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Canadian military officials were worried dropping COVID jab mandate would hurt ‘credibility’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Recently disclosed meeting notes reveal that top military leaders hesitated to drop the Canadian Armed Forces’ COVID jab mandate alongside the Trudeau government because they were worried it would impact the “credibility” of the institution.

According to information obtained by the Epoch Times, when the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an end to its federal workplace COVID vaccine mandate effective June 2022, Canadian Armed Force’s Strategic Operations Planning Group (SOPG) showed concern about public optics should they drop their mandate as well. This came despite the fact many Canadians were opposed to the jab mandates, as could be seen from the Freedom Convoy protest held earlier that year.  

Minutes from a June 15, 2022 SOPG meeting read, “If we rescind the CDS Directive, the credibility of the institution is weakened, particularly the relationship between the strategic and tactical levels.” 

The CDS “Directive” was a military mandate that all staff have the COVID jab, which was issued by General Wayne Eyre in late 2021.  

The comments in the minutes were made by the CAF’s Director Military Careers Administration (DMCA), with the email of the minutes having been sent by Colonel Krystle Connerty, who is a director with the Strategic Joint Staff. 

The email notes that the military COVID jab mandate was being defended by military “front line” staff, also stating that the CAF had been getting “complaints and insults, including being accused of ‘war crimes.’” 

On June 14, 2022, which was the day before the CAF meeting, the Trudeau government announced that its federal COVID jab workplace mandate would be dropped, as would the mandate requiring domestic travelers have the COVID shot to board planes and trains.  

As the CAF had its own mandate it place, it was not impacted by the federal mandate.  

Last November, a CAF member who spoke to LifeSiteNews under the condition of anonymity, observed that the military considers members who refuse the COVID shot “a piece of garbage overnight because you refuse it (COVID vaccine).” 

Military considered dropping mandates but kept them in place longer  

Per the Epoch Times report, the SOPG meeting minutes showed that the DMCA had proposed to either keep the COVID jab mandate in place, suspend it with the option to allow it to come back later, or rescind it altogether.  

According to the meeting minutes, the SOPG noted it should not “rush to failure,” claiming that there were “many 2nd and 3rd order effects that must be considered.” 

The CAF eventually lifted its COVID jab mandate in October of 2022, which was months after the federal mandate was lifted. Despite the mandate no longer being in force, members are still “strongly encouraged” to take the experimental shot.  

Of note is the COVID jab mandate is still in place for those with operational roles. It is also mandated for members “placed on less than 45 days-notice-to-move with a potential to be deployed at a location with limited/no access to medical care, or locations or nations where vaccination is a prerequisite for entry/operations.” 

The decision to keep the mandate for months longer occurred even though the overall CAF COVID jab rate stood at 90 percent.

Also included in the communications was a CAF’s Directorate of Force Health Protection (DFHP) assessment of what would happen should the mandate be removed, concluding that the risk of a poor outcome was “quite low.”  

Under the CAF’s mandate, hundreds of military members were fired, or one could argue, purged, for not getting the COVID shots. This is in addition to the thousands of public servants fired for not getting the COVID shots.  

In April 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under fire after claiming he did not “force” anyone to take the COVID-19 shots, despite his federal government mandating the novel injections as a condition of employment in all public sector jobs under its jurisdiction, leading to at least 2,560 federal employees being suspended for not taking the shots. 

His government also barred those who did not take the shots from plane, train, and sea travel. 

COVID vaccine mandates, which came from provincial governments with the support of Trudeau’s federal government, split Canadian society. The mRNA shots themselves have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children.   

The jabs also have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies. As a result of this, many Catholics and other Christians refused to take them.  

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Canadian veteran says she knows at least 20 service members who were offered euthanasia

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Canadian Armed Forces veteran Kelsi Sheren told members of the House of Commons that he has proof of veterans being offered assisted suicide.

Canada’s liberal euthanasia laws have made the practice so commonplace that a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veteran has said she knows and has “proof” that no less than 20 of her colleagues were offered unsolicited state-sponsored euthanasia.

Kelsi Sheren, who is a CAF veteran, recently told MPs in the House of Commons veterans affairs committee that “over 20 veterans have confirmed being offered MAID.”

“I have the proof, and I have proof of more,” Sheren told the committee during an October 28 meeting.

Conservative MP Blake Richards asked Sheren if she was willing to provide them with evidence to affirm her allegations.

Sheren noted how the 20 veterans have given written testimonies, or actual audio recordings, of when they were offered what in Canada is known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).

“We also have other individuals who are too afraid to come forward because Veterans Affairs has threatened their benefits,” she told MPs, adding that some other veterans were even offered non-disclosure agreements along with “payouts if they were to take it.”

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) has told the media its “employees have no role or mandate to recommend or raise (MAid). ”

As reported by LifeSiteNews, this is not the first time reports of CAF veterans saying they were offered MAiD.

