTHOEK: A First World War Cemetery With A Canadian Twist

British historian Stephen Brumwell stops to examine a grave in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, a Belgian hamlet located about 12 km west of Ypres. Situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields — close to the front but out of the extreme range of German field artillery — Lijssenthoek was a natural place to establish several casualty clearing stations.

(Volume 24-12)

By Craig Gibson

For Canadian troops arriving in Flanders, Ypres — “Wipers” to the men — was a deadly place, the air criss-crossed with shrapnel, bullets, and poison gas. The thousands of Canadian tourists who will be arriving here over the next year for the Passchendaele and armistice centenaries will face no such dangers, that is, if they manage to stay clear of the strong Trappist ales and stray munitions that still claim the unwary.

Yet the former Western Front can still be a disorientating and chaotic place for the battlefield pilgrim, filled as it is with a daunting array of memorials, cemeteries, museums, trench recreations, and tour companies, all competing for their time and Euros.

: Lijssenthoek, the second largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Belgium after Tyne Cot, contains 9,901 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 24 being unidentified. Of these, 1,058 are Canadian, with the majority falling between April and November 1916.

As I recently discovered during a three-month stint in the area, however, there is a simple solution: pay a visit (or two) to Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery and its accompanying Visitor Centre, opened in September 2012.

Unlike other Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries that roughly follow the bulge of the Ypres Salient — where those who were killed in action or who succumbed to wounds prior to evacuation were hastily buried, often with no identification — Lijssenthoek is just a short drive or bike ride south-west of Poperinge, well behind the former trenches. Beyond the range of all but the heaviest guns and next door to the Poperinghe-Hazebrouck railway, the site was ideally situated for the establishment of a field hospital.

Originally owned by farmer Remi Quaghebeur, the land was leased to the French Army in early 1915, as mobile warfare ground to a halt and trenches were dug. Later in 1915 the British took over the hospital, eventually adding four casualty clearing stations, totalling some 4,000 beds. The site became a crucial link in the handling of the thousands of casualties that would flow from the bloody Ypres salient battlefields over the next four years. It soon dawns on me that my own great-grandfather, Pte Edward Samuel Smith, 4th Machine Gun Company, 2nd Canadian Division, suffering from ‘myalgia’ in the spring of 1916, may very well have passed through the hospital before his death on the Somme later that year.

While the first burials in the cemetery were mainly French (since repatriated), by war’s end the vast majority were British and Dominion, although Chinese, German, and even American burials are represented.

Unusually, the cemetery includes one female casualty, Nellie Spindler, a British nurse killed in a bombing raid in 1917, as well as a civilian, an Imperial War Graves Commission (the predecessor of the CWGC) gardener, Thomas McGrath, who died in 1920.

As the war intensified, the hospital grew. Living quarters, operating theatres, wards, pharmacies, latrines, storage facilities, offices, chapels, paving and landscaping, and street signs were added, as were the less expected vegetable gardens and fields for baseball, cricket and soccer. Water was piped in from Monts des Cats. It quickly became a village unto itself.

Built adjacent to the cemetery, the information centre actively engages visitors to the site. While glass walls invite the outside in, an overarching narrative graphic history is provided. Interactive touchscreens provide access to primary documents. There are also artefacts, audio snippets derived from letters and diaries (a so-called ‘listening wall’), and a space where visitors are encouraged to pin images of the fallen. Its disparate elements seamlessly work together, and encourage quiet contemplation.

Most visitors will have at least some passing knowledge of the deaths and horrific wounds caused by the fighting on the Western Front. What they arguably will be less well informed about are the extraordinary steps that were taken to save, repair, and return to civilian lives the men so damaged. “The handling of immense numbers of broken men,” concludes the Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, “had become a procedure almost as mechanical as that of breaking them.”

The headstone of Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer, the highest-ranking Canadian officer killed in action during the First World War, in Lijssenthoek. A farmer who became a lawyer before the war, Mercer enlisted in the Queen’s Own Rifles of the Non-Permanent Active Militia in the late 1880s. After the call to arms, Mercer was given command of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. On December 4, 1915 Mercer was named General Officer Commanding 3rd Division. At age 59, Mercer was killed on June 3, 1916 during a British artillery bombardment to prevent the Germans from bringing up reinforcements at Mount Sorrel. 

Remarkably, of the casualties who made it to Lijssenthoek, only three per cent died, and those who did die are the ones buried next door in the beautiful Sir Reginald Blomfield-designed cemetery. Whereas over two thirds of the 12,000 burials in nearby Tyne Cot Cemetery, the main cemetery of the particularly dreadful Third Battle of Ypres (1917), or simply Passchendaele, are ‘Known unto God,’ those brought to Remy Siding, the name by which the British came to refer to Lijssenthoek, were usually alive, and hence identifiable. Of the over 9,000 burials, only 24 are unnamed.

Besides the fact that two Canadian field hospitals were established on the site in 1915, and that over 1,000 Canadians are buried within its walls, there is a certain Canadian flavour to the history of Lijssenthoek.

Among the more noteworthy casualties, for instance, is Canadian Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer. A native of Etobicoke (now a Toronto suburb) and commander of Third Canadian Division, he had the misfortune of being killed during the German attack at Hooge on June 3, 1916.

And among the medical researchers working at a Lijssenthoek hospital was a Canadian doctor, Lawrence Bruce Robertson, who arrived in November 1916 and began experimenting with blood transfusions, a life-saving innovation in the field of combat surgery.

Certainly the circumstances were ripe for medical research, and in January 1918 British Evacuation Hospital No. 10 was designated a research centre, where new orthopaedic surgery techniques and gas casualty treatments were pioneered.

Since admission to the Lijssenthoek Visitor Centre is free, spring the 5 Euros for the superb exhibition catalogue. I do, and return on two subsequent occasions — with no regrets.

So before you return the rental car, pack away the chocolates, and polish off your final Hommelbier, consider spending an hour or two at Lijssenthoek Cemetery and Visitor Centre. Whether you remember, honour, or simply learn, it’s time well spent.

SECOND WORLD WAR ON FILM: War Comes Alive For New Generations Through Canadian Army Newsreels, Now Available Online

Lt R.O. Campbell (left) of the CFPU and Cpl H.H. Mowbray with a movie camera mounted on the turret of a Sherman tank near the Hitler Line, Italy, May 23, 1944. The CFPU shot groundbreaking footage of the Battle of Ortona, and one cameraman, Sgt Jack Stollery, was awarded the Military Medal for his daring in getting the shot. (lt strathy e.e. smith, pa–140097)

(Volume 24-11)

By Bob Gordon

Over the past decade, video shot on the battlefield by combatants has proliferated on YouTube. Firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq abound. Less widely known is the availability of old school Second World War motion picture footage online, including combat scenes. During the war, military cinematographers shot the shooters and, often, the shooting. That retro footage can be accessed on the Internet. It exists and is available.

In January 1941, newly appointed historical officer Major Charles Perry Stacey recommended the establishment of a film unit dedicated to recording the training and operations of the Canadian military during the Second World War. Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ) in London organized the Canadian Army Film Unit (CAFU) in the fall of 1941. Canadian military cinematographers trained at Pinewood Studios, approximately 30 kilometres west of London near the village of Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire. Upon graduation cinematographers received the rank of sergeant. Post-production was done at Merton Park Studios in South Wimbledon.

At its height, CAFU — re-organized as the Canadian Film and Photo Unit (CFPU) in 1943 — had 50 cinematographers and 25 photographers in the field, among the 200 working there. Of these, six were killed and several others were seriously wounded. According to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) archivist Sarah Cook, the CFPU and Canadian military shot approximately 60,000 photos and half a million metres of film.

The original members of the unit were Brits George Noble and Michael Desbois Spencer. The latter worked for the National Film Board (NFB) before joining the Army. The third was Alf Grayston, a veteran of the private Canadian production company Associated Screen News (ASN). They were led by Lieutenant Jack McDougall, also formerly a cameraman and director at ASN.

