From the battlefield to the boardroom

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Fred Chartrand/CP/ Photograph by Andrew Tolson

As a man who believes that poor leaders have their uses—in the way they make what not to do so blindingly clear—Rick Hillier certainly found a target-rich environment during his career in the Canadian Forces. The former chief of defence staff, Canada’s highest-ranking soldier, Hillier, 55, left the armed forces in 2008, and now, a self-described “failure at retirement,” is fully occupied with philanthropic work, writing, and providing strategic and leadership advice for various companies. But he hasn’t forgotten what he calls the Forces’ dark decades, particularly the budget-squeezing ’90s, and the panicky, money-driven decisions they spawned, like selling the military’s eight Chinook helicopters to the Dutch air force. Years later, “nothing pissed me off more,” Hillier writes in his new book, Leadership: 50 Points of Wisdom for Today’s Leaders, than having to be ferried about in Afghanistan by a Dutch copter with its painted-over maple leaf still visible underneath.

But the most “vivid lessons I remember,” Hillier says over the phone from St. John’s, where he’s chancellor of Memorial University, came from the way some officers responded to the situation. “That senior officer who apologized to his men after his command ended that he’d spent too much time in the office? When I heard him say that, I promised myself I would spend half of every day mixing with the people under me, looking them in the eye and listening to them.”

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'Phenomenal work'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 12, 2010 at 12:06 PM - 20 Comments

Among the allegations in Graeme Smith’s reporting this weekend was that, in regards to Asadullah Khalid, “the generals knew exactly what was going on.” When concerns about Khalid were raised two years ago, Gen. Rick Hillier, then chief of the defence staff, was asked about the governor and commented as follows.

Gen. Hillier confirmed he was aware of allegations against the governor, but said it is up to the Afghan government to deal with them. He also praised Mr. Khalid for the work he has done in Kandahar.

“Governor Asadullah has been doing some phenomenal work in Kandahar province. Obviously, we have worked with him because he is the governor there. And we have seen some incredible changes in the province, and if there’s an issue of any kind of impropriety whatsoever, that’s an issue for the Afghanistan government.”

What was known

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 4:04 PM - 80 Comments

The Torch unearths and translates an April 2007 story from La Presse.

Canadian diplomats stationed in Kabul warned the former Liberal government in 2003, 2004 and 2005 that torture was commonplace in Afghan prisons. In spite of these warnings, the Martin government signed an agreement with the Karzai government in December 2005 to hand over all Canadian-captured prisoners to Afghan authorities, Foreign Affairs documents obtained by La Presse reveal.

From 2002 to 2005, the Canadian practice regarding Afghan detainees suspected of Taliban ties was to hand them over to US military authorities. Ottawa decided to shift its transfers to Afghan authorities, however, in response to abuse allegations at the Guantánamo Bay internment center and the controversy that erupted over revelations of torture and degradation at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq ["An Afghan ghost of Abu Ghraib?"].

La Presse likens the documents in its possession to annual report disclosed by the Globe two days earlier. The Prime Minister responded to the Globe’s story that afternoon in Question Period. Here is some of that. Continue…

Happy holidays

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 21, 2009 at 5:02 PM - 23 Comments

Laurie Hawn writes to inform the Afghanistan committee that Conservative members won’t be attending tomorrow’s meeting. It appears the committee will carry on without them. Meanwhile, Tim Naumetz of the Hill Times obtains classified transcripts from the Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry.

Maj. Kevin Rowcliffe, then a staff adviser to Lt.- Gen. Michel Gauthier, second in command of the Afghanistan mission under Mr. Hillier, was concerned even in early stages of the Afghanistan mission of the potential for torture abuse and expressed concern at the very top that Canadians were transferring detainees to Afghan police and intelligence forces “not knowing what happens to them after they’re handed over.”

Maj. Rowcliffe and two other Military Police officers who were interviewed for the Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry revealed a state of “mass confusion” over transfers, scarce resources for military police in Kandahar and concern from the police themselves over the way generals in Ottawa, under pressure from the government, were handling the detainee controversy as it later made front-page news in Canada and burst onto the House of Commons floor.

'I haven't followed it'

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 10:13 AM - 111 Comments

Rick Hillier declines to comment on this week’s events.

Rick Hillier, formerly Canada’s top soldier, isn’t commenting about the recent revelations that Canadian-captured prisoners transferred to Afghan authorities were later tortured.

“I haven’t followed it,” Mr. Hillier said Friday in Halifax. ”I’m really not even in the mood or the ability to comment upon it, at this point, because I have not followed it in detail.”

