Strategic communications practitioner. Former senior military public affairs officer. CGAI Fellow. Aussie dad. 🇨🇦
Joined December 2016
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3 May 2022
New report by @CAGlobalAffairs tells the story of a 5 year DND initiative labelled by leaders as "incompatible" with govt policy, and lacking "appropriate authorities & oversight." See: cgai.ca/the_rise_and_fall_of…
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Brett Boudreau retweeted
My latest article....Military police warned about officer’s claims of access to Anita Anand and Mriya Aid connection
ottawacitizen.com/public-ser… via @ottawacitizen
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Jun 3
Particularly good overview of the key issue of this report by this journalist.
Other key take-aways:
“Over‑redaction of personal information continues to be a recurring problem, undermining transparency and the credibility of oversight.”
“Delayed disclosure also remains an issue.”
“The CFPM has also declined to provide disclosure at the preliminary stage when the MPCC is determining whether to call a public interest investigation or hearing … this reluctance to share information early in the process creates a significant barrier to effective oversight.”
“In several cases this year involving delays in Professional Standards investigations, the CFPM declined to respond to recommendations directed to her, citing the absence of a statutory obligation.”
Why political authorities and senior CAF leaders are fine with this continued organizational intransigence by the military police is baffling. These behaviours do great and/or grave harm to many members.
My latest article....Military police leadership still battling civilian oversight, watchdog reports
ottawacitizen.com/public-ser… via @ottawacitizen
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Jun 1
No matter how "good" an idea is, major initiatives like this will flounder without deliberate, senior leader-driven, proactive comms from policy conception through to execution. Defence needs to slow-build understanding by continuous two-way public engagement with critics and skeptics. Policy and communications needs to be progressively elaborated, in lock-step.
Patriotism will drive Canadians into mobilization force, military report says. The goal is to create a new 300,000-strong reserve force to be used in national emergencies.
ottawacitizen.com/public-ser… via @ottawacitizen
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May 28
Bad look for advocacy organization with deep support from DND. Given DND track record with media, one could reasonably ask whether decision to restrict access to critical media is bad call by CADSI pandering to what DND would like, or some other even less favourable explanation?
May 28
Interesting @C_Somos was told by CANSEC organizers there was no room for her. Our reporter got accredited in a few minutes without prior registration. Somos has written articles questioning the military. So has other barred outlets, @Ricochet @readthemaple @TheBreachMedia
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May 27
“DND public servants, concerned that the department and [CAF] were not being forthcoming with information, provided the Ottawa Citizen with a copy of the May 4 internal message about the initiative.”
Wheels have fallen off DND comms when even details about parking are secret!
May 27
The Defence department has set up a temporary overflow lot at the Connaught Range in hopes it might alleviate some of the ongoing parking problems at its Carling campus headquarters.
ottawacitizen.com/public-ser… via @ottawacitizen
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May 26
Pretty rich that the leading defence business advocacy group regularly calling on Govt to be more transparent denies media access on grounds that: “Publications or organizations that exist primarily for advocacy purposes may not qualify for media accreditation.” 😜
May 26
CANSEC Arms Fair Bars Multiple Independent Journalists From Attending
readthemaple.com/fair-bars-m…
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May 19
“In February 2024, Maynard testified at the Commons defence committee that DND was regularly violating the law, with little consequences … DND broke the law in almost 40 per cent of the requests it received to produce records…In an increasing number of cases, the department was claiming that records don’t exist…”
May 19
RCAF @RCAF_ARC refused to release photo of Lt. Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet signing the F-35 fuselage bulkhead. I used Access to Info to try to get a copy...but DND and the RCAF would only release this grainy photocopy.
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Brett Boudreau retweeted
May 16
Still no Canadian 🇨🇦 news coverage of the Canadian warship visiting Vietnam 🇻🇳, or any official Canadian government posts about it, while the foreign press are all over it. Another public communications failure from the MND/DND/CAF/RCN/CJOC.
#HMCSCharlottetown #OpHORIZON
May 15
🇨🇦⚓ RCN Halifax-class frigate HMCS Charlottetown (MMSI:316130000) arrived in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam 🇻🇳 earlier today for a four day friendship visit, which official Canadian government channels are not communicating to the public.
marinetraffic.com/en/ais/det… #HMCSCharlottetown #OpHORIZON
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May 15
Important new details uncovered here by Ashley.
In June 2021, the day Parliament adjourned for the summer, Defence leadership acknowledged the broader military strategic communications scheme was “incompatible” with government communications policy and the vision, mission and principles of DND Public Affairs. In a surprising self-indictment, the leaders also admitted a lack of “institution-wide strategic level direction and guidance,” to build information-related capabilities that were “governed by appropriate authorities and oversight.”
