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Lets get real, Canada and talk defence.

Un-fucking-believable. The more they prattle on about this bullshit, the more it will appear to be a "major problem". Its like a child with a cut on their finger over analyzing it and imagining how horrible it is and thinking how much it hurts.

Yes, I did just compare DND to a child, because this to me is huge political distraction, nothing else.

Along those lines, the Vancouver Military Dinner takes place in a couple of weeks.

It used to be a good dinner, but this time they've gone 'full woke'. I suggested that they bring in a Ukrainian General to talk about how to fight against the Russian and win. They had other ideas...

For the record, I'm a big fan of EDI improvement efforts. But when it overtakes everyone else's interests it stops being 'equitable', which is ironic.

Featured Organization​

RVC Logo
From the 1950s to the mid-1990s, LGBTQ2+ Canadian Armed Forces members and federal public servants were systemically discriminated against, harassed, and often fired as a matter of policy and sanctioned practice. This period of Canadian history has come to be known as the 'LGBT Purge', affecting an estimated 9000 Canadians who only wished to serve the country and institutions that they admired.

Our 2023 Featured Organization is Rainbow Veterans of Canada (RVC). RVC is a federally-recognized non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that those affected by the 'Purge' and CAF veterans who identify as LGBTQ2+ are given the recognition, respect, and support they justly deserve for their service to Canada. In addition to advocating for 'Purge' survivors - and LGBTQ2+ veterans and CAF members more broadly - RVC promotes education, awareness, and respect for the lived experiences of affected veterans and CAF members.


 
Along those lines, the Vancouver Military Dinner takes place in a couple of weeks.

It used to be a good dinner, but this time they've gone 'full woke'. I suggested that they bring in a Ukrainian General to talk about how to fight against the Russian and win. They had other ideas...

For the record, I'm a big fan of EDI improvement efforts. But when it overtakes everyone else's interests it stops being 'equitable', which is ironic.

Featured Organization​

RVC Logo
From the 1950s to the mid-1990s, LGBTQ2+ Canadian Armed Forces members and federal public servants were systemically discriminated against, harassed, and often fired as a matter of policy and sanctioned practice. This period of Canadian history has come to be known as the 'LGBT Purge', affecting an estimated 9000 Canadians who only wished to serve the country and institutions that they admired.

Our 2023 Featured Organization is Rainbow Veterans of Canada (RVC). RVC is a federally-recognized non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that those affected by the 'Purge' and CAF veterans who identify as LGBTQ2+ are given the recognition, respect, and support they justly deserve for their service to Canada. In addition to advocating for 'Purge' survivors - and LGBTQ2+ veterans and CAF members more broadly - RVC promotes education, awareness, and respect for the lived experiences of affected veterans and CAF members.


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Not sure if this the right place to post this, so Mods can move it if they so desire. Any way, a CBC report about upcoming defence spending.

PM details defence spending plans during Biden's visit — but the timelines are largely the same.​

The first new Over the Horizon Radar (OTHR) station on Canadian soil will be built in Ontario​


Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Mar 25, 2023 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: March 25

Canada plans to invest $7.3 billion to upgrade its fighter jet bases and Far North landing strips to accommodate the air force's new F-35s, the Prime Minister's Office announced Friday at the conclusion of a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the announcement represents the accelerated investment in continental defence that Washington had been calling for before the two leaders met in Ottawa this week.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced that the first new Over the Horizon Radar (OTHR) station on Canadian soil — intended to keep track of low-flying threats such as cruise missiles — will be located in southern Ontario. It eventually will connect with another, future station in Canada's Far North and the U.S. radar network that scans the skies for targets at extreme ranges.

Last spring, Canada announced it was going to invest $38.6 billion over 20 years to modernize the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The newly revealed investment comes from that pot of money.
U.S. officials have been privately and publicly pressuring Canada to move more swiftly in light of increasingly belligerent relations with Russia and China.