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and General Walter Natynczyk have been called to appear again before the special committee on Afghanistan. The chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission offers a warning as he departs. In a letter to the Citizen, the former ambassador to Venezuela urges everyone to move on. In a separate letter to the paper, the former ambassador to Brazil explains why he chose not to sign on with other former diplomats in support of Richard Colvin.

The Colvin encyclopedia

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 1:31 PM - 25 Comments

A collection of documents, testimony and news reports related to Richard Colvin and Canada’s handling of Afghan detainees. The Colvin encyclopedia is updated as events warrant.

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The Commons: 'Let us get beyond the rhetorical flourish'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 5:50 PM - 34 Comments

The Scene. Bob Rae stood and reviewed the allegations of obstruction, of troubles faced by the Military Police Complaints Commission and Richard Colvin. “How is all this compatible,” he wondered aloud, “with the pursuit of the truth about allegations of abuse in Afghan prisons?”

With the Prime Minister away, this seemed an appropriate time for Peter MacKay to stand and table the government’s response. Instead, here came John Baird, his relevance to this particular file unclear, professing outrage at the latest attempt of the Liberal party—a letter referencing the government’s handling of Afghan detainees—to garner funds from its supporters. ”It is unwarranted,” he said, accusing the Liberals of somehow impugning the men and women of the Canadian Forces, “it is appalling and it is absolutely shameful.”

These matters surely can be tricky. Given continued concerns over a recent Conservative mailout, one wonders whether we might be nearing the day when we’d all be better off with a complete and total ban on political party’s promoting themselves at all.

There was more sparring on this between Messrs Rae and Baird before Mr. Rae attempted to identify an indisputable fact.

“Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that partially and heavily blacked-out documents with key information missing are not disclosure. Non-answers in the House are not disclosure. Rhetorical personal attacks such as the minister himself has just indulged in are not disclosure and do not amount to disclosure,” he offered. “We need to get at the truth. Why is the government afraid of a public inquiry to get at the truth? What is it about the truth that the government is afraid of?”

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On Hillier's assertion the Afghan detainees were killers

By John Geddes - Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 1:21 PM - 14 Comments

There was a lot to ponder in Gen. Rick Hillier’s testimony yesterday before the House committee on Afghanistan. But the retired chief of defence staff’s affronted “nothing could be further from the truth” response to diplomat-whistleblower Richard Colvin’s claim that Canadian troops have detained Afghans who were not really insurgents is particularly worth considering.

“We detained,” Hillier said, “under violent actions, people trying to kill our sons and daughters, who had in some cases done that, been successful at it, and were continuing to do it.” Listening to him, I can’t have been alone in thinking back to his famous remark about Canadians fighting “detestable murderers and scumbags” in Afghanistan.

No doubt the Taliban is full of killers who fit that description. Still, Hillier’s assertion does not quite square with the most thorough probe of a detainee incident conducted by the Canadian military itself: the “Board of Inquiry into In-theatre Handling of Detainees,” a exhaustive investigation of the treatment of three individuals detained in Afghanistan in April 2006.

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What was reported?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 8:45 AM - 13 Comments

The generals say there was nothing in Richard Colvin’s memos to warrant action. The CBC, Star and Globe review a couple of Colvin’s early memos and find concerns about the reporting of detainees and the “unsatisfactory conditions” in Afghan prisons, and the suggestion that the Dutch, British and Canadians might consider building a joint prison of their own.

Separately, the CBC finds that, after handing them over to the Afghan authorities, Canada lost track of two Afghans accused of killing Canadian soldiers in 2003.

Really?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 10:42 PM - 17 Comments

From Bruce Cheadle’s analysis of the scene.

Hillier managed to plug his recently released memoir and even autographed a couple of copies for star-struck MPs after his testimony.

And from the Twitter feed of CBC radio reporter Alison Crawford.

At cttee Paul Szabo snapped several pics of Hiller on his personal camera & then asked someone to snap one of him with Hillier.

The generals

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 5:49 PM - 8 Comments

Reports from the testimony of Rick Hillier and Michel Gauthier from the Canadian Press, Globe, Star, Sun, CTV, CBC and Inside Politics.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is allegedly blocking Richard Colvin from releasing some of the documents related to the situation.

Kandahar: we didn't know what we were getting into

By John Geddes - Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 4:16 PM - 15 Comments

Gen. Rick Hillier, the retired chief of defence staff, just moments ago reminded the House committee on Afghanistan about how Canadian troops in Kandahar, in the spring and summer of 2006, found themselves fighting pitched battles against hundreds of Taliban insurgents.

