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Canadian military officials were worried dropping COVID jab mandate would hurt ‘credibility’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Recently disclosed meeting notes reveal that top military leaders hesitated to drop the Canadian Armed Forces’ COVID jab mandate alongside the Trudeau government because they were worried it would impact the “credibility” of the institution.

According to information obtained by the Epoch Times, when the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an end to its federal workplace COVID vaccine mandate effective June 2022, Canadian Armed Force’s Strategic Operations Planning Group (SOPG) showed concern about public optics should they drop their mandate as well. This came despite the fact many Canadians were opposed to the jab mandates, as could be seen from the Freedom Convoy protest held earlier that year.  

Minutes from a June 15, 2022 SOPG meeting read, “If we rescind the CDS Directive, the credibility of the institution is weakened, particularly the relationship between the strategic and tactical levels.” 

The CDS “Directive” was a military mandate that all staff have the COVID jab, which was issued by General Wayne Eyre in late 2021.  

The comments in the minutes were made by the CAF’s Director Military Careers Administration (DMCA), with the email of the minutes having been sent by Colonel Krystle Connerty, who is a director with the Strategic Joint Staff. 

The email notes that the military COVID jab mandate was being defended by military “front line” staff, also stating that the CAF had been getting “complaints and insults, including being accused of ‘war crimes.’” 

On June 14, 2022, which was the day before the CAF meeting, the Trudeau government announced that its federal COVID jab workplace mandate would be dropped, as would the mandate requiring domestic travelers have the COVID shot to board planes and trains.  

As the CAF had its own mandate it place, it was not impacted by the federal mandate.  

Last November, a CAF member who spoke to LifeSiteNews under the condition of anonymity, observed that the military considers members who refuse the COVID shot “a piece of garbage overnight because you refuse it (COVID vaccine).” 

Military considered dropping mandates but kept them in place longer  

Per the Epoch Times report, the SOPG meeting minutes showed that the DMCA had proposed to either keep the COVID jab mandate in place, suspend it with the option to allow it to come back later, or rescind it altogether.  

According to the meeting minutes, the SOPG noted it should not “rush to failure,” claiming that there were “many 2nd and 3rd order effects that must be considered.” 

The CAF eventually lifted its COVID jab mandate in October of 2022, which was months after the federal mandate was lifted. Despite the mandate no longer being in force, members are still “strongly encouraged” to take the experimental shot.  

Of note is the COVID jab mandate is still in place for those with operational roles. It is also mandated for members “placed on less than 45 days-notice-to-move with a potential to be deployed at a location with limited/no access to medical care, or locations or nations where vaccination is a prerequisite for entry/operations.” 

The decision to keep the mandate for months longer occurred even though the overall CAF COVID jab rate stood at 90 percent.

Also included in the communications was a CAF’s Directorate of Force Health Protection (DFHP) assessment of what would happen should the mandate be removed, concluding that the risk of a poor outcome was “quite low.”  

Under the CAF’s mandate, hundreds of military members were fired, or one could argue, purged, for not getting the COVID shots. This is in addition to the thousands of public servants fired for not getting the COVID shots.  

In April 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under fire after claiming he did not “force” anyone to take the COVID-19 shots, despite his federal government mandating the novel injections as a condition of employment in all public sector jobs under its jurisdiction, leading to at least 2,560 federal employees being suspended for not taking the shots. 

His government also barred those who did not take the shots from plane, train, and sea travel. 

COVID vaccine mandates, which came from provincial governments with the support of Trudeau’s federal government, split Canadian society. The mRNA shots themselves have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children.   

The jabs also have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies. As a result of this, many Catholics and other Christians refused to take them.  

armed forces

Canadian military deployed ‘gender advisors’ to Ukraine, Haiti  at taxpayers’ expense

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The Canadian Armed Forces has been pushing a radical LGBT agenda under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the latest example being ‘Task Force Gender Advisors’ deployed in war-hit nations, such as Haiti and Ukraine.

Canada’s military has been actively pushing a woke pro-LGBT agenda on the world stage, with the latest example being its deployment of “task force gender advisors” internationally in war-hit nations, such as Haiti and Ukraine.

The “gender advisors” initiative is noted in the 2024 Departmental Report of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). This has resulted in it drawing a sharp rebuke from veterans who wonder why the military is spending money on pushing the LGBT agenda abroad.

The CAF report notes how in Poland, for instance, the “Task Force Gender Advisor was involved in all aspects of this training mission and supported the local Defence Attaché in connecting with local and Ukraine-based non-governmental organizations and interested parties.”

The report noted how the “gender advisor” as well as “gender focal points” were sent to military missions in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Poland, and Latvia throughout 2023.

In war-torn Haiti, “intersectional factors (were) being applied towards stabilization and humanitarian efforts,” via an “Operations HORIZON and PROJECTION” initiative.

This initiative is part of the third “National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security for 2023-2029.” This is a program that looks to advance pro-LGBT ideology, such as concepts of different “genders,” in all military operations.

Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the CAF, as well as all government departments, have pushed an ever-increasing woke agenda, as well as a host of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in place.

