Lt.-Gen. J.O. Michel Maisonneuve (retired) is a true Canadian patriot. But while he wore the uniform of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and led Canada’s French-language military university, he kept his mouth shut regarding what he was witnessing—not only regarding Canada’s sinking international reputation but about the sickness that had set in in so many areas of Canadian domestic life.
Maisonneuve joined the CAF in 1972, as an armoured officer. He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada and was deployed in Cyprus, Bosnia, Kosovo, and assigned to the headquarters of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Later he was Assistant Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff in Ottawa and Chief of Staff of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation at Norfolk, Virginia. He left the military in 2007 to become academic director of Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean.
In recognition of his remarkable contributions and accomplishments, Gen. Maisonneuve received the Vimy Award at the Conference of Defence Association Institute’s gala dinner in Ottawa in November 2022. The award is given annually to an individual deemed to have made “a significant and outstanding contribution to the defence and security of Canada and the preservation of its democratic values.”
Maisonneuve begins where he must—sketching out Canada’s past. Whereas Canadians have been fed a mushy history of genocide, oppression, and poor treatment of indigenous peoples, etc., for at least the last 10 years (in fact longer), Gen. Maisonneuve shows our amazing accomplishments. Since 1763, we have struggled to maintain a united nation based on two very different language and religious groups. Since the early 19th century we have built a national infrastructure of canals, railways, air routes, highways, pipelines, and long-distance electric power lines in one of the most hostile climates and geographies in the world. We have gathered people from everywhere, who suffer Canadian winters to create full lives here. And there is more.
Have we been perfect? By no means. There has been bias and prejudice, bad government decisions, inhumanity to minorities, oppression of women. But are they the essence of Canadian history? Not at all, as Maisonneuve points out. In his own field of expertise he asks why women should be excluded from the combat arms in the military if they have the physical capacity to qualify. The general shouts a loud “No!” And he is correct.
But while we had a glorious past—and near past—that has all but disappeared, Maisonneuve says. And here he is correct, too. We sometimes hear a lot about Canada punching above its weight, and for many decades after 1939 we did. Not only in the actual fighting in World War II, but in shaping the modern world after it. We are known for what today? Pulling our air force out of the war against ISIS? Tiptoeing around a world in crisis, not just since Russia invaded Ukraine but for at least a half decade before that?
We have become global champions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which ought to be called IED for the damage it is doing to real equality in Canada. When was the last time that bigotry and violence was perpetrated between religious and ethnic groups in Canada, in general, and against Canada’s Jewish community, in particular? Shades of Germany in the 1930s.
Maisonneuve goes into our obsession with a catastrophic climate crisis and what that obsession has done to our once-proud record of being a mineral, oil, and uranium food bank for the world. We will burn up the planet (all by ourselves!), so we must shut down anything or everything that might contribute to that cataclysm. Sarcasm aside, he asks: As a net exporter of a great deal of energy in many forms, why don’t we have one of the best economies and standards of living in the world?
The general blames a lot of this on the country’s governance in recent years, and he is right to do so. But there are deeper reasons for Canada’s current malaise.
The generation of progressives who went through universities in the sixties through the eighties perpetuated themselves and came to dominate our educational institutions, which are controlled by the provinces. History disappeared from school curricula and “social studies” was embedded instead. Provincial schooling became one long litany of Canada as an oppressive, genocidal collection of bad guys, such as John A. Macdonald, Henry Dundas, and Egerton Ryerson. Instead of judging historical figures based on their times, we judge them by today’s lofty standards.
Thomas Jefferson is still an American hero—as he should be—despite his troubled history with slavery. A recent report in the Washington Post revealed that almost 5,000 indigenous children died from mistreatment in residential schools in the United States. Of course that was shameful. But is the U.S. flag flying at half mast now because of it? Of course not. They respect their history. We do not.
How do we wrest this country back on track, Maisonneuve asks? He offers a number of solutions, usually relying on leadership from the top. One would make the Canadian economy work better by creating a true free-trade zone from coast to coast. Another would make Canada self-sufficient in energy within the next five years. His cry for a true national leadership based on a united vision for a whole country is indisputable. But is it enough?
Education is a provincial matter. But if the federal government was to create a model curriculum for history and social studies in primary and secondary schools and invite the provinces to replicate some or all of that model, it could introduce the great things Canada has accomplished, alongside the mistakes we have made. Designated days to honour great Canadian achievements, with school materials supplied by a proud national government could supplement that effort. Provinces control the schools, but lots of federal money goes to post-secondary education in Canada which trains teachers and curriculum experts. The government might announce that it seeks balance in training a new generation of educators.
Michel Maisonneuve has gone far in his book to outline the ways we are sinking as a nation. In the course of his career, he witnessed the deterioration of international affairs from the era of Mutually Assured Destruction during the Cold War, to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989/90, to a short era of peace and cooperation, to the current era of international crisis and danger that has led to a new international arms race. At the same time, he saw his country sink in the estimation of global leaders, from an important and proud nation to one with little self esteem and a free-falling reputation. Canada once mattered in the world, but it is virtually irrelevant on the international stage today.
Others are beginning to echo his cry. In our hearts we all know something is wrong. We should have treated our indigenous people better for far longer, but did Canada actually commit a genocide against them? It doesn’t feel right because it isn’t right. Read the general’s book and you will know why your pride in Canada is falling through the hourglass. It is time to act.