Sergeant W.G. Grant, who has broken his leg, receives assistance from Captain Colin McDougall (left) and Private M.W. Treganza, all of the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit, Bayeux, France, June 14, 1944. (lt ken bell, dnd, library and archives canada, pa–152089)

The unit produced more than 20 training films, promotional shorts, technical films and several short documentaries, most notable of which is You Can’t Kill a City, a documentary about the destruction and rebuilding of the city of Caen in France directed by Michael Spencer. However, their energies were principally directed towards the Canadian Army Newsreels, a series of 106 separate, original 10-minute films for the exclusive viewing of military personnel premiering on November 16, 1942. As Canadian Army Newsreel No. 49 explained: “The Canadian Army weekly newsreel is your newsreel. Its job is to portray faithfully the life of Canadian soldiers wherever they may be. They are shown from front line theatre to headquarters.”  Produced throughout the war they were initially released monthly, but due to their popularity among the troops, this schedule was increased to weekly.

There were no film crews with Canadian forces in Hong Kong, and Dieppe was a non-event for Canadian cinematographers. Initially ordered to participate, they were eventually barred from the operation. The only footage they had access to was miserable British footage shot from ships distant from shore. Interestingly, this forced Allied news services, including the NFB, to rely on German footage of the raid and its aftermath for their images. These productions appear on the LAC website Through a Lens: Dieppe in Photographs and Film.

The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 proved a different story. Four cinematographers, including Sergeant Grayston, Lieutenant Al Fraser and Jimmie Campbell, secured excellent footage of the invasion beaches. It was also the first such footage to reach the public, leading Lieutenant Jack McDougall to exult, ‘We scooped everybody.” This footage appears in Canadian Army Newsreel No. 13.

Cinematographers Norm Quick, who worked with the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau before the war, and Jack Stollery shot groundbreaking footage of the Battle of Ortona in December 1943. The effort won Stollery a Military Medal. Fellow CFPU veteran Chuck Ross recalled to archivist Dale Gervais: “He [Stollery] was filming a sniper climbing along a roof and the Calgary tanks were coming in for support. A Colonel opened one of the tank hatches and looked down and said, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ and Jack said, ‘Sir, I’m trying to get a shot of that sniper crawling along the roof.’ The Colonel said, ‘What’s your regimental number?’ He gave it to him and the next thing he knew, he had won the Military Medal.” The citation states in part: “he displayed the utmost fearlessness and disregard for his own safety, exposing himself on numerous occasions to enemy fire in order to obtain the best pictures possible.” The footage shot by Jack Stollery that day appears in Canadian Army Newsreel No. 24.

Sergeant Lew E. Weekes of the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit filming beside a shell-damaged building near Hoogerheide, Netherlands, October 15, 1944. (lt ken bell, library and archives canada, pa–136214)

Again, at Juno Beach the CFPU scooped the world by 24 hours. And, again, it was not only the first footage available to the public, it was the best. Fixed cameras mounted on landing craft clearly show the infantry approaching the beach and wading ashore after the doors swing open. Bud Roos accompanied the Regina Rifles and Don Grant covered the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. According to Cook, the best footage is of the Royal New Brunswick (North Shore) Regiment. Some of this footage appears in Canadian Army Newsreel No. 33.

Chuck Ross describes the actions of another colleague, Donald Grant: “He won a Military Cross, which was well deserved.” They were covering David Currie at Saint Lambert-sur-Dive [August 20, 1944]. Two of their motion picture cameramen were wounded. Jack Stollery in the thumb, and Lloyd Millon in the shoulder. The driver was wounded in the head and Don got all three out.” The footage they shot is the only motion picture footage (and still photography) of a man in the act of winning the Victoria Cross. Footage from Saint Lambert-sur-Dive is included in Canadian Army Newsreel No. 40.

Four Canadian combat cinematographers paid with their lives: Jimmy Campbell, Terry Rowe, Lloyd Millon, and ‘Barney’ Barnett. Jack Mahoney, a navy photographer, perished with the sinking of the HMCS Athabaskan. According to LAC motion picture and film conservator Dale Gervais, “Sgt. Barnett was flying in an Auster observation plane taking aerial shots over the Rhine near Xanten, Germany, when he came under attack by a Messerschmitt aircraft. Barnett was killed instantly but his camera kept rolling” and he, literally, recorded his own demise. The footage was retrieved by CFPU cinematographer Gordon Petty and with stoic resolve was dutifully included in Canadian Army Newsreels No. 64. Also paying the ultimate price were some of the drivers, unknown but essential support personnel, Ralph Bush and Lewis Curry.

CRISIS IN UKRAINE: Realities Intrude

Members of Joint Task Force – Ukraine return the salute of Ukraine’s Defence Minister, General of the Army Stepan Poltorak, during Ukraine’s national independence day parade in Kyiv on August 24, 2017. The soldiers are deployed in support of Operation UNIFIER, part of an international coalition dedicated to building the training capacity of the Ukrainian Army. Canada will continue to train and advise Ukrainian forces until 2019. (joint task force - ukraine, dnd)

(Volume 24-11)

By Chris Westdal

Our world is in turmoil. Crises come thick and fast. Everyone’s list is different, but all include Ukraine. The crisis there has lit the fuse of new cold war.

There is constant talk of who’s to blame.

The West accuses Russia of aggression in Georgia, in Ukraine, in the Baltics, in Syria. Its president is a demon, a bully, a spoiler, a thief, a war criminal, a fixer of U.S. elections — choose your epithet; they’re all in regular use. He’s out to restore the Soviet Union, to conquer the Balts again, to make life miserable for Ukraine and generally to thwart the West at every turn.

I think that narrative is faulty. Vladimir Putin is no choirboy; no great power leader dare be. He is tough, ruthless if need be serving Russia’s security interests, but not at all the demon he’s made out to be. And though nothing is as offensive as Russia on the defensive, I don’t think Moscow is an aggressive marauder. I don’t think it wants war and a broken Ukraine on its western flank. I do think it won’t abide a security threat there, though, and that it will pay and impose very high costs, as it’s doing, to avoid one.

More generally, I think that Russia demands more respect than it’s been getting; that Putin is prepared to be our partner, but never our puppet; and that he’s damned if the United States is going to go on running as much of the world as it’s been doing — and running it so badly. Just think of the U.S. foreign policy fiascos Putin has seen in his 17 years of power, above all in the Middle East — and imagine how the charge that he’s the one who’s “aggressive” strikes him.

We hear much less about others to blame for this mess we’re in.

This 2014 infographic shows the advanced placement of NATO’s ballistic missile defence (BMD) systems and increased naval and troop presence encircling Russia and China, fundamentally altering strategic balance. (larouchepac.com)

We wrote Russia off when the Soviet Union collapsed. We decided we could ignore its interests. For a decade, Yeltsin played along. Putin won’t. For one thing, he will contain NATO. He made that clear in Georgia in 2008 and he’s making it clear now in Ukraine.

NATO, Russians know, is not a knitting club. I think driving our well-armed military alliance up Russia’s nose was a colossal, counterproductively provocative mistake. That deed’s been done, though, and we have to live with it. Expanding NATO further, however, to include Georgia and Ukraine — as Canada has advocated — would invite catastrophe.

Independent Ukraine’s performance hasn’t helped much either.

Politically, Kyiv lost a fateful measure of the loyalty of its large ethnic Russian minority. It also failed to wrest political control from oligarchs.

Economically, Ukraine has fallen far behind its neighbours, east and west.

In foreign policy, Kyiv’s mistakes have been devastating.

It failed to keep the peace with its giant neighbour. Three years ago, with hard-line nationalists in charge, who’d trashed a European Union-brokered settlement we’d all welcomed, the Maidan picked a fight Kyiv can’t win with the Kremlin. 