The military’s action plan notes how there are no less than three full-time “gender advisors” who are in the CAF at all levels.

The president of Veterans for Freedom, Andrew MacGillivray, blasted the woke DEI policies, saying the program has morphed into a “useless overbearing policy that has infiltrated every aspect of the Canadian Armed Forces.”

He noted that war-torn nations most likely don’t care “about gender nonsense being pushed by Canada when they are struggling to keep people alive.”

Since Trudeau became PM, the CAF has become increasingly woke and has been forcing LGBT ideology on many of its personnel. It has also seen recruitment plummet to all-time lows.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, earlier this year, Canada’s first “transgender” military chaplain was suspended for alleged sexual harassment, after he reportedly sought to grope a male soldier at the Royal Military College while drunk.

Canada’s military has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on pro-DEI polls, along with guest speakers, presentations, and workshops, as well as LGBT flags. The workshops covered topics including “the gendered nature of security,” while one talk discussed “integrating gender and diversity perspectives.”

In 2021, the defence department revealed that it has two separate committees and eight programs that worked to appoint homosexual advisors to “innovate” religious instruction and gender-neutral uniforms.

In June of 2023, the Canadian military was criticized for “raising the pride flag” in honor of the so-called “2SLGBTQI+ communities.”

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armed forces

Top Brass Is On The Run Ahead Of Trump’s Return

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Morgan Murphy

With less than a month to go before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the top brass are already running for cover. This week the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, pledged to cut approximately a dozen general officers from the U.S. Army.

It is a start.

But given the Army is authorized 219 general officers, cutting just 12 is using a scalpel when a machete is in order. At present, the ratio of officers to enlisted personnel stands at an all-time high. During World War II, we had one general for every 6,000 troops. Today, we have one for every 1,600.

Right now, the United States has 1.3 million active-duty service members according to the Defense Manpower Data Center. Of those, 885 are flag officers (fun fact: you get your own flag when you make general or admiral, hence the term “flag officer” and “flagship”). In the reserve world, the ratio is even worse. There are 925 general and flag officers and a total reserve force of just 760,499 personnel. That is a flag for every 674 enlisted troops.

The hallways at the Pentagon are filled with a constellation of stars and the legions of staffers who support them. I’ve worked in both the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Starting around 2011, the Joint Staff began to surge in scope and power. Though the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is not in the chain of command and simply serves as an advisor to the president, there are a staggering 4,409 people working for the Joint Staff, including 1,400 civilians with an average salary of $196,800 (yes, you read that correctly). The Joint Staff budget for 2025 is estimated by the Department of Defense’s comptroller to be $1.3 billion.

In contrast, the Secretary of Defense — the civilian in charge of running our nation’s military — has a staff of 2,646 civilians and uniformed personnel. The disparity between the two staffs threatens the longstanding American principle of civilian control of the military.

Just look at what happens when civilians in the White House or the Senate dare question the ranks of America’s general class. “Politicizing the military!” critics cry, as if the Commander-in-Chief has no right to question the judgement of generals who botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan, bought into the woke ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or oversaw over-budget and behind-schedule weapons systems. Introducing accountability to the general class is not politicizing our nation’s military — it is called leadership.

What most Americans don’t understand is that our top brass is already very political. On any given day in our nation’s Capitol, a casual visitor is likely to run into multiple generals and admirals visiting our elected representatives and their staff. Ostensibly, these “briefs” are about various strategic threats and weapons systems — but everyone on the Hill knows our military leaders are also jockeying for their next assignment or promotion. It’s classic politics

The country witnessed this firsthand with now-retired Gen. Mark Milley. Most Americans were put off by what they saw. Milley brazenly played the Washington spin game, bragging in a Senate Armed Services hearing that he had interviewed with Bob Woodward and a host of other Washington, D.C. reporters.

Woodward later admitted in an interview with CNN that he was flabbergasted by Milley, recalling the chairman hadn’t just said “[Trump] is a problem or we can’t trust him,” but took it to the point of saying, “he is a danger to the country. He is the most dangerous person I know.” Woodward said that Milley’s attitude felt like an assignment editor ordering him, “Do something about this.”

Think on that a moment — an active-duty four star general spoke on the record, disparaging the Commander-in-Chief. Not only did it show rank insubordination and a breach of Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 88, but Milley’s actions represented a grave threat against the Constitution and civilian oversight of the military.

How will it play out now that Trump has returned? Old political hands know that what goes around comes around. Milley’s ham-handed political meddling may very well pave the way for a massive reorganization of flag officers similar to Gen. George C. Marshall’s “plucking board” of 1940. Marshall forced 500 colonels into retirement saying, “You give a good leader very little and he will succeed; you give mediocrity a great deal and they will fail.”

Marshall’s efforts to reorient the War Department to a meritocracy proved prescient when the United States entered World War II less than two years later.

Perhaps it’s time for another plucking board to remind the military brass that it is their civilian bosses who sit at the top of the U.S. chain of command.

Morgan Murphy is military thought leader, former press secretary to the Secretary of Defense and national security advisor in the U.S. Senate.

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