Indeed, as reported by LifeSiteNews, it was revealed last year that the federal department in charge of helping Canadian veterans appears to have purposefully prevented the existence of a paper after scandalous reports surfaced alleging that caseworkers had recommended euthanasia to suffering service members.

A new EPC report has revealed that Canada has euthanized 90,000 people since 2016.

As reported by LifeSiteNews last week, a Conservative MP’s private member’s bill that, if passed, would ban euthanasia for people with mental illness received the full support of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC).

https://kelsisheren.substack.com/p/maid-will-always-be-abused-305?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=2800927&post_id=178742271&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=lqs9o&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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Why we keep getting Remembrance Day wrong

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This article supplied by Troy Media.

Troy Media By Pat Murphy

Remembrance Day once honoured soldiers for their courage and conviction, but the values they fought for have long since been rejected

With the untimely death of Tim Cook on Oct. 25, Canada lost a valued historian. Military history was Cook’s oeuvre, and the First World War was a particular specialty. His ability to marry academic rigour with accessible storytelling made him a relatively rare bird.

Naturally, Cook wrote about battles, military commanders and political leaders. But he was also fascinated with ordinary soldiers, scouring the archives for personal letters from the front and other material to develop an understanding of what
motivated the soldiers and how they managed the day-to-day horrors of prolonged trench warfare in an environment characterized by cold, mud, lice and rats, not to mention the ever-present spectre of violent death.

Camaraderie was critical. To quote from an interview with Cook: “one of the ways they cope is to create their own tribe, their own group that is insulated from everyone else.”

All of which brings us to Remembrance Day.

Although formally recognized as “remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace,” both the origins and iconography of Remembrance Day relate to the First World War. There’s the two-minute silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to observe the formal end of hostilities in 1918; the playing of the Last Post; and, of course, the ubiquitous red poppies.

The conflict wasn’t post Confederation Canada’s first military endeavour, but its scale dwarfed anything that came before it, and only the subsequent Second World War was a comparable event. Some 620,000 Canadians served between 1914 and 1918 and approximately 60,000 were killed. To get a sense of scale, adjust the fatalities for population growth and it would be comfortably north of 300,000 today.

In War: How Conflict Shaped Us, Margaret MacMillan notes the long history of cultures elevating personal characteristics associated with battlefield success, honouring bravery, endurance, toughness and the willingness to face death. It’s been pretty much a universal characteristic.

Nor should we think of war as only a male activity driven by patriarchal social structures. While it’s true that military hierarchies are traditionally male and the fighting in most wars has been done largely by men, women have always played
a key role in reinforcing the culture.

We, though, have become somewhat uncomfortable with the warrior ethos. Take, for instance, In Flanders Fields. Written in 1915 by Guelph’s John McCrae, the poem has acquired iconic status over the decades. It’s haunting and melancholy, sufficiently so to grab at your throat and send shivers down your spine. It’s also become inextricably intertwined with Remembrance Day.

There is, however, a small problem. While we now view the First World War as senseless carnage, In Flanders Fields has a very different perspective. As the third and final stanza makes unequivocally clear, the poem’s message isn’t about the war’s futility—it’s about the need to keep the faith and carry on to victory.

Much the same can be said about the music associated with the era. Those songs written in recent decades stress the sadness and futility of it all, but the actual popular music of the time was cheerful, patriotic and resolute.

Rather than seeing the soldiers as they were, we insist on recasting them as victims. Stripping them of personal agency, we ignore the fact that 80 per cent of them were volunteers, people who, for various reasons, chose to go to war.

So what motivated them?

Many were surely lured by the male affinity for adventure, compounded by patriotic fervour and enthusiastic loyalty to the concept of king and empire, however incomprehensible or disreputable the latter may now seem to us. There was also the buzz of an environment where the usual social norms regarding life, death and destruction had either vanished or become significantly attenuated. In her book, MacMillan documents how some found the whole experience “vastly exciting.”

Acknowledging this shouldn’t be confused with cheerleading. As I’ve previously written on more than one occasion, I think Britain’s reluctant decision to enter the First World War was a tragic error on many fronts. And if Britain had stood aside, Canada wouldn’t have been involved.

But respectfully remembering those who died shouldn’t be confused with turning them into something they were not. They weren’t hapless victims—they were people with beliefs and values of their own, even if we no longer look at the world in the same way they did.

Troy Media columnist Pat Murphy casts a history buff’s eye at the goings-on in our world. Never cynical – well, perhaps a little bit.

Troy Media empowers Canadian community news outlets by providing independent, insightful analysis and commentary. Our mission is to support local media in helping Canadians stay informed and engaged by delivering reliable content that  strengthens community connections and deepens understanding across the country. 

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