Kyiv can’t make the West care more — and can’t make the Kremlin care less. Like them or not, theory aside, major powers’ spheres of influence are real. We Canadians know that; we live in one. In the real world, Kyiv has about as much freedom to undermine Moscow’s security as Ottawa has to undermine Washington’s. (And, of course, its effective sovereignty is compromised. Welcome to the club.)

Kyiv was mistaken too in taking European promises of integration, of EU membership even, far too seriously. The prospect of EU membership was always a dream; now, with the EU beset, it’s pure fantasy.

Kyiv was mistaken as well in letting Westerners mind so much of its business. We’ve seen the U.S. choose a prime minister. We’ve seen American-proxy finance ministers. We’ve seen foreigners as ministers of reform and anti-corruption. And now we’re seeing the spectacle of Mikhail Saakashvili, fresh from picking his own fight with Russia and losing a good chunk of his country, show up in Ukraine as a regional governor and would-be president.

Through the quarter century of Ukraine’s independence, Canada has been determined to play a prominent role, driven above all by passionate diaspora sentiment. Quite out of character, and far from keeping with our modest military means, we became the West’s leading hawk. This aggressive posture, with its evident disdain for Russia, is struck to this day.

What I find striking in this record is that we’ve stood our values on their heads in Ukraine. We go out of our way, for one thing, to get along with our giant neighbour. With Ukrainians, though, who also live beside a giant, we cooperate in confrontation. The Russian bear should be poked in the eye at every opportunity.

Consider as well that while at home we practice pluralism, we pander in Ukraine to lethally exclusive ethnic nationalism. The latest example bound to exacerbate interethnic animosity is a new education policy banning Russian language instruction after Grade 4. Ethnic Russian Ukrainians, however patriotic — and Russians — cannot help but take offence. Wouldn’t you? 

No country in the world has a more profound interest in good bilateral and Western relations with Russia than does Ukraine. Yet no country in the world has done less than its best, loudest friend, Canada, to encourage essential reconciliation.

Consider our Magnitsky sanctions (a House of Commons bill called Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act based on the U.S. government’s Magnitsky Act), enacted unanimously. What shred of due process do they entail? Who decides how long the list, who’s guilty, who’s not? At a time of new, tense Cold War and global upheaval, and particularly in the glaring, ahistorical absence of any Canadian effort whatever to ease tension, reduce risk, Canada’s grandstanding contribution of a late, ill-timed, imitative, redundantly duplicative, and entirely due process-free set of new Russia sanctions serves no good end whatever. This is our best shot, all we have to offer? To everything there is a season, including selective moral outrage.

Whoever’s to blame, though, we are where we are, on the verge of greater disaster, and, given the stakes, we really do have to keep some peace with Russia.

To do so, to respond to this imperative, my view is that we need to foreswear further NATO growth and make room and arrangements for Ukraine to trade well with both Europe and Russia, while posing a security threat to neither — and to have the space and peace and quiet it needs to try to reunite, recover, reform and succeed. Far from “sacrificing” Ukraine, as critics will claim, neutrality and détente would permit its salvation.

In sharp contrast, our government’s view is apparently that if we give Ukraine enough help, it will defeat the rebels and Russia in the Donbas, win back the loyalty of the now bitterly alienated ethnic Russians there, retrieve Crimea, join the West and Europe and NATO and live happily ever after, hostile all the while to its vast neighbour, Russia. I find that vision incoherent, full of delusions, sure recipes for more misery, more war.

I recommend that we devote intellectual and diplomatic talent to the conception and promotion bilaterally and multilaterally of a coherent, realistic vision of Eurasian security; that we recognize, comprehend and restore rational relations with Russia; that we reconsider our advocacy of further NATO expansion; that we promote essential Ukrainian-Russian reconciliation; and that we meantime sustain our necessarily modest contribution to NATO in Europe and enhance our armed forces at home.

It’s a tall order, but along with three oceans to sail, we have promises to keep.

CHALLENGE & COMMITMENT LOST: Part 4: Canada & Australia: Comparing the legacy of two 1987 Defence White Papers

During a cruise around the world, Gunner’s Mate First Class V.W. Allen explained operations inside the No. 1 gun turret aboard the battleship USS Missouri to officers of the Royal Australian Navy — RAdm D.J. Martin (left) and VAdm M.W. Hudson (right) — and Australian Minister of Defence Kim Beazley (centre). Hudson is recognized for playing an important role in the introduction of the Collins-class submarines, Anzac-class frigates and establishing two-ocean basing for ships of the RAN during his tenure as Chief of Naval Staff from 1985 to 1991. (u.s. navy)

(Volume 24-11)

By Robert Smol

Two months before the release of Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada, Australia put out its own ambitious defence White Paper setting the country on a course of affordable and realizable self-reliance and defence in depth. As attempted here in Canada, the Australian White Paper of 1987 sought to realistically assert effective sovereignty protection over a large territory and coastline through more efficient application of limited defence capability.

“For many years Australians have regarded our nation as un-defendable without overwhelming and unaffordable defence spending,” said Australian Minister for Defence Kim Beazley during a speech to the National Press Club on March 25, 1987. “The White Paper shows that this is not so. We can defend our entire continent 24 hours a day and we can do it affordably.”

While the evolution of Australia’s 1987 White Paper over the last 30 years is beyond the scope of this series, the current operational capability of the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) compared to Canada’s says much about which country has achieved a higher level of self-reliance with respect to national defence.

As with Canada, the Australian 1987 White Paper sought to better define and consolidate the country’s defence commitments at home and with respect to her allies. It recognized that the country was too small (population-wise) and too remote to have any significant influence in international strategic balance. This reality meant that the “international political concerns and interests will always be more far reaching than our defence capabilities.”

What this provided was a more measured and realistic approach to defence planning. Australia came to the conclusion that its priority should rest with consolidating its capability to defend itself against an escalating conflict in the region.

When assessing the possible forms of military pressure against Australia, the 1987 White Paper concluded that, within the country’s “region of primary strategic interest, the capability also exists to mount more conventional but still limited military operations against Australia. These could take the form of increased levels of air and sea harassment, extending to air attacks on northern settlements and off-shore installations and territories, attacks on shipping in proximate areas, mining of northern ports, and more frequent and intensive raids by land forces.”

The answer was self-reliance and defence in depth. According to Minister Beazley’s preface to the 1987 White Paper, “the first aim of defence self-reliance is to give Australia the military capability to prevent an aggressor attacking us successfully in our sea and air approaches, gaining a foothold on any part of our territory, or extracting concessions from Australia through the use or threat of military force.” This approach required a defence in depth of military posture. In the words of Beazley, defence in depth “gives priority to meeting any credible level of threat in Australia’s area of direct military interest. It means that any potential adversaries know that they will be faced with a comprehensive array of military capabilities, both defensive and offensive.”

The Royal Australian Navy operates out of two main naval bases, Fleet Base East (in Sydney) and Fleet Base West (in Perth). Since 1987, as part of the country’s White Paper, the RAN has operated a “Two Ocean” naval plan, permitting the navy to patrol both the Pacific and Indian Oceans on a continuous and committed basis. (globalresearch.org)

Unlike Canada’s White Paper, which gave no clear mention as to how the proposed commitments would be financially managed over time, Australia’s 1987 White Paper provided a flexible long-term framework for reaching procurement funding objectives over time. There, spending was organized around a rolling five-year defence program (FYDP) that was meant to provide a framework around which “policies and priorities, their timescales for implementation, and the anticipated resources that Governments provide as a basis for forward planning are reconciled and brought into balance.”

As Minister Beazley stated during his 1987 speech, “a defence posture which required real growth in every year out of the coming decade would be a badly flawed policy for Australia because there is simply no way that the government can guarantee it.”

As with Canada, Australia’s geography demands a robust naval capability for the country’s own defence. Therefore both White Papers provided particular emphasis on maritime force capability. In the case of Australia, its 1987 White Paper made it clear that the ADF “must be able to conduct maritime operations to prevent an adversary from substantial use or exploitation of our maritime approaches.”

For Canada (see Part 2 of series), this was to be met by a commitment to complete the construction of 12 Halifax-class patrol frigates and 10–12 nuclear submarines capable of operating under the ice. A total of 35 EH101 helicopters were also to be acquired for both operational and search and rescue missions. However, of these planned procurement projects, only the Halifax-class frigates were built, entering RCN service in 1992.

While Canada sputtered and flamed out on its naval modernization plans in the 1990s, Australia sailed forward. In terms of submarines, as was the case here in Canada, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) used Oberon-class submarines in the 1970s and 1980s. However, in 1987 the government approved the purchase of six Collins-class submarines; these boats were enlarged versions of the Swedish Vastergotland class and were built in Australia between 1990 and 2001. In 2016, as Canada continued to struggle with its faltering second-hand submarines acquired from the United Kingdom, Australia entered into a contract with the French firm DCNS (now called Naval Group) for the construction of 12 Shortfin Barracuda 1A submarines. The boats are due to start coming online in a few years.

By way of surface fleet, between 1996 and 2001 Australia acquired eight Anzac-class frigates (FFH) with air defence, surface and undersea warfare, reconnaissance and interdiction roles. In addition, the RAN also commissioned three Adelaide-class guided missile frigates (FFG) between 1984 and 1993.

More recently, Australia launched the first of three Hobart-class guided missile destroyers (DDG) armed with long-range anti-ship missiles, a modern sonar system, decoy and surface-launched torpedoes, as well as various close-in defensive weapon systems. Canada, on the other hand, retired the last of its Iroquois-class destroyers this year with no replacement.

In 2014–2015 the RAN also acquired two Canberra-class amphibious assault ships (LHD) that are capable of landing a force of over 1,000 personnel together with vehicles, equipment and stores.

This in addition to the 15 patrol boats that were commissioned between 2005–2007, and the six mine hunters that launched between 1999–2003.

And while the Canadian government under Jean Chrétien cancelled the acquisition of the EH101 maritime helicopter program in 1993, Australia had already moved forward with its maritime helicopter project. Today, the Australian fleet is supported with 24 MH-60R Seahawks acquired between 2013–2016 as well as 16 older S-70B-2 Seahawks which have been in service since 1989.

Australia is two generations of anti-submarine helicopters ahead of Canada, which continues to fly the CH-124 Sea Kings acquired in 1963. Only recently has the first instalment of the Sea King replacement, the Ch-148 Cyclone, been delivered with the full fleet delivery to be completed in 2025. (The first Cyclone was to have been delivered in 2009, but modifications to the aircraft’s original design and other complications have led to significant delays in the program.)

Both the Canadian and Australian air forces acquired the F-18 aircraft in the mid-1980s. That was then. Today, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is well ahead of Canada both in terms of number and capability of its fighter fleet. In addition to its old fleet of 71 F-18 Hornets, the RAAF also currently flies 24 F-18F Super Hornets, which it acquired as an interim aircraft in 2012. Canada’s attempt to acquire 18 F-18 Super Hornets as an interim fighter has been put on hold.

Beginning in 2018 Australia will also acquire the first of 72 F-35A Lightning II multi-role fighters with the final aircraft set to be delivered in 2023. Planned additions could bring the number of F-35s in the fleet up to 100. Meanwhile, Canada has pulled back from its planned purchase of 65 F-35 aircraft and has not, as of yet, brought forward a replacement. For the foreseeable future, we will continue to fly our old fleet of 77 F-18s.

If there is one advantage that the Australians had over Canada it would be that their incentive for projecting their defence needs into the future was not so intimately tied into set Cold War alliances. Instead, their White Paper reflected objective and realistic assessments of the different levels of threats that the country may have to face alone in the future. While the Canadian government promoted the 1987 White Paper as a made-in-Canada defence policy, it nonetheless was the perceived changing of those overseas alliances that gutted this country’s White Paper and the procurement plans that went with it.

INFANTEER TO COMMISSIONAIRE: There's No After-Life Like It For Russ Treadwell

Single father Russ Treadwell left the Forces when he realized he would be missing out on too much of his young son’s life while away on exercise and deployments. His new career in Commissionaires is a perfect fit for Treadwell, now a husband and father of two.

(Volume 24-10)

By Micaal Ahmed

A husband, a father, a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, a training officer with Commissionaires — these are just a few words that describe the dynamic life of Russ Treadwell.

Born in Edmonton and raised throughout various cities and towns in Alberta, all Treadwell wanted out of life was to become a police officer. Upon finishing high school in Camrose, Alberta in 2006 at the age of 17, he went to make that childhood dream come true.

“Unfortunately, I was advised that I was too young and that I would need to gain life experience first,” Treadwell explains. “Since law enforcement was the only career goal that I ever had, I had no idea where to go next or how to get there.”

Russ Treadwell as a member of 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry

Having been forced to put his dream on hold, Treadwell moved to Edmonton and started working at his Dad’s Zamboni shop (who, in keeping with a family tradition, is also named Russ) as a general laborer.

“Though it was nice to work with my Dad, it wasn’t what I wanted to do for a career,” says Treadwell. “Shortly after, I was watching television when a Canadian Armed Forces commercial came on and I thought, if there was any way to gain life experience, the military would most definitely give me that.”

Russ proceeded to Canada Place to enlist at the DND Recruiting Centre. “I was very quickly accepted and on my way to Wainwright, Alberta, on November 17, 2006 to start my military training.” Ironically, Treadwell’s circle of life would eventually bring him right back to where it all began, as he currently works at that same Canada Place building in Edmonton.

“The military life was a brand new aspect to the Treadwell family as there is no history of us being in the military before, well, no Treadwell that we know of anyway, so with being the first I had no Idea of what to expect, no heads up, or really any idea of what exactly I was getting myself into.”

Treadwell decided to go Army and applied for the infantry. Luck was at his side as all his battle school courses were conducted in Wainwright.

After completing his battle school, Treadwell was posted back to his hometown of Edmonton to the 1st Battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (1PPCLI) Charlie Company (C Coy). “This is where I initially found my military family and brotherhood,” he said. “This is the company that helped shape me from the young 18-year-old boy I was into the father and husband I was going to become.”

2009 was a life-changing experience. Embracing fatherhood, Russ put his family first.

But his personal life would soon clash with his professional one. “In 2009, I was hit with the biggest life-impacting moments of my life. That year, not only did I find out that we were deploying to Afghanistan and I would have to decide if I was going to sign another contract so I could deploy as my initial three-year contract was coming to an end, but I also found out I was a father.”

On August 3, 2009 Treadwell received a surprise phone call telling him he had a son. “I can’t begin to explain the feeling I experienced when I received that call — it was the most powerful thing I have ever experienced to this day. Going from not knowing what you’re going to eat for breakfast the next morning to finding out you have a son is impossible to describe.”

Not only did Treadwell discover he was a father, he soon learned he would also become the sole provider for his son. In order to be able to give his son everything he would need, Treadwell signed another three-year contract with the CAF. “Needless to say, 2009 was an unforgettable year.”

Treadwell transferred to Bravo Company (B Coy) as C Coy deployed to Afghanistan. “B Coy gave me amazing opportunities to truly grow as a father and as a leader. Between the Primary Leadership Qualification Course (PLQ) and teaching a BMQ (basic military qualifying course), it was an unforgettable experience.”

During work-up training in 2010, his son fell seriously ill so Treadwell spent a lot of time with him in and out of hospital. He was then granted a position in the maintenance shop so it was easier for him to spend time at home with his son if needed.

In 2012 Treadwell decided to transition his police dream to the military dream and he signed another contract and joined Administration Company.

In 2013 the Alberta floods hit and Treadwell was deployed to High River. Afterwards, he realized a hard truth that he had overlooked since 2009. “My son Russell only has one parent. I am supposed to be his Mom and Dad, but while I was away on exercises and fighting floods, he was only being raised by his grandparents and his dayhome. This was not the life I wanted for him.”

“Though I loved the military and wanted to make it my life, I chose to make my son my life instead and I resigned. It was the hardest choice of my life to walk away from my Patricia family. 1PPCLI was all I had ever known my entire adult life and they gave me so many opportunities, so many experiences, and so many memories. I am very grateful and thankful for all the time I had with 1VP and I’m proud to have been called a Patricia.”

After making this difficult decision, Treadwell started his current career where he now works as a Training Officer with Commissionaires.

Russ Treadwell and his Patricia family on exercise.

“I joined Commissionaires in 2014. I had known about Commissionaires before as I had seen them working with us at the Edmonton Garrison. They were very quick to offer me an opportunity as they truly care and value military veterans. I have now been with Commissionaires for over three years, been promoted through several ranks, and I still feel valued and I have grown to love the Company itself and the family that comes with it,” says Treadwell.

“The transition from one uniform to another was actually easier than I thought it would be as there are a lot of veterans who are Commissionaires and we still follow similar rank. So you still get to experience that Army atmosphere which definitely helps, but keep in mind that this is more of a public setting, so you still have to tone it back a bit and keep the darker jokes held in, well, until after work anyway,” he says in jest.

Happy with where he is now, Treadwell doesn’t know where life will take him next, but for the moment, he’s content. He might eventually again try to pursue becoming a police officer, because some childhood dreams never really do go away. 

SHARING A FRIENDSHIP & TRADITION: Child Amputees Carry On Remembrance Legacy

Myles Newton (left) and Ryley McMillan (right) laying a wreath on behalf of The War Amps. 

(Volume 24-10)

Ryley McMillan, 9, and Myles Newton, 5, spotted each other for the first time through a fence that separated their neighbouring school and daycare. Noticing that they both share something special, they would often give each other a wave. Today, the boys share a strong friendship as well as a Remembrance Day tradition.

Ryley was born a left arm amputee and Myles a right leg amputee. They are both members of The War Amps Child Amputee (CHAMP) Program. War amputee veterans created The War Amps in 1918, its Key Tag Service in 1946, and later, the CHAMP Program. Since 1975, thousands of child amputees have received financial assistance for their artificial limbs through CHAMP and have attended regional seminars where they learn about growing up as an amputee.

For the past couple of years, Ryley and Myles have laid a wreath together at their local Remembrance Day ceremony on behalf of The War Amps Operation Legacy. By doing this, they pay tribute to the sacrifices of the war amputee veterans who started the Association and remember all who have served.

Ryley’s mom, Crystal, says it is important for her son to mark Remembrance Day by laying a wreath. “It’s to help spread the word and help people remember what the veterans sacrificed for us, and with that, The War Amps was started.”

Rebecca, Myles’ mom, agrees. “To know that veterans were part of creating the CHAMP Program, which we are so grateful for today, makes it important for Myles to have that connection.”

It was at a War Amps CHAMP Seminar, an annual regional event for child amputees and their parents, that the two boys met for the first time without a fence separating them. Ryley has attended many seminars and Crystal describes them as a powerful experience. “It put us at ease to know that he was going to be OK. The War Amps has supported us emotionally and supported Ryley to do things like any other child.”

But the boys’ friendship extends beyond the seminars and Remembrance Day. Rebecca says Myles looks up to Ryley, who often plays hockey on their backyard rink in the winter. To see Ryley not letting his amputation stop him from being active reminds Myles that he too can do anything he sets his mind to. 

“Because he just turned five, he’s starting to ask, ‘Why was I born like this?’ and we tell him that while Ryley was born missing part of his arm, he was born missing part of his leg. We’re all different,” says Rebecca.

The two families get together as often as possible, and while Myles and Ryley play, the parents can exchange advice. “I’m really grateful for the CHAMP Seminar that brought us together and the friendship that the boys have formed since then,” says Rebecca. 

When war amputee veterans started The War Amps nearly 100 years ago, they could not have predicted that their legacy would be remembered and carried on for years to come by young amputees like Ryley and Myles. Thanks to the public’s support of the Key Tag Service, The War Amps vital programs for amputees across Canada will continue long into the future.

GRISLY AND THE BEAR: The Search For A Downed Plane Leads To Some Uninvited Company

In this 2014 photo, Cliff Black is seen reviewing his old pilot’s log book, which showed his entry for September 22, 1941, the day he spotted the wreckage of Anson N9818 near the peak of Old Settler Mountain, as his wife Sue looks on. 

(Volume 24-09)

By Anne Gafiuk

“Have I got another story to tell you,” says Cliff Black, Second World War RCAF veteran.

One of his favourites is a close call with a purloined Flying Fortress while serving overseas as an RCAF Lancaster pilot with No. 419 Squadron. The squadron was part of the Canadian Bomber Command [6 Group] based at Middleton-St George in Yorkshire, England.

This tale, however, took place in Canada in the wilderness of the Lillooet Ranges of the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia. Black was posted at No. 13 Operational Training Unit (OTU), Patricia Bay, now the site of Victoria International Airport. It was late September 1941, on a Sunday. Black was golfing.

Two Anson aircraft had departed from Lethbridge, Alberta, in the late morning of September 21. Their final destination was No. 32 OTU at Pat Bay. The flight Anson N9818 had started its journey from Aircraft Repair Limited in Edmonton, Alberta.

One local newspaper’s September 22, 1941 headline (running above this map) read: “Fate Of Crew In Crashed Ship Unknown As Rescue Party Starts Mercy Mission Into Bushland.”  

Flying Officer Lloyd “Brookie” Brooks was in charge of one of the planes. “Brookie was sent to pick up one Anson in Edmonton and ferry it back to Pat Bay,” Black recalls. A second airplane was flown by PO “Doc” Sutherland.

Both aircraft had taken off from Kimberley, B.C. after refuelling. They had been flying on top of a broken overcast. In the vicinity of Hope, B.C., however, a front was encountered and both aircraft climbed to 16,000 feet where they entered the clouds. After being in the clouds for two minutes, moderate icing was experienced by Sutherland who decided to turn back, returning to Princeton, B.C. to await more favourable weather conditions.

“Personnel from Pat Bay came to tell us an airplane was missing,” Black says.

They had started searching, but it had been quite cloudy that first day, so crews came back empty. The second day, the weather was better. Soon, Black and another crew member sighted the downed Anson.

“We flew down as low as we could to take a look at it. It was a mess,” he remembers.

Disappointed he was not initially chosen to join the search party, Black approached Wing Commander John Plant, explaining that he had found the plane and wanted to finish the job. Plant put him on the list.

“We flew across in an Electra and landed in Vancouver, then the police drove us up to Hope in a few cars, dropping us off as close as they could so we could start our climb,” he explains.

: A photo of the wreckage of Anson N9818 on September 21, 1941 that took the lives of its pilot, Flying Officer Lloyd “Brookie” Brooks, and two passengers, Aircraftman Douglas Wortley and Sergeant Lionel Britland. Unfortunately, when they finally reached the wreckage, Cliff Black and William Richmond found no survivors. (jerry vernon)

A base camp had been established near a motel in the area, where they purchased hiking boots and jumpsuits to wear over their uniforms. With 12 others, a mix of RCAF personnel and a few locals, Black set out to climb the mountain.

“We went up a trail and a pretty rough road. There was a shack and from there we started to climb, coming to the top of one mountain,” he says. “It was steep and rocky.”

During the trip, the 24-year-old Black wore thick wool socks, preventing blisters, and brought along a match case he had gotten as a Boy Scout. On the trip, the legs of members of the search party were cramping up.

“We didn’t have food or water ... nothing!” he recalls. “A young fellow from the town and I continued. The rest of them went back. We spent all day climbing, drinking from the streams.”