It’s worth remembering how not long before those startlingly violent days, the Canadian officer dispatched to head operations in southern Afghanistan was anticipating nothing of the sort. (UPDATE: More background on the Kandahar surprise of ’06 here.)

Perhaps the fact that Canada’s military leaders didn’t really expect the all-out fighting Hillier just described partly explains why they didn’t properly plan for transferring to the Afghan authorities any prisoners taken during such intense combat operations.
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Looking back, looking forward

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 12:19 AM - 13 Comments

The CBC finds evidence of delays, going as far back as 2002, in reporting detainee transfers to the Red Cross. Opposition members of the special committee on Afghanistan say they want all relevant briefing notes and government documents related to Afghan detainees before they’ll hear from David Mulroney.

The NDP, the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois are demanding the Tories release a long list of documents linked to Mr. Colvin’s testimony before they allow Mr. Mulroney a public rejoinder…

Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Dimitri Soudas accused opposition parties of playing games on detainees by blocking Mr. Mulroney. “If the opposition were serious about finding answers, they would allow him to appear before the committee,” Mr. Soudas said.

Opposition MPs however say they can’t properly question Mr. Mulroney without access to the uncensored versions of e-mails, briefing notes and memos that make up the background story behind Mr. Colvin’s testimony.

The Liberals are particularly seizing on whatever it was the Defence Minister promised in Question Period this afternoon.

What happened to those 130?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 23, 2009 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

The government has long maintained that to disclose the number of detainees transferred by Canadian Forces in Afghanistan would violate operational security, but a government source now tells the Globe that approximately 130 were transferred during the first 14 months of combat operations in Kandahar.

In June 2006, when news broke that Canadian soldiers had twice intervened to prevent the execution of prisoners, a spokesman for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told the Canadian Press that about 30 percent of prisoners handed over to Afghan authorities were abused. CP’s report of June 2, in its entirety, after the jump. Continue…

Who's who

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 20, 2009 at 2:21 PM - 9 Comments

CBC lists eight government, military and diplomatic officials raised in Richard Colvin’s testimony. Six have so far not commented or declined comment. Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing on his part and promises more information when he testifies at committee next week.

'The guy said some things'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 20, 2009 at 11:08 AM - 10 Comments

More of General Rick Hillier’s comments. From the Toronto Star’s disptach:

“We always had concerns with those handovers,” retired general Rick Hillier said, but “no smoking gun ever caught my attention.”

And from the CBC:

“The guy said some things and, really, nothing ever caught my attention based on what he perceived he said or perceived he sent,” Hillier said Thursday.

'Even in our own prisons somebody can get beaten up'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:14 PM - 21 Comments

General Rick Hillier doesn’t remember reading Richard Colvin’s memos, seems not to understand what all the fuss is about.

Mr. Hillier derisively compared the political uproar that surrounded Mr. Colvin’s parliamentary testimony to people “howling at the moon” and said nobody ever raised torture concerns with him during the 2006-2007 period in question.

“I don’t remember reading a single one of those cables [from Mr. Colvin] … He doesn’t stick out in my mind,” Mr. Hillier said of the diplomat’s warnings and criticism. “He appears to have covered an incredibly broad spectrum, much of which I’m not sure he’s qualified to talk about.”

The former soldier rejected suggestions Canada was “complicit in any war crimes” – saying Ottawa had a responsible system in place. He also played down the fact Afghan prisoners got hurt in jails. “Even in our own prisons [in Canada] somebody can get beaten up. We know that.”

Mr. Hillier signed the first detainee transfer agreement in 2005, the same agreement Peter MacKay now says was insufficient.

Don't look away (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 11:49 AM - 14 Comments

The Star expands on what Hillier’s memoir says about the debate over what the public could and should see of the flag-draped coffins of Canadian soldiers returning from Afghanistan.

The controversy over letting the media show the return of Goddard’s body from the dusty district of Panjwaii, where she was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade on May 17, 2006, turned into a very public battle when her grieving father upbraided the Conservative government for censoring a politically painful event. But it was also the source of a private dispute between the head of the Canadian Forces and his political masters…

In the book, Hillier recalls attending graduation ceremonies at the Royal Military College in Kingston in May 2006 and being called into a backroom to take a call from the Prime Minister’s Office. The unelected staffers gave the decorated soldier and the defence minister orders that they wanted a change in Goddard’s repatriation ceremony – an emotional but fairly standard event where the coffin is unloaded from a military plane at CFB Trenton and driven to Toronto on Highway 401 in a sombre procession. ”Look, don’t bring the Airbus in, or if you bring the plane in, turn it away from the cameras so that people can’t see the bodies coming off, or do it after dark, or do it down behind the hangars, or just bar everybody from it,” Hillier quotes the PMO staffers as saying. “They clearly didn’t want that picture of the flag-draped coffin on the news.”

