by David J. Bercuson A peacekeeper performs gate security as an advance party prepares a camp for troops deployed to Eritrea, Africa. In November, the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies released a report that was 10 months in the making. Entitled To Secure a Nation: The Case for a New Defence White Paper, the 38-page report was based on 27 individual studies conducted by some of Canada's leading defence and security experts. The report argued that the 1994 Defence White Paper had b...

by Ray Dick After a decade of budget cuts andshrinking manpower, the Canadian Forces are caught in the worst of worlds with "conventional capabilities in decline and new capabilities unaffordable," says the Conference of Defence Associations, the country's largest pro-defence lobby group. In a report entitled Caught In The Middle: An Assessment Of The Operational Readiness Of The Canadian Forces, the CDA says what is needed is an immediate infusion of funds, and billions of dollars over the next several years just to put the Canadi...

by Ray Dick The fallout from a decade of stretching the Canadian Forces to the limit to meet a growing number of peacekeeping and other commitments around the world has become increasingly evident as former and serving members of the military seek help from national peacekeeping associations across the country. The greatest need of these returning soldiers, many of them stressed out from what they have been through in several rotations, is help in dealing with their trauma and re-establishing themselves in society, says Harold Leduc...