Finally, Black and the young man, William Richmond, made it to the crash site. There they found the smashed aircraft among huge, rough rocks and bushes. Black and Richmond found two of the three men quickly. Aircraftman Douglas Wortley, 23, and Sergeant Lionel Britland, 21, both from the Lower Mainland, had caught a ride home with “Brookie” Brooks, 37, an American ferrying aircraft for the RCAF. They wanted to surprise their families. Britland and Wortley’s bodies were recovered. But Brooks’s had yet to be found.

“I thought: That bastard! He bailed out and left those kids! He would have been the only one with a parachute. Then I noticed a couple of heels in the bushes. Brooks, a big man, had gone right through the windshield of the aircraft. We pulled him out and getting him down, we lay the other two men beside him.”

An experienced pilot, Flying Officer Lloyd “Brookie” Brooks, an American, had flown as a commercial pilot in the U.S. In February 1940, he applied for enlistment into the RCAF.

As the sun was setting, light aircraft dropped supplies to Black and Richmond, including a hatchet, revolver, canvas, rope, sleeping bags and food. The supplies were attached to pieces of red cloth acting as parachutes, slowing the boxes as they descended.

Using the hatchet to chop some wood, the two men made a fire. They spent two days and nights on the mountain. Two bears nearby worried the men.

“If the fire got low, they might get closer to us,” recalls Black.

Black fired shots with the revolver at the rocks close to the bears, the shots ricocheting off the rock. That was enough. They never came down. By the third day, Flight Sergeant “Carney” Carnahan arrived with two packhorses and other members of a second rescue party. Because of the grisly scene that greeted them, Black was asked to cover the faces of the deceased. They used the red cloth from the supply drops to wrap the men’s faces.

Discussion ensued as to what to do with the bodies of Brooks, Britland and Wortley. Brooks was laid on one of the horses, but the horse’s legs buckled.

As the only officer present, Black was in charge. Since the horses could not carry the dead men, and they couldn’t bury them, he decided cremation was the best option.

“We broke up boxes from the drop, plus found scruff from the few dead trees, building what would be a pretty good fire, with a bit of fuel from the tanks of the Anson,” he says.

They took the airmen’s belongings out of their pockets, leaving their clothes on. A boulder placed on Brooks’s cap marked the accident’s location. Black couldn’t bear the thought of watching these men burn, so he packed the hatchet and revolver, and asked Carney to lead the way back down the mountain. The match was struck. The fire was lit. Black and Carnahan departed, leaving Richmond to return with the second search party.

But slowly Black and Carnahan realized they had a problem. “Trees and rocks started to look the same; within another two or three hours, we didn’t know where we were,” he says. “It never occurred to me how could you get lost on the huge mountain, but once you get down in the big trees ...”

Black and Carnahan were lost, the sun setting upon Old Settler Mountain once again. Another fire would be in order. Black stared into the distance, seeing the story playing out once more in his mind. This time, however, a bear did join them.

“‘My God, Carney! There’s a bear!’” yelled Black to his friend, while screaming at the bear to back off. “’Make lots of noise!’ I shouted to Carney.”

Remembering his companion’s perplexed look, Black laughs. Together they kept yelling at the bear to back off, though it didn’t seem too interested in coming after them. “I could see the staining around her [the bear’s] mouth from eating berries.”

Black told Carnahan to prepare himself to receive the hatchet if ever she chose to attack him.

“I’ll play dead and when she has me, you try to cut her backbone!”

Clifford Murray “Blackie” Black served as a Lancaster pilot with the RCAF’s No. 419 Squadron overseas, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre avec étoile de Vermeil (Silver Star) for his service. He retired from the RCAF in 1968. Black died at the age of 99 on April 1, 2016. While in hospital, Cliff was again on Old Settler Mountain, telling the nursing staff of the harrowing climb and of the grizzly, which was never far from his mind. (don molyneaux)

Carnahan threw a piece of wood at the bush beside the bear. She immediately took off. “We watched for a minute or two and she kept going. She must have thought something was tracking her!”

Exhausted, hungry and thirsty, they took off their boots, and tried to warm them by the fire.

“It was a beautiful night.”

The next morning, they continued their climb down the mountain, following the sun in the east. Around 1000 hours, the smell of fresh bread filled the air. A little house appeared nearby. Holding a knife, a man came out of the house, recognizing the two men as the lost boys. The news of their disappearance had spread.

With fresh bread to eat, Black and Carnahan asked for the location of the nearest road, which was through some nearby bushes. A car stopped minutes later, driving them back to their motel, where the other guys were getting ready to leave.

An old trapper told Black he knew a grizzly was trailing them, and worried for their safety, to which Black told him all about their encounter with the bear. Black was now ready to go home.

“I just wanted to get the hell out of there,” he says.

He and Carnahan were put on the train back to Vancouver, ferried to the island. By October 3, he was flying again.

“I still dream about this bear in the middle of the night,” Black says. His wife, Sue, confirmed this to be true.

CHALLENGE & COMMITMENT LOST: Part 2: 1987 Defence White Paper Wish List Whacks RCN

Different times: Aerial view of a Royal Canadian Navy Task Group vessels conducting a replenishment at sea en route to the Persian Gulf in September 1990 (from left): HMC Ships Athabaskan, Protecteur and Terra Nova, one of seven Restigouche-class destroyers that were in service between 1958 until 1998. In September 2014, the RCN announced the retirement of Protecteur, along with sister ship Preserver and the last two remaining Iroquois-class destroyers Iroquois and Algonquin. (dnd)

(Volume 24-09)

By Robert Smol

One does not have to read far into the report to understand that, of all the services, the Royal Canadian Navy had most to gain as a direct result of the 1987 White Paper, titled Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada. Likewise, the Navy had the most, potentially, to lose especially when it came to procurement.

And, 30 years later, whether this generation of sailor, procurement manager or policy maker realizes it or not, the Royal Canadian Navy is still dealing with the effects of the demise of two noteworthy procurement programs that came in the wake of the 1987 White Paper.

It was the intention of the government at the time that, by 2002, the operational core of the Royal Canadian Navy was as a minimum to consist of the 12 Halifax-class patrol frigates, 4 Iroquois-class (also known as Tribal-class) destroyers and 10 to 12 nuclear-powered submarines. By 2002, the Sea Kings were supposed to be retired to the museums and replaced by 35 EH101 helicopters in a maritime role with an additional 15 variants modified to a search and rescue role.

What converted this dream to today’s Royal Canadian Navy reality?

“Defence procurement is always controversial because it is very expensive. And when you set out the numbers, you have to include the life span of at least the initial contract and that has to include maintenance, training, all that kind of stuff,” says Rt. Hon Kim Campbell, who served briefly as Prime Minister in 1993 and previously as defence minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government. “But it also means that, in the political context, it is much easier for people to take this and make it a baseball bat to hit you with.”

Added to this is the historical framework within which Canadian defence white papers are typically conceived and written.

“When the ‘87 White Paper was brought out nobody expected that the Soviet Union would fall — it was two years out,” says Joel Sokolsky, professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada. “So this was typical of many white papers as a reflection of years preceding.”

And though territorial sovereignty was clearly emphasized in the 1987 White Paper, the context within which much of Canada framed and focused that sovereignty on was the Cold War as it existed at the time. Take away that frame and the focus, and our vision of sovereignty and the substance becomes blurred.

Added to this were the vague financial commitments in the White Paper.

“They were never committed,” says Joseph Jockel, professor and Chair of Canadian Studies at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. “You can see that in the White Paper itself, that incredibly namby-pamby financial commitment was a signal to the entire world that they weren’t fully behind it.”

Nonetheless, the initial buzz of the 1987 White Paper brought a flurry of debate and analysis in Canada’s major defence publications of the time. When it came to the ambitious nuclear submarine program, the assumed threat — back then as today — was Russian Arctic intrusion. However, when it came to nuclear submarines (SSN) as the optimum response, the naval defence community was not necessarily in agreement.