Don't look away (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 1:17 AM - 15 Comments

Global National reports that Rick Hillier was aware of Richard Colvin’s reports on the treatment of detainees in Afghan prisons.

According to insiders, it turns out Ottawa was indeed aware of reports from a senior Canadian diplomat, which repeatedly warned that Afghan detainees turned over to local authorities risked being tortured. Global National has learned from senior sources within the federal government and the Canadian military, that diplomat Richard Colvin’s warnings reached Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff at the time…

Canada’s current top soldier says he’s working to get to the bottom of what happened to Colvin’s reports. Gen. Walter Natynczyk, chief of defence staff, said Friday he did not yet know where the diplomat’s reports landed back in Ottawa, who read them, and what was done with the information.

Don't look away

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 1:11 AM - 2 Comments

In his new memoir, General Rick Hillier, former chief of defence staff, reportedly discusses the return of bodies from Afghanistan and his insistence that ceremonies for the deceased be public.

He was regularly questioned about decisions to give public speeches, attend public functions or grant interviews. But the biggest pushback came after a decision to hold a full and open ceremony when the bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan were returned to Canada to make the sombre trek along Highway 401 from CFB Trenton to Toronto, a section that’s now known as the Highway of Heroes.

“Our new policy faced a few hiccups, particularly when we had pressure from PMO staffers suggesting … that we should keep the aircraft with soldiers’ remains out of sight, or we should do it late in the evening or early in the morning,” he writes. “This was a line in the sand for me.”

Honouring the Canadian Armed Forces with Don Cherry and Laureen Harper

By Mitchel Raphael - Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 4:28 PM - 17 Comments

The Canadian Club of Toronto honoured the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces at a special Toronto luncheon. Below, Laureen Harper and Don Cherry.

Retired general Rick Hillier (left).

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The Commons: General Canada

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 13, 2009 at 4:46 PM - 31 Comments

Rick Hillier started with a joke about something his late father had said. Then one about his wife and his propensity to talk. Then one about missing his flight. Then one about his Newfoundland heritage. Then about the stature of his audience. Then about George Stroumboulopoulos. Then about Alex Trebek and Wheel of Fortune.

The occasion was a dinner in a hotel ballroom in downtown Ottawa to mark the beginning of a weekend conference of “conservative-oriented” thinkers. General Hillier, formerly the top-ranking soldier in the Canadian military, was preceded to the stage by Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform party. Manning, with remarkably blond hair for a man of 66, was preceded to the stage by Monte Solberg, a former Conservative government minister who has left politics and now has a blog.

In front of the stage were approximately 20 tables with approximately 10 people seated at each. Each table had a brown tablecloth and a vase of red or white flowers. Men, each in a black or navy blue suit, outnumbered women by a factor of three to one. Waiters in black suits, white shirts and black bow ties served roasted butternut squash with green valley apple bisque to start and a main course of slowly roasted rib eye of western beef with fresh herb pan juices, roasted potatoes and seasonal fresh vegetables.

As guests—including half a dozen Conservative MPs and political science professor Tom Flanagan—nibbled at their dessert (a granny smith and caramel tart tatin with vanilla bean ice cream), General Hillier proceeded with his speech.

“Life is good, isn’t it?” he asked. “We live in the best country in the world … You need to stop and remind yourself of that.” Continue…

The toll

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 2:45 PM - 2 Comments

There was a rather remarkable report on the Afghanistan mission by Brian Stewart on last night’s edition of the National. The particularly astounding quote from one analyst: “General Hillier, the Martin government and the Harper government will leave the Canadian army in a worse shape than they found it in.” Continue…

Every time you boil a peanut, a kitten dies: Enjoying every other bit of the Fourthtivities in Ottawa

By kadyomalley - Friday, July 4, 2008 at 4:15 PM - 0 Comments

3:53:18 PM
You know, I’ve never celebrated Canada Day abroad in an ambassadorial setting, but you’d have to go a pretty long way to beat this party, as far as I can tell—and it’s barely even begun. The guests are streaming in, many in red and white, some in… those hats, the little straw ones, with striped ribbons. What do you call those? Those, anyway. Lots and lots of uniforms, but also denim and cotton and really, just a lovely, happy crowd.

Also, the food tents are slowly but surely starting to serve food, and the wine is already flowing, so it’s not exactly a hardship to wait around for the show.

4:57:42 PM
No, I haven’t abandoned you, although I’ll cop to a fact-finding mission to the pulled pork tent. Which, incidentally, was delicious, and highly informative. