Survey of National Guard scandals

USA Today's Dennis Wagner reports here on scandals that have roiled the National Guard in numerous states in recent times. "Throughout the National Guard system, which consists of 54 independent state and territorial militias, soldiers and airmen have complained for decades about abuses that suggest a failure of culture and oversight."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appoints General Wayne Eyre as Chief of the Defence Staff

 Ottawa, November 25, 2021

General Wayne Eyre is appointed as Chief of the Defence Staff by the Prime Minister on November 25, 2021. Prior to his appointment, General Eyre was the Commander of the Canadian Army

General Eyre attended the Royal Roads Military College  in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC), in Kingston, Ontario. Upon commissioning in 1988, he joined 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), and has spent the majority of his career in command or deputy command positions, including commanding 3rd Battalion PPCLI, 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, 3rd Canadian Division and Joint Task Force West, Deputy Commanding General – Operations for XVIII (U.S.) Airborne Corps, Deputy Commander Military Personnel Command, Deputy Commander United Nations Command in Korea, and for a very short time, Commander of Military Personnel Command. He became the Commander of the Canadian Army on August 20, 2019, and was promoted to the rank of General on August 13, 2021.

Major Ian Fishback, rest in peace

Two articles in The New York Times about the sad, untimely death of former Army Major Ian Fishback are most highly recommended, here and here. A most tragic case -- and one that should be pondered.

Thanksgiving 2021

Reform in the Dominican Republic

 The reform of the Penal Code of the Dominican Republic was approved in the Senate today (Nov. 24, 2021) and will be sent to the Chamber of Deputies next week.  Two Congressmen (Jose Horacio Rodriguez of Alianza Pais and Juan Dionicio Rodriguez of the Frente Amplio) announced that they are opposed to the criminalization of abortion and that they plan to correct everything that has to do with interfamily violence and the provision regarding a military penal code.  Representatives of other political factions believe that the Penal Code will be approved quickly in the lower house in the same manner that it was approved in the Senate.

In 2019 the Constitutional Tribunal of the Dominican Republic issued a judgment (350/19 of 9  September 2019) stating that criminal military tribunals do not exist in the Dominican Republic. Last May, Carlos Luciano Diaz Morfa, the Minister of Defense, proposed that members of the Armed Forces could only be tried in military tribunals and not by the ordinary justice system.  Currently dozens of members of the Armed Forces are being tried for administrative corruption and the discussion has been whether a military court should be included in the Penal Code. But the Constitutional Tribunal has already decided the issue.