Writing for the Canadian Defence Quarterly (CDQ) in the winter of 1988, retired Rear-Admiral F.W. Crickard, a former deputy commander for Maritime Command, stated that “because of restrictions imposed on ASW [anti-submarine warfare] operations by geography and by the environment, only nuclear-fuelled submarines (or those not totally dependent on the atmosphere) can prosecute contacts gained by fixed sensors of an effective Canadian defence against submarine threats.”

S. Mathwin Davis, yet another retired rear-admiral writing for CDQ in the autumn of 1987, sought to remind those concerned that the RCN had been down this path before. In the late 1950s a nuclear submarine survey team had been established to assess the feasibility of nuclear submarines. Although the team found the option feasible, it nonetheless “emerged that this project was likely to be too demanding financially” and “that conventional (i.e., diesel electric) boats would be first class A/S weapons for some years to come.”

The jury certainly still seemed out as Professor R.B. Byers pointed out in the same issue that “neither the critics nor the proponents have addressed sufficiently the SSN issue within the broader contexts of Canada’s sea power requirements for the early part of the 21st century. The White Paper offers a number of rationales, but the debate has barely begun.”

But according to Jockel, there was no such debate in the U.S. Navy when it came to Canada acquiring nuclear submarines.

“The U.S. Navy was dead set against this,” states Jockel. “One of the motivations was it obliged the U.S. Navy to share information. And secondly it had enormous doubts about the capability of the Canadian Navy to maintain a nuclear submarine program.”

Meanwhile, the 1987 White Paper’s political handlers were under pressure on a variety of fronts.

Kim Campbell served as Canada’s 19th and first female prime minister for four months in 1993 after she won the Conservative Party leadership race to succeed Brian Mulroney. In January 1993 Campbell was transferred to the posts of Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs from Justice. During this period, she had to deal with the contentious Sea King replacement project as well as the emerging Somalia Affair. (simon fraser university)

“Prime Minister Mulroney did not get rid of the deficit; he had the Free Trade Agreement which was a liability,” says Sokolsky. “There wasn’t a lot of public support and people were linking the White Paper, which was pretty hawkish, as simply slavish pro-Reagan, and Mulroney’s friendship with Reagan was also a liability.”

In 1989 the SSN program was cancelled. Yet, the political and public opposition to new naval procurement programs was not restricted to those like the SSN, which might be seen as pushing the strategic boundaries.

With a generation of use and a well-known maritime search and rescue role, some might have thought that the plan to begin replacing the aging CH-124 Sea Kings and CH-113 Labradors between 1995 and 2002 was a “no brainer.” Yet, the fog of partisan politics was destined to skew logic.

“The decision had been made to try and use the same aircraft for both shipborne and search and rescue with the idea that that would reduce the overall cost,” says Campbell. “And the thing about the EH101 I remember when I inherited the file was that every time people would get up and start haranguing, ‘Why are we having these Cadillac aircraft?’”

What was the opposition’s definition of a flying “Cadillac” on the eve of the 1993 election?

Writing in CDQ in spring of 1988, Major M.W. Fielding of the CAF’s New Shipborne Aircraft Project Management Office listed the intended missions of shipborne aircraft as anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, medical evacuation, vertical replenishment, and anti-ship surveillance and targeting. According to Fielding, the EH101 was a good choice based on its engine capacity, and range and operability in icy conditions. The definition phase of the intended Sea King replacement was to be complete by the end of 1989 with first flight and first delivery coming in 1992 and 1994 respectively.

The initial order to AugustaWestland, the manufacturers of the EH101, was for 35 operational EH101s and 15 search and rescue variants that, when combined, were to cost $5.8-billion.

But as the Progressive Conservative mandate came to an end, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and the economy was in a deep recession. With increasing calls for a peace dividend, the helicopter purchase consistently popped up as a political lighting rod in the House of Commons.

“I actually provided briefings to anybody who wanted to come to see the different specifications of the different aircraft that had been considered,” says Campbell. “I would say, you are perfectly entitled to that question (Why are we buying those Cadillacs); please tell me which of the specifications you consider surplus? There was never an alternative. The Liberals had a strong left-wing element to their foreign policy and one of their things was now the Cold War is over, we now have a peace dividend.”

As pressure from her own party mounted, Prime Minister Campbell reduced the procurement to 28 operational and 15 search and rescue EH101s, which brought the price down to $4.4-billion.

“This was something from within my party that people felt this issue was hurting us,” she says. “I think it was a mistake, but it was one of those things that had become a political issue.”

Almost immediately after his landslide victory in October 1993, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien cancelled the contract paying some $500-million in penalties.

Meanwhile, variants of the EH101 went on to be used by Great Britain, Italy, Denmark, Japan and eventually Canada!

Five years after its cancellation and penalty payments, the Chrétien government arranged for the purchase of 15 CH-149 Cormorants, a variation of the EH101, from AugustaWestland. In November 2004, Paul Martin’s Liberal government announced the purchase of 28 CH-148 Cyclone helicopters as the ship-borne variant to replace the aging Sea Kings, with the first delivery expected in early 2009. However, changes in the design resulted in numerous delays and changes to the contract. The CH-148 Cyclone’s initial operational capability is now expected to occur in 2018, with full operational capability not being reached until 2025.

By that year, how long will it have been since the first planned Sea King replacement aircraft was supposed to fly? Just check the age of some of the Cyclone’s experienced pilots in 2025!

Today, as with most failed procurement plans, there is flagrant, almost Orwellian disassociation among political parties for decisions taken in the past that still impact the RCN.

In June 2017, ironically on the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the White Paper, the Liberal-dominated Standing Committee on National Defence published a report entitled The Readiness of Canada’s Naval Forces. Listening to the evidence of a multitude of expert witnesses, the Liberal report concludes that “our Navy must be a national priority” and that “we must not forget that we are building today the fleet of tomorrow and this must be done right.”

First among the Commons Defence Committee’s 22 recommendations is the somewhat hawkish statement “that the Government of Canada recognize that the readiness of the Royal Canadian Navy is one of its key pillars in ensuring national sovereignty and security, while simultaneously being aware that the aggressive actions by Russia and China in the maritime domain pose a direct threat to Canada and its interests.” The Liberal-dominated Committee also recommended “Canada begin the process of replacing Canada’s submarine fleet with the intention of increasing the size of the fleet with submarines that have under-ice capability.”

Yet when some of the report’s witnesses, including retired naval officers and academics, were asked about a future nuclear submarine option, they were quick to point out that it had been considered twice before and dropped for financial reasons.

“Admirals,” says Sokolsky, “are political realists whereas the government wasn’t.”

Next month, Part 3: Reflecting on the integration of reserve and regular force in the decade following the 1987 White Paper.

Part 1: http://espritdecorps.ca/perspectives-1/challenge-commitment-lost-part-1-looking-back-at-the-defence-white-paper-of-1987-a-made-in-canada-policy

CHALLENGE & COMMITMENT LOST: Part 1: Looking Back At The Defence White Paper Of 1987 - A Made-In-Canada Policy

(Left) Brian Mulroney served as Canada’s 18th prime minister after winning the largest landslide majority government (by total number of seats) in Canadian history against John Turner in 1984. (alchetron)

(Right)During Perrin Beatty’s 20-year career as an elected politician, he held numerous cabinet posts. As Minister of National Defence from 1986 1989, he was a strong proponent of the 1987 Defence White Paper. (cmj collection)

(Volume 24-8)

By Robert Smol

Thirty years ago the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney (1984–1993) tabled what was then, and still remains, the most ambitious and expansive defence policy proposal in recent memory. For those serving at the time, the 1987 White Paper Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada signalled, at least for a few months, an apparent willingness by the government to genuinely reverse long-standing shortfalls in capability and equipment.

