It seems like yesterday when the Canadian military last unveiled a new camouflage pattern uniform. Their pixelated look, known as the Canadian Disruptive Pattern, or CADPAT, was computer-designed to reduce the likelihood of detection by night-vision equipment as well as the naked eye. It comes in a single Multi-Terrain pattern, designed for wherever operations might go. Coming in woodland green and desert sand patterns, it marked a dramatic, high-tech change in military fashion—and spawned a revolution in uniform design among Canada’s allies, starting south of the border. That was in 2001. CADPAT uniforms have been used by the army, navy and air force. Those fatigues got a lot of use, underwent a lot of refinements, and a lot of water’s gone under the bridge and a lot of Canadian bloo...

He could be blunt, bombastic and cringingly irreverent. He was also smart, generous, and always, always interesting. Like virtually all of the most talented, committed and absorbing people I’ve known, Matthew Fisher was a human full of quirks and contradictions. He died in Ottawa on April 10 after a short battle with liver disease. He was 66. He was without doubt Canada’s most travelled and seasoned foreign correspondent of the past half-century—he’d been to 170 countries (only 193 exist) and covered 20 wars in 35 years. Like my dear friend Garth Pritchard, who died a year earlier almost to the day, Matthew did not suffer fools gladly, and he wasn’t afraid to say so. Interestingly, he and Garthy, who’d seen more than his share of war zones, shared a grudging respect but, beyond th...

You may not know the name Frank Hurley but you almost certainly know at least some of his pictures. Hurley was an Australian who left school at age 12, escaped the drudgery and hardship of a working-class life at the dawn of the 20th century, and turned his gift of gab and passion for photography into a lifetime of adventure and renown. He sailed to Antarctica with Douglas Mawson and Ernest Shackleton, survived stranding in the frozen wasteland, documented both world wars and travelled the world. He was, in his heyday, a household name among his countrymen. Hurley spent more than four years on Antarctic expeditions. Working as a postcard photographer in Sydney, Australia, Hurley mastered the art of superimposing images from two or more negatives into one composite photograph. ...