At issue, is whether the leader and institutional mindset has sufficiently evolved since then. Hard to know, since CAF is so opaque about issues that are deeply embarrassing to them.
cgai.ca/the_rise_and_fall_of…
May 15
The military reprimanded soldiers after they raised concerns about an order to monitor Canadians' online activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBC News has learned:
cbc.ca/news/politics/militar…
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Brett Boudreau retweeted
May 12
Not every tip off results in the story you think it will.
When I was approached to look at "how the RCMP is reliant on the U.S." for training, what the story became was 'how has our federal police force managed whilst being too small and underfunded for the threats we face’
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May 12
Superb commentary about this subject.
Check out my latest article: When VAC Puts On an Art Exhibition While Calling a War a “Mission” linkedin.com/pulse/when-vac-… via @LinkedIn
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Apr 30
Turns out the recent senior leader ‘everything is awesome’ recruit-numbers-are-thru-the-roof tour missed some critical context and perspective.
Apr 30
Success rate for basic training in Canadian military drops, report says theglobeandmail.com/politics…
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Apr 23
“The [DND] referred questions from the Ottawa Citizen about the release of the RFI over to Public Services and Procurement Canada. PSPC then referred the Ottawa Citizen back to DND. DND did not answer the questions”.
Apr 23
My latest article...Canadian military to launch initial steps in new $5-billion warship project.
ottawacitizen.com/public-ser… via @ottawacitizen
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Apr 19
Some coincidence! MND news conference at same time as start of MPCC public interest investigation into military police competence and refusal of top cop’s office to share documents with MPCC.
SQUIRREL!!
mpcc-cppm.gc.ca/public-inter…
Apr 19
Minister McGuinty will highlight progress on CAF Recruitment. canada.ca/en/department-nati…
ALT Media advisory
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Apr 15
Why stop there?!
ottawalife.com/article/accou…
DWatch calls on Prime Minister Mark Carney to penalize Deputy Minister Christiane Fox for violating the federal government ethics law, and calls on the House Ethics Committee to recommend key changes to close loopholes & strengthen enforcement & penalties bit.ly/426cLhX.
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Apr 14
"The [DND] and the [CAF] would not comment on the changes, and instead referred questions to the Treasury Board, which did not provide comment."
OMG, just call the journalist to briefly explain the policy, to avoid impression of a cold and unaccessible bureaucracy!! Not hard!!
Apr 14
My latest article....Some Canadian military personnel left scrambling after cuts to out-of-country allowances. The changes came into effect on April ottawacitizen.com/public-ser… via @ottawacitizen
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Brett Boudreau retweeted
Apr 11
Why do Canadians have to look to foreign allies to keep abreast of current Canadian military operations?
Example: Canada's latest air patrols for Operation NEON -- to enforce sanctions against North Korea -- were announced by Japan Mar. 23:
mofa.go.jp/press/release/pre…
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Brett Boudreau retweeted
Staffed with Facebookians who are incapable of understanding Twitter, CJOC told their Boomer friends and family who follow them on Facebook about #ExMANTIS, an exercise that took place in Malaysia back in FEBRUARY. You couldn't be told about it before now because reasons.
ALT In February, members of the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit (CJIRU) completed Exercise MANTIS 2026 in Malaysia. This year’s serial continued the shift from unit-level chemical, biological and radiological capabilities towards a joint response focusing on the tactical and technical integration of all Malaysian Armed Forces elements. Recurring since 2014, the exercise has become a staple of the Canadian Indo-Pacific Strategy. Based on cooperation, coordination and interoperability, we continue to work together to address common security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, and beyond. Learn more about Ex MANTIS 2026 here
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Brett Boudreau retweeted
Another communications failure, I don't even know why I bother really, the CAF communications is entirely hopeless with feckless leadership and incompetent advisors. They can't even look to our allies on how to communicate on social media. There's no "read more" link below, and nobody has ever heard of a NATO TIDE Hackaton before, the message is worthless without context.
A Canadian Army team made an impressive showing at the 2026 NATO TIDE Hackathon, a competition to enhance how allied nations operate together. Our team was first in their category with an AI-powered application. Great work, team!
ALT Four individuals wearing medals stand in front of a NATO Interoperability Challenge backdrop at the TIDE Hackathon event.
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Apr 7
Some background at link into the larger communications and leader mindset problem set spoken of in the news piece. cgai.ca/the_rise_and_fall_of…
Apr 7
Canadian military members violated intelligence-gathering rules during pandemic operation: report - CBC News apple.news/AEV-78RznTFWbIeiT…
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