Tirade on a Military Leadership Bereft of Honour and Courage

... and a Prime Minister and his out of control vaccine vanity project

Last week, Canada’s Military Grievances External Review Committee*, a tribunal that was tasked with analyzing the constitutionality of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) COVID-19 vaccine policy mandating that all CAF members take COVID 19 shots, or face being expunged from the Forces, released its ruling. It ruled that the policy violated the members’ Charter of Rights and breached those rights protected under Section 7 of the Charter, which guarantees life, liberty and security of the person. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg on the matter as we learn that the CAF’s most senior officer–the Chief of National Defence (CDS)—General Wayne Eyre, kowtowed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s demand for this vaccine mandate. Canada’s top soldier allowed his soldiers to become political pawns in Trudeau’s COVID 19 vaccine vanity project which resulted in some 400 members of the CAF being fired or quitting the Forces because they refused the jab. 

*The Military Grievances External Review Committee (Committee) is an independent administrative tribunal. The Committee reviews military grievances and provides findings and recommendations to the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member who submitted the grievance and reports to Parliament through the Ministry of National Defence. 

Lawyer Phillip Millar who, himself is a former CAF member, represented a number of those members. He says he received court documents during legal proceedings that revealed some disturbing information regarding the imposition of this mandate on members. According to those documents, the CDS, prior to the imposition of the mandate, had received information advising him that implementing such a policy would be an illegal order and that it would neither be effective nor necessary. This, likely due to the fact that most CAF members are fit and relatively young–and therefore have a low risk of having a bad outcome from COVID 19.

Millar also said, as he put it, that he was given ‘good faith information’ from CAF insiders indicating that, when General Eyre advised the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) of these facts he was told, in no uncertain terms, that the matter was not up for discussion. Prime Minister Trudeau wanted the military to serve as an example to all Canadians by taking the vaccine. Eyre was told to ensure all CAF members took the jab and that any who refused it were to be released from service. This was, no doubt, intended to serve as an example and to coerce any service people who were sitting on the fence about the vaccine to acquiesce into getting the jab. 

As the CDS, Canada’s top General, Wayne Eyre–the head of Canada’s military–one would think, would have stood up for his people in uniform and led by example by demonstrating courage and honour. This is what military officers are trained to do, and are expected to do. Instead he caved to Trudeau’s outrageous demands and ordered all members to take the vaccine or face release, and in some cases, dishonourable discharge. If he was a real leader with integrity and honour, would have challenged the Prime Minister and told him he would not allow his soldiers to be used as guinea pigs and political pawns in Trudeau’s vaccine vanity project. He would have told Trudeau that he was prepared to go public with this unreasonable demand the Prime Minister had made and go so far as to tender his resignation if so required. That is what a real leader would have done, but these days real leaders are very hard to find anywhere—even in the military. 

However, what the tribunal’s decision could lead to, is a flood of new lawsuits against the federal government, and add fuel to the fire of what is becoming an increasingly heated debate over the validiy and constitutinality of vaccine mandates as a whole. A $500 million class action suit had already been launched against the CAF and the Department of Defence (DND) by some 330 CAF members who were kicked out of the Forces over the mandate, for harms caused by the mandate, prior to the tribunal’s ruling. Those named in the lawsuit include CDS General Wayne Eyre, Vice CDS Lieutenant-General Frances Allen, Minister of National Defence Anita Anand, Deputy Minister of National Defence Jody Thomas, and others.

Former Defence Minister Anita Anand and General Eyre are both named in the class action suit against CAF vaccine mandates.

The tribunal’s condemnation of the CAF’s policy on COVID 19 vaccines, together with the information revealed regarding the PMO’s directive to ensure all CAF members got the jab… or else… certainly adds credence to the claims in this class action suit. That being that the CAF abused its power by ignoring express legislative limits on its action, allowing for the physical and psychological torture of unvaccinated members under the commands of CAF commissioned officers. It claims further that the CAF ignored established law on: the right to privacy; the right to choose medical treatment; and the right to informed consent based on personal, religious and spiritual beliefs. It further maintains that the CAF shirked its own purpose and rushed an untested product onto its members. And that It knowingly made false statements of safety and efficacy, and facilitated its mandate with no option to refuse except for mandatory permanent removal from service.

Those members who refused the vaccine, many of whom had already had COVID, and therefore had acquired natural immunity, faced severe consequences including loss of career, loss of income, loss of retirement benefits and pension, travel and even basic participation in work or public life. Many of these members had served up to 20 years, and had done tours of duty in places like Afghanistan. They kicked out members with vital operational skills, at a time when recruitment was, and remains, at an all time low. Yet the CDS, and the Prime Minister were willing to risk the operational capability of the CAF for purely political purposes.

Dallas Alexander Flamand, was a sniper with the elite the CAF’s JTF2—whose Sniper Team was responsible for landing the world's farthest kill shot, breaking every record before it. Reluctant to get vaccinated because he suffered from several concussions in his career and was worried about the potential impact the vaccine would have on his health, Flamand told CTV news that he faced ‘bullying and threats’ by his superiors to get the shot. “I was told by my Sergeant Major that he wanted me out of the troop by the end of the week, which was a very drastic response. I had never seen anything like it in the 16 years that I served.”

Sniper Dallas Alexander Flamand left CAF for refusing the COVID 19 vaccine.

Now given that we know the CDS chose to implement this vaccine policy at the behest of the Prime Minister, perhaps the lawsuit and its statement of claim should be amended to include the Prime Minister himself, for this same abuse of power, because it was an egregious abuse. Trudeau chose to ignore very clear reasons for not mandating vaccines for CAF members, for his own political purposes and to shore up his virtue signalling vaccine vanity project.  

Lawyer Phillip Millar, represents a number of CAF members who left the Force due to vaccine mandates.

Now Millar says General Eyre, who is still the CDS, could save face by using the tribunal’s decision to reinstate those hundreds of skilled soldiers that lost or left their jobs because of vaccine mandates. “This report gives him  ammunition to say those releases were not fair to our soldiers. He could fix it today. Turn those decisions over and bring them back,” said Millar. “We have a recruiting shortfall that’s threatening operational security. But we kicked out hundreds of highly trained people.”

That this will occur is highly unlikely as so many leaders today, rather than admit their errors, instead double down. So what is left is a military that is still bereft of honourable and courageous leadership, a military whose operational readiness is at risk, and a Prime Minister who needs a reckoning for his recklessness, which may come if these lawsuits succeed or perhaps in the next election.