"NORAD is the only binational military command in the world, yet another way in which our partnership is exceptional," Biden said in an address to the House of Commons on Friday.
"It is an incredible symbol of the faith we have in one another and the trust we place in each other's capabilities."

During his address to Parliament, U.S. President Joe Biden says Canadians 'can always count on the United States of America.' Biden went on to praise the modernization of NORAD before saying that he's "looking forward to continuing to work in close partnership with Canada as we deliver on these needs so that our people can continue to rest soundly, knowing NORAD is on the watch."

Before the president's visit, which included a meeting with Trudeau's cabinet, U.S. officials had been signalling they wanted to see Canadian money earmarked for continental defence spent more quickly.

"There is a fair amount of infrastructure improvement that needs to be done in the Arctic runways, hangars, et cetera," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on background prior to Biden's arrival.

"And our ongoing discussions with Canada, relating to the timing of their investments, is to try and make sure that the infrastructure investments that are a part of Canada's NORAD modernization announcement will be completed in a timeframe that is consistent with when the F-35 planes are going to be delivered."

Most defence spending timelines unchanged​

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced in January that the federal government had signed off on the final contract to buy F-35 jet fighters to replace the air force's aging CF-18s. The final agreement for 88 warplanes — involving the Canadian and U.S. governments and the jet's manufacturer — won't see its first delivery until 2026 and the first F-35 squadrons will not be operational until 2029, senior defence officials said at the time.

The Department of National Defence released a backgrounder document Friday that included project timelines — many of which remained close to, or the same as, earlier informal estimates.

Defence procurement expert Dave Perry, vice president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, reviewed the backgrounder and said the only timeline that has been substantively accelerated is the one for the first OTHR radar site in Ontario, which is now expected to begin operating by 2028. He said he wonders whether tangible steps will be taken to deliver that project on time and what resources will be put into moving it along.

"This is a pretty complicated system, from what I understand," said Perry, whose organization has hosted conferences that occasionally have been sponsored by major defence contractors. "Without a commensurate plan to achieve the target date" the announcement is simply "rhetoric."

As for upgrades to the two main fighter jet bases and the purchase of air-to-air refueling planes to support the F-35s, those projects aren't expected to be ready until 2029.

The air force has four northern landing strips, at Inuvik, Yellowknife, Iqaluit and Goose Bay. Improvements to those runways aren't set to be completed for another 11 years.

"The planning process is underway to ensure that this infrastructure will meet NORAD and broader Canadian Armed Forces military requirements, and we will consider multi-purpose opportunities where practical through engagement with Indigenous and Northern governments and partners," said the defence backgrounder.

Friday also saw no movement on one of the most immediate problems facing Canadian defence officials: the replacement of the country's rapidly aging chain of government-owned RADARSAT Constellation satellites. The federal auditor general warned last fall that the satellites could outrun their useful lifespan by 2026.

Replacements for those satellites — which are used by several government departments, including National Defence — are still on the drawing board.

The Liberal government promised dedicated military surveillance satellites in its 2017 defence policy. But as Auditor General Karen Hogan noted in her report last November, those systems aren't set for launch until 2035.
Hogan said she wanted to see "a contingency plan" from the government.

'North America is vulnerable'​

The defence department backgrounder document, released Friday, showed the timeline for the satellite replacement has not changed.

Andrea Charron, director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Defence and Security Studies, predicted ahead of the announcement that OTHR would be the top concern for defence planners.

"It will address a number of radar gaps," said Charron, who recently co-authored with James Ferrguson the book NORAD: In Perpetuity and Beyond, one of the most exhaustive examinations of the binational defence agreement. She said it's not surprising that the U.S. is leaning on Canada to step up investment and timelines, given the geopolitical climate.

"I think every president has asked Canada to do more, to spend more, to be more concerned about the defence of North America and expand its capabilities," Charron said.

"I think the geopolitical conditions are new and they are unprecedented and North America is vulnerable and we cannot afford to get away with doing what we're doing now."

