Well, gonna head into work and get some drawings done. But before I go in, just thought that I’d say my piece about the latest news regarding the Canadian Armed Forces.
13 years ago I would have greeted the appointment of a female as the Chief of Defence Staff. But I’ve come to realize that the Chief of Defence Staff isn’t in a position to fix the issues with the Canadian Armed Forces. These issues are institutional issues that are created by how the Canadian Forces function.
Call me cynical, but there is no way that Ms. Carignan will be able to overcome the defects in the Canadian Armed Forces without a massive restructuring. Ms. Carignan has far too many subordinates running their own personal little fiefdoms in their own little silos to allow her to upset their decades long routes to easy retirement.
Since I had my unfortunate involvement with the defective CFNIS in March of 2011 the Canadian Forces has had 5 Chief of Defence Staff.
In almost the same period of time there have been 9 different Vice Chief of Defence Staff.
And since 2011 we’ve had Tim Grubb, Rob Delaney, Simon Trudeau as the Provost Marshal. We’ve also had various commanders of the CFNIS such as the infamous Lt.-Col. Gilles Sansterre who was called “the incurious investigator” by the media because he didn’t want to know about the sexual abuse of young boys by the Afghan Forces on a base that was administered by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
And remember, the Provost Marshal is directly subordinate to the Vice Chief of Defence Staff.
Chapter N-5 National Defence Act
Yep, that’s right. The Provost Marshal who is supposed to be a Peace Officer as defined by the Criminal Code of Canada is under the direct command of someone who is NOT a Peace Officer.
Chapter N-5 National Defence Act
Chapter N-5 National Defence Act
So there you have an entire section of the Canadian Armed Forces that is bound by the National Defence Act to dysfunction. It’s literally hard coded into the National Defence Act.
Even if Lt.Gen Carignan wanted to get to clean up the dysfunction in the Canadian Forces Military Police Group, she’s in for a massive battle. She will never hear the truth from low ranking investigators as those investigators may be under instructions by their superiors to simply blow sunshine up Ms. Carignan’s ass.
If you were an investigator with the rank of Sergeant or Master Corporal, and you had Lt.Gen. Carignan say “come talk to me if you have any issues you’d like to talk about”, but yet your direct chain of command told you to think twice about telling the Lt. Gen. anything but “happy time fairy tales” whatcha gonna do?
Remember, in the Canadian Forces you’re not simply gonna tootle off to NDHQ in Ottawa to have a chit-chat with the Chief of Defence Staff. No, first you have to ask your chain of command for leave from your duties. This of course is going to be where you have to explain to your chain of command why you’re going to Ottawa to see the CDS.
And when you explain to your local chain of command that you think that they’re incompetent and that they interfere too much in your investigations, guess what? Please see sections 83 and 85 of the National Defence Act.
Think I’m over exaggerating?
Three retired supreme court justices have reviewed the military justice system since 2014. And all three have basically pinched their noses at the stench and given the system a hearty thumbs down.
You can’t have a proper justice system when people with parochial and political agendas can simply issue orders in relation to any investigation.
The only way in which Lt. Gen. Carignan will ever be able to reform the rot within the Canadian Armed Forces is to abolish the Canadian Forces Military Police Group and to hand over the prosecution of all offences that are not of a purely military nature to the RCMP.
As long as Section 83 and 85 of the National Defence Act exist, junior subordinates will never be free to tell the truth about the interference from their chain of command.
And as long as their chain of command is allowed to interfere, issues will go unreported and uncorrected. This will always lead the military to the situation that it finds itself in right now. Unable to clean house because of its heavily compromised police agency.
