THOMSON: It's time for CAF top brass to tell the truth

If pride is to be restored in Canada’s military, then the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) needs to start acting in a manner which warrants that restoration. Until then, the organization and its leadership deserve every painful lash they receive in the hollow square of public opinion.This is a sentiment that needs to be stated forthrightly, because over the past few months there has been a perceptible and disconcerting trend to characterize public critiques of the CAF as the work of hostile state actors bent on undermining the public’s trust in our military. Recent history has shown military leadership does not need Russia’s help in this regard.It started in earnest in July 2024 with the change of command from Gen. Wayne Eyre to Gen. Jennie Carignan, with the former in his speech saying: “Our own institution is being targeted every day as we see pro-Kremlin trolls tailoring their insidious propaganda to cause maximum harm, in many cases with fabricated personal attacks. Gen. Carignan, you have already seen this. Even if they don’t see themselves consciously aligned with hostile states their ends are the same: They are Putin’s useful idiots.”The sentiment turned slanderous in October 2024 when former MP and ambassador Chris Alexander accused Ottawa Citizen journalist David Pugliese of being a Russian agent during testimony at a session of the Public Safety and National Security committee.Pugliese known for his investigative journalism on Canada’s defence file responded to the allegations in an interview with Global News calling them “false claims”. “I was never approached by anybody, Russians, Chinese, you name it. And, no, I’m not a Russian spy,” the veteran journalist asserted.More recently Marcus Kolga, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, wrote in the Toronto Sun that, “We must reject the cynical narratives — both domestic and foreign — that undermine public trust (in the CAF,) as well as the morally unscrupulous Canadians who support and amplify them.”While Mr. Kolga’s advice is well-meant, it’s a bit misguided in that he identifies the wrong symptom.The issue isn’t how Canadians, including members of the media, are talking about or reporting on the CAF. Rather, it’s how the CAF regularly fails to deliberately and proactively communicate with Canadians and members of the media about its operations, activities, investments, plans, and actions to address the many pressing challenges of its remit.This is something that Brett Boudreau, a former public affairs Colonel and Fellow with Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), agrees with.“The regular accumulation of provable examples of outright disrespect for the principles of openness and transparency lead to a loss of faith, trust and confidence in the institution and its leadership, and fuels mis- and disinformation. This steady erosion of trust inevitably leads to 'existential crisis'” Boudreau explained.One ironic example occurred last March when the office of former Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS,) General Eyre, refused to release a copy of a speech he delivered advocating for openness of defence issues. Instead journalists were forced to file an Access to Information (ATI) request to obtain it which in the past were made available as part of the public record.Another flagrant case was reported on in the Ottawa Citizen on Monday 27 January.The story titled “Almost three-quarters of Canadian troops are overweight or obese: documents” outlined how the CAF tried to hide embarrassing information about its apparent obesity epidemic from the public by untruthfully responding to two ATI requests, by researcher Ken Rubin.Between the organizations recalcitrant attitude towards the media, and increasingly frequent attempts to mute criticism directed towards it, Boudreau thinks these are indicators that a serious communication problem exists within National Defence.“There has been a huge spike in the use of ad hominem attacks by senior leaders at Defence against those who dare to offer public commentary viewed as critical of leadership or policy. It's a heckuva lot easier to dismiss criticism as foreign-agent inspired and move on, than to responsibly, reasonably, and actively address the issue at hand with some informed context and perspective. Or even to avoid controversy in media through more active communication.”“Command climate' is really important here,” Boudreau explained. “The institution adopts behaviours it sees from the top leaders. That behaviour gets regularized, 'baked in,' and copied. The consequence is the institution becomes increasingly insular, blind to constructive criticism, and allergic to outside advice.”Which indicates that if anything the answer to restoring pride in the CAF isn’t less criticism from the media and public, but more accountability from CAF and DND senior leaders and more explicit actions that match their rhetoric about things like “people are our number one priority.” According to Boudreau that isn’t going to change without external stimulus.“The current unacceptable situation calls for a performance audit on the Defence (and government more broadly) communications function, by the Auditor-General.”This is definitely something that the next government should look at ordering early in its mandate.Because at the heart of the matter, most Canadians support the rank-and-file soldiers, sailors, and aviators and would love to know more about their exploits, duties and capabilities. That’s how you rebuild pride in Canada’s military, by telling the stories of the folks in uniform who are connected to the communities from all across the country, not censuring criticism, delaying and denying the release of records, or being non-transparent.Until the leaders in our National Defence understand that, the lashings will continue.

THOMSON: It's time for CAF top brass to tell the truth

Related Stories