Smack is heroin but ... yeah, probably.
Oh, thanks for the correction. I'll need to brush up on my narcotics terminology. Do you think Trudeau or Ford could help me with that?
Smack is heroin but ... yeah, probably.
Oh, thanks for the correction. I'll need to brush up on my narcotics terminology. Do you think Trudeau or Ford could help me with that?
No kidding! They should smoke a peace pipe full of BC sinsemilla for a photo-op, sometime.
It might get them banned from travelling to the United States, though which would only serve to move Canada up another notch on their current "Axis of Evil" list.
Diplomatic immunity. It's just us little folk with the blue-covered passports who get banned from the US, not the special red-covered ones.
The US can do whatever they want to whomever they want at their borders. There is no "diplomatic immunity" to those who are not physically in the US. A Border Patrol officer could exclude Dalai Lama if they were having a shitty day ... very well might do it, too (wrong race!).
Negotiations over the use of a Canadian military transport plane by United Nations peacekeepers in Africa are deadlocked and it now appears unlikely the Liberal government will be able to deliver on the pledge before next year — perhaps before the next election.
The plan to base a C-130J cargo plane out of Entebbe, Uganda was among the first tangible proposals made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he announced a renewed commitment last year to international peace support missions.
Instead of sending mass deployments of 'boots on the ground' to troubled regions, the federal government chose instead to offer highly specialized equipment and capabilities that would bolster under-serviced international peace missions.
Offering the Hercules transport was seen as perhaps one of the easiest to deliver of the government's so-called "smart pledges" on peacekeeping. Those pledges include separate deployments of helicopter transports, military training for peacekeepers and a quick reaction force of 200 soldiers.
Bilateral deal sought
Canadian helicopters are now flying in support of the peacekeeping mission in Mali, but the C-130J deployment has been on hold pending talks with the UN about how the aircraft would be used, and a bilateral deal with the Ugandan government that would allow armed Canadian troops to guard it on the ground.
Those negotiations — with both the UN and Uganda — are at an impasse, according to multiple confidential sources.
Canada has made an offer to address the UN's concerns, but has not heard back.
A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan insisted the plan has not been abandoned.
"Our pledge to the UN still stands," said Byrne Furlong in an email. "As planning is still underway there are no further details to add at this point."
Sources with knowledge of the discussions said the planning is at a standstill — because the UN cannot guarantee the aircraft will be busy all of the time, and because of disagreements about the aircraft's security needs while it's on the ground in Entebbe.
First 'smart pledge'
Walter Dorn, a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada, said the absence of a deal is disappointing — and not only because it was the first of the government's 'smart pledges'.
It is disheartening, he said, because it was an idea Canada presented to the UN as an innovation in peacekeeping planning.
The UN's department of peacekeeping did not originally ask for the tactical transport, Dorn said, but readily embraced the notion because it is always under-resourced and reluctant to turn away good ideas and equipment.
"It wasn't like the UN was saying we have a need for something that could be multi-mission and when the UN looked at what the need was, they couldn't be sure the aircraft would be used 100 per cent of the time," said Dorn. "The UN's immediate needs do not match Canada's offer."
Dorn also said he was told Canadian planning for the aircraft's deployment "was slow, the challenges were high and there was no political will" in New York or Ottawa.
The air force has long been grappling with a shortage of pilots, which has affected the C-130 fleet.
It's not clear when Canada will deliver on its pledge to train more peacekeepers — notably women — for operations in the field.
The proposal to form a rapid reaction company of soldiers for peacekeeping deployment also remains in limbo.
Because they're incompetent, and they focus their efforts on recruiting women and minorities. When they do get someone to sign on they then ignore him or her for a year or two before they can figure a way to work them into the training queue. On top of that, of course, are repeated stories of the rusting, crappy old equipment, which is not geared to filling potential recruits with enthusiasm. Stories of how the military is raiding the kit of soldiers to dig up sleeping bags to equip a battalion headed for a posting, for example, don't give the impression of a top notch, cutting edge organization someone might want to join.Canada continues to struggle to recruit people into its armed forces. Why?
The real problem is that Canadians don't give two and a half shytes about our military ...Because they're incompetent, and they focus their efforts on recruiting women and minorities. When they do get someone to sign on they then ignore him or her for a year or two before they can figure a way to work them into the training queue. On top of that, of course, are repeated stories of the rusting, crappy old equipment, which is not geared to filling potential recruits with enthusiasm. Stories of how the military is raiding the kit of soldiers to dig up sleeping bags to equip a battalion headed for a posting, for example, don't give the impression of a top notch, cutting edge organization someone might want to join.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ch...-recruiting-system-blasted-in-stinging-report
Because they're incompetent, and they focus their efforts on recruiting women and minorities. When they do get someone to sign on they then ignore him or her for a year or two before they can figure a way to work them into the training queue. On top of that, of course, are repeated stories of the rusting, crappy old equipment, which is not geared to filling potential recruits with enthusiasm. Stories of how the military is raiding the kit of soldiers to dig up sleeping bags to equip a battalion headed for a posting, for example, don't give the impression of a top notch, cutting edge organization someone might want to join.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ch...-recruiting-system-blasted-in-stinging-report
A shame we didn't spend the same amount of money on our other aircraft that we spend on f18s.
We would have some real air power.
He was right.
NATO is way past its best by date.
Now that the Soviet Union is history, The Russians have transformed themselves into a sort of benevont society that goes around the world spreading peace and goodness and prosperity.Because there's nothing to fear about our gentle, kindly, generous neighbor to the north, and certainly he has no intention of defying international law by attacking any of his neighbours (again) so there's no need for a defensive military organization!