The vulnerabilities in the North American defence system are pretty clear, she said, and "the United States ... feels particularly vulnerable with now not one, but two peer adversaries or near-peer adversaries. We need to make sure that we aren't vulnerable anymore."

Link
 
Along those lines, the Vancouver Military Dinner takes place in a couple of weeks.

It used to be a good dinner, but this time they've gone 'full woke'. I suggested that they bring in a Ukrainian General to talk about how to fight against the Russian and win. They had other ideas...

For the record, I'm a big fan of EDI improvement efforts. But when it overtakes everyone else's interests it stops being 'equitable', which is ironic.

Featured Organization​

RVC Logo
From the 1950s to the mid-1990s, LGBTQ2+ Canadian Armed Forces members and federal public servants were systemically discriminated against, harassed, and often fired as a matter of policy and sanctioned practice. This period of Canadian history has come to be known as the 'LGBT Purge', affecting an estimated 9000 Canadians who only wished to serve the country and institutions that they admired.

Our 2023 Featured Organization is Rainbow Veterans of Canada (RVC). RVC is a federally-recognized non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that those affected by the 'Purge' and CAF veterans who identify as LGBTQ2+ are given the recognition, respect, and support they justly deserve for their service to Canada. In addition to advocating for 'Purge' survivors - and LGBTQ2+ veterans and CAF members more broadly - RVC promotes education, awareness, and respect for the lived experiences of affected veterans and CAF members.


Just a thought BUT maybe the best person for the job is what recruiting should look like? I know - a dinosaur. A raptor of some sort.
 
There is no military policy that I can discern in Canada these days.
I think that the biggest problem is that there is no transparency on it ... it just doesn't get talked about or debated except in very restricted circles. Sometimes that makes it look to outsiders like us that no one is thinking about it. There are military policies, they're just hard to find.

When you dig around you can find quite a few articles and papers on the subject, but it takes some digging and research.

What bothers me most is that the DND websites are particularly dumbed down. It's almost as if they are designed to not impart any real information. The search engine is archaic and either brings up no results or thousands of unrelated things. Both are equally useless. There is no attempt to create a useable repository of information based on a logical record management taxonomy.

There are literally millions of useful records within DND that are unclassified yet remain hidden away from the public (and for that matter to many internal users)

🍻
 
This didn't age well. But then I knew they were full of shit in 2015.


Highlights:

“As the Mike Duffy trial resumes tomorrow – and after a decade of Stephen Harper – Canadians’ faith in government has never been lower. After promising reform, the Conservatives have delivered the most centralized, self-serving government in Canadian history,” said Mr. Trudeau.

Liberals have a credible plan that ends partisanship and patronage in the Senate, and that creates a merit-based appointment process. Our plan will give Canadians a voice in Ottawa by ensuring more free votes and giving greater independence to parliamentary committees. Liberals will also make government information open by default to all Canadians, eliminate the fees associated with Access to Information requests, above the initial $5.00 filing fee, and ensure that the veil of secrecy over the Prime Minister’s Office is lifted.
 
Pretty much 180° to his promises.
A compulsive liar and a psychopathic narcissist. He has no idea what the truth is, but we know that almost everything he says is bafflegab or totally untrue. He, and all liberals in caucus, have yet to answer a question of consequence on topic in 8 years in the house. Now they stand there, blatantly reading breifing notes by junior staffers in the PMO. They won't even formulate their own answers anymore. They are doing a great impression of the Red Chinese National People's Congress or the Russian Federal Assembly.
 
A compulsive liar and a psychopathic narcissist. He has no idea what the truth is, but we know that almost everything he says is bafflegab or totally untrue. He, and all liberals in caucus, have yet to answer a question of consequence on topic in 8 years in the house. Now they stand there, blatantly reading breifing notes by junior staffers in the PMO. They won't even formulate their own answers anymore. They are doing a great impression of the Red Chinese National People's Congress or the Russian Federal Assembly.
But comrade Fishbone JT not smart like most people - he is puppet of PRC I think!!

(WHEN you read this do it in a Russian accent ;) )
 
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