SLOBODIAN: Woke and in charge of the Canadian Armed Forces

So, the appointment of Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan as the first female Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) is being celebrated in Ottawa.Well, OK. The incoming CDS has two X chromosomes. Don’t care. This ‘rah-rah woman’ in the workplace stuff is getting old.The question is whether she was the best qualified person for the job. Given the prime minister's penchant for making symbolic appointments, one may at least ask.Carignan will head the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) at a time when two major raging conflicts — Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Gaza’s Hamas/Lebanon — can expand in a heartbeat. And trouble in the Red Sea by Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthis has the world on another precipice.So, before anyone pops the champagne and salutes, let’s find out if the pusher of woke Carignan proves to be the best choice for Canada and is capable of suitably carrying out her vital mission with a proper vision.Granted, she assumes the post on July 18 facing hurdles to overcome. Until she proves herself, she’ll be under a cloud of suspicion, fair or not. Did she get the job because she’s a woman who, by the way, pushed the catastrophic DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) on the CAF?DEI, otherwise known as Didn’t Earn It, supports promoting ‘special’ cases over perhaps more qualified members creating a weaker military. And a lot of warranted resentment. And bad morale. And early departures in a chronically under-manned CAF.Let's recognize what's going on here. In Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s woke Canada, if the late five-star US Gen. Douglas MacArthur applied for the job he’d have been rejected. Despite his medals and victories, that magnificent military hero would never have identified as he/him or they/them, so his application would have been filed under T for trash.In today’s climate, the formidable, no-nonsense, retired Gen. Rick Hillier — the best CDS Canada has had — wouldn’t have landed the job, either. Way too outspoken, a fierce defender of those under his command, and not at all shy about standing up to politicians if their moronic meddling got in his way and harmed the troops.That’s the leadership Canada’s beleaguered military desperately needs now. Is that what Carignan will bring to the table?People’s Party of Canada Leader Max Bernier is not a Carignan cheerleader.“The new boss of the Canadian Armed Forces appointed by Trudeau yesterday is the woke apparatchik who brought DEI rules and diversity hiring quotas, turned the CAF into an organization promoting gender identity nonsense, and introduced and ‘inclusive’ dress code so ridiculous it just had to be made more restrictive again,” Bernier posted on X.“Now she’ll have full power to make sure we have an army of sissies and minority hires with outdated equipment who couldn’t ever repel an invasion from Iceland.”“Carignan ‘has served for the past three years as Chief, Professional Conduct and Culture, National Defence, leading efforts to transform the culture of the CAF.’ ”Remember the big to-do about changing military dress codes? The tattoos, piercings, long purple hair, she-boots for he-feet didn’t go well and had to be reversed.Another hurdle Carignan faces is remedying the broken morale that permeates the CAF which she inherits from outgoing CDS Gen. Wayne Eyre. Under his command morale, recruitment and retention steadily deteriorated because of bad Liberal policies and the thinly veiled contempt for the CAF that Eyre couldn’t, or didn’t, stand up to. The former soldier’s soldier turned to mush when faced with political pressure.So, who is Carignan? Quebec-born Carignan’s first love was dance — she dreamed of being a ballerina. Instead of pursuing that, she joined the military in 1986. In 1990 she married Eric Lefrançois who was in the same platoon at the Royal Military College in Saint-Jean. They took ballroom dance classes together.Carignan graduated as a military engineer.She served as an officer in engineering regiments as a peacekeeper in the Golan Heights; was in Bosnia in 1995 and returned in 2002 to clear unexploded ordnance littering fields; commanded the Task Force Kandahar Engineer Regiment in Afghanistan in 2009-2010 and led a one-year NATO mission in Iraq ending in 2020.Her chief of professional conduct and culture position was created because of sexual misconduct allegations against high-ranking CAF officers that began in 2021. Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour recommended changes within the CAF to alter its toxic culture. Carignan assumed the task of changing the military’s conduct culture.Carignan was the recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal and the Governor General's Order of Military Merit.The missions she was sent on were certaoinly tough. How she held up in war-torn Afghanistan, for example, will be an indicator of the stamina she’ll need to serve in her new role.And so we ask the questions that we suppose any appointments committee would ask, when considering who should fill the role of Chief of Defence Staff for the Canadian Armed Forces?Did this person earn the respect of those under their command? Did they believe this person put their well-being and safety before their own? Are they celebrating the appointment? How about our allies, the forces this person worked with from other nations under the NATO banner? Did they admire and respect this candidate?These are general questions, and we must assume they were asked and answered to the satisfaction of the Government of Canada.But in the particular case of Lt. Gen. Carignan, was she part of the brass posse that vengefully went after military members who refused Trudeau’s career-killing COVID-19 mandates? Was the culture czar Carignan working to rid the military of its alleged toxic nature silent as members were ostracized, bullied, and pushed out by toxic superiors? Or did she whole-heartedly support the attack on rights and freedoms?Will she share the Liberal opinion that Canada’s CAF must redirect into a climate-fighting force?What will be her priority? The troops or bowing to Trudeau politics and his vision of what the CAF should be?Just asking.Trudeau told reporters that appointing the CDS was an “extraordinarily important choice” in light of “these moments of complicated geopolitics and increased threats, particularly to our Arctic.”“Making sure that we have the right person to lead our Armed Forces in this pivotal time was something that I think Canadians appropriately felt that we needed to take seriously, which we did.”“I am confident that, as Canada’s new Chief of the Defence Staff, she will help Canada be stronger, more secure, and ready to tackle global security challenges,” he said in a news release.The greatest problem the CAF faces is not the loyal, hard-working serving members. The problem stems from the Liberal government’s neglect in supporting them and building and equipping the CAF. And the Liberal desire to change the military into a weak, woke force.The other problem has been the appointment of chiefs of the defence staff that appear weakWe must hope Carignan declines to follow their timid lead and boldly takes the necessary path for the good of Canada.