Still in the depths of the old Cold War with the Soviet Union, the White Paper sought to refocus Canada’s commitment to NATO’s European theatre to a level that the country could realistically meet. While it passively acknowledged recent procurements by the previous Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1980–1984), it nonetheless reminded Canadians of the need for robust expenditures to sustain both old and new equipment and prevent “rust out.” On a manning level, the White Paper proposed the then-controversial Total Force Concept that would see an expanded role for the Reserves, including integration at all levels with the Regular Force.

But by far the most innovative political strategic shift in the 1987 White Paper was the honest and unadulterated opinion, emphasized throughout the document, that Canada needs to do more to guarantee the defence and security of its own territory. In his forward to the document Prime Minister Mulroney wrote: “Canada must look to itself to safeguard its sovereignty and pursue its own interests” and that “only we as a nation should decide what must be done to protect our shores, our waters and our airspace.”

A diagram from “Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada.” At the time of the 1987 White Paper, there was a concern that Soviet nuclear submarines could reach both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by transiting under the Arctic icecap.

But as time went on and the geopolitical challenges shifted, the 1987 White Paper proved too much, too late for a country and military that, in spite of ongoing rhetoric, had come to lack the appetite for a strong expansive military in a made-in-Canada defence policy. Likewise, the ambitious plans of procurement, which included nuclear submarines and maritime helicopters, were eventually cancelled.

To fully understand the potential implications of the 1987 White paper we need to remind ourselves of just how much bigger, modern, and engaged our military was in the mid-1980s.

Although the stigma of “enemy of the military” remains perennially attached to Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals, the reality is that when the Progressive Conservatives took power in late 1984 they had already adopted a military that was significantly bigger and more engaged in the world than that of today.

According to data compiled by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Canadian Armed Forces numbered 82,858 in 1984 — a full 16,000 more than today. Under the Progressive Conservatives this number increased to 84,600 by 1987. During the last four years of the Liberal government, GDP spending on defence increased until it reached 2 per cent in 1984.

When it came to NATO contributions, Canada had 6,700 military personnel deployed overseas in 1984. This included a mechanized brigade group as well as an air group. Additionally, Canada had over 700 military personnel deployed on United Nations peacekeeping missions, mostly in Cyprus and the Golan Heights.

The late 1970s and early 1980s also saw the government take serious and successful steps to procure modern equipment. In 1980 the Liberal government secured the purchase of 138 CF-18 Hornet fighter jets, 77 of which remain in service today. In the early 1980s the Air Force also put into operation the first of 18 CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft, which are also still in use today. In June of 1983 the contract and design for the new Halifax-class patrol frigates were put in place. In the late 1970s the Army acquired its first shipment of Leopard A1 main battle tanks.

But as Defence Minister Perrin Beatty made clear when he tabled the White Paper in June of 1987, this was not enough. Though acknowledging the recent funding increases, the White Paper reminded Canadians that “even this funding is insufficient to overcome the ‘bow wave’ of deferred equipment acquisition built up since the 1960s. If this condition was allowed to continue unaltered it would soon lead to ‘rust out’; the unplanned and pervasive deterioration in the military capabilities of the Canadian Forces.”

In order to address funding shortfalls leading to rust out Beatty, when explaining the objectives of the White Paper to the House of Commons, committed the government to “annual real growth in defence spending which, except in fiscal emergencies, will not fall below 2 per cent.” The new defence policy also made the commitment for “increased resources over those generated by this planned funding floor” in order to meet the costs of the newly proposed projects.

Arguably the single most ambitious dimension of the 1987 White Paper was in the area of maritime defence and security. What was needed to meet the evolving maritime security dimension was, in the words of Beatty, a “three-ocean Navy to protect our three-ocean country.” The evolution of Canada as a Pacific nation, combined with the known Soviet threat in the Arctic, demanded an effective force multiplier that could operate effectively on all three naval fronts.

In addressing the “way ahead” for the Canadian military the White Paper called for the purchase of 10 to 12 nuclear-powered submarines (SSN) by 2002. The justification for the new fleet of SSNs was based on the “vast distances in the three ocean areas in which Canada requires maritime forces and the SSNs unlimited endurance and flexibility.”

HMCS Onondaga, seen being towed to Pointe-au-Père, Quebec, was commissioned in June 1967 into the Canadian Navy. The last of the RCN’s serving three Oberon-class diesel-electric submarines, she was decommissioned in 2000 and now serves as a museum. The 1987 White Paper had called for 10 to 12 nuclear-powered boats to replace the Oberons. Instead, four used Upholder/Victoria-class boats were purchased from Britain in 1998. Since the first boat entered service in 2000, the fleet has been beset with problems and operational incidents that have severely limited the submarines’ active service. (wikipedia)

In a June 6, 1987 commentary written for the Globe and Mail on his nuclear submarine program, Beatty stated that the deterrence of “military intrusion effectively requires being able to detect an intruder and being able to react” and that a “submarine can detect and track intruders and advertise its presence, if desired.” He then went on to state that “the mere threat of a nuclear-powered submarine in an area inhibits an opponent and acts as a powerful deterrent.”

This new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines was to exist next to the Halifax-class patrol frigates already under construction, and the four Tribal-class destroyers already in operation. The Sea Kings, which 30 years ago were nearing the end of their usefulness, were to be replaced by 35 Augusta Westland EH-101 helicopters.

When it came to our NATO commitments to Europe, the focus of the 1987 White Paper was on rationalization. Apart from the Mechanized Brigade Group and Air Group already on the ground in West Germany, Canada had the 5th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Valcartier earmarked to deploy to Norway in the event of war as part of CAST (Canadian Air-Sea Transportable Brigade Group). This brigade was to be supported by Rapid Reinforcement Air Squadrons consisting mainly of CF-5 Freedom Fighter aircraft, widely perceived to be a substandard aircraft.

The review leading up to the White Paper found this level of readiness to be beyond what the Canadian Armed Forces could realistically sustain. The dual-front wartime commitment to Europe was further complicated by the fact that Norway did not allow the stationing of foreign troops on its soil in peacetime. Therefore, a wartime deployment to Norway would present costly logistical challenges. In the words of the 1987 White Paper, the CAST Brigade Group would require “some weeks to reach Norway, making timely deployment questionable, and it cannot make an opposed landing. Moreover, once deployed it would be extremely difficult to reinforce and resupply, particularly after the start of hostilities.”

In response, the White Paper proposed that the two-brigade deployment commitment be consolidated to Central Europe where Canada already had its Forces committed “thus enabling the Canadian Army to field a division-sized force in a crisis.”

M113 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group on manoeuvers during FALLEX in 1982 in Germany. During the Cold War, Canada’s military maintained several bases and stations throughout Europe. (lac, mikan 4876348)

In terms of manning, the White Paper frankly admitted that it would be “both impractical and undesirable to try and meet all of our personnel requirements through the Regular Force.” To further deal with the inevitable manning and mobilization challenges that would arise in an emergency, the White Paper proposed a Total Force Concept being the greater integration of the Reserves within the training and operational structure of the Regular Forces. Though widely accepted today such integration, nonetheless, required back then a significant shift in mindset for a generation of Regular and Reserve personnel developed in a system that had come to accentuate perceived differences between the two components.

Invariably, White Papers on defence are products of the politics of their day. What neither the government nor the Armed Forces could have predicted in 1987 was the rapid rate at which the world order was to change in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It did not matter that much that the 1987 White Paper had an especially strong emphasis on the protection of Canada and its coastal waters. With the possible exception of the Total Force commitment, the bold new vision for the military was stifled once its promised funding and tools failed to materialize in the naïve assumption that some new era of permanent peace and stability had arrived.

Next month, Part 2:  Alternate Universe — a look at some of the procurement programs that were promoted by the government in the wake of the 1987 White Paper that were subsequently cancelled.