Commentary
On the contentious doctrine of Purgatory, I do feel that time spent reading government press releases should earn some remission of sins. Even “Defence Minister Anita Anand Concludes Productive Trip to Singapore” causes a mix of ennui and anguish that should expunge something. And surely enduring “Canada to ‘significantly’ enhance military presence in Indo-Pacific region, Anand says,”
technically a CBC news story, gets me a small indulgence connected with wrath.
Even after a lifetime in journalism, efficiently combining sin and punishment, I confess to being unable to understand how my colleagues can regurgitate government nonsense without crying in a loud voice “Verily it is bosh.” If this reporter (it’s an unsigned Canadian Press piece) belongs on the defence beat they should know, and say, Canada is in no position “significantly” to increase its military presence anywhere including our Arctic because the Canadian Forces are in a state of logistical, moral, and numerical collapse.
Yes, a news item on a ministerial speech should mention even contents as feeble as that our new approach “will involve the annual deployment of an additional warship to the region, increased Canadian participation in international exercises, and strengthened relationships with regional partners through increased security co-operation.” And it’s fair to add, “Anand said the new operation will empower Canada to play a more active role in contributing to regional security” and “Anand also said Saturday that the country’s critical infrastructure was increasingly being targeted by cyberattacks.” But you can’t just leave it there.
You have to point out that one more aging Canadian warship would have no impact on the security situation there even if we managed to deploy it. Right now we have two ships in that vast, strategically vital region and one is
MV Asterix. And while “Asterix” is a cool name, MV stands for “Merchant Vessel,” a.k.a. “a thing that goes boom and sinks if there’s a battle.” It’s a Greek/Liberian cargo ship converted to bridge the gap between our supply ships that rusted out and those we can’t build.
As Wikipedia notes, “The vessel is limited in her deployment to enter dangerous areas due to her lack of weapons systems and military-grade radars, and inability to survive combat damage.” So CBC/CP call it a “military vessel.”
HMCS Montreal, FFH336, really is a military vessel. One of the Halifax-class frigates in service since 1993, having been ordered in 1977, and still in use because if the Canadian military wanted to replace a fork it would take 20-plus years.
Another
government press release, from 2022, “Canada awards contract for new Army pistols,” says it finally decided to buy 7,000 Sig Sauer P320 sidearms from a Canadian company to replace ones from … World War II. The press release didn’t mention that part. But it did say, “The Government of Canada is providing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) with the equipment they need to support CAF operations and fulfill national and international commitments.”
Enduring that passage must have erased some misdeed from my ledger because (a)
it’s not true and (b) it doesn’t matter what the gummint is doing for soldiers we don’t even have. As Blacklock’s
reports, potential inductees found a new recruiting campaign “a bit desperate” as DND, having inverted the military ethos to drive away those seeking a life of service defending the vulnerable from bad guys in favour of self-absorbed social justice warriors, is finding that few suitable people would want to enter this particular purgatory even if the pay and living conditions weren’t as awful as the gear.
When I entered “Canadian navy pers” into Google, the first autocomplete was “personnel shortage” and the
second story was “Canada’s navy facing personnel ‘crisis’ as vacancy nearly 20%: commander.” But I gress. Because on cybersecurity, and in our interconnected world where even your fridge is online possibly watching risqué cooking shows so an enemy could start a war with a horrifyingly complete digital Pearl Harbor, Anand said, “We have seen attacks on critical infrastructure in our country and we are very conscious to advise Canadian organizations and Canadian companies to take mitigation measures.”
Which if grammatical would probably mean their contribution to our cybersafety is to tell other people, “Whoa nelly, better do something, don’t look at us.” Us being politicians who can’t fix a busted payroll system, don’t know what EMP vulnerability even is, and would struggle to reboot a Windows 7 machine.
Curiously, it’s exactly what they’re really saying on Indo-Pacific security too. Mind you, when asked about the People’s Republic of China making nasty remarks about the conference she was at, Anand burbled, “We have to be eyes wide open on China.”
Maybe instead of a “productive trip” to Singapore she should attempt one to the PMO to tell Justin Trudeau. And find herself immediately flung into political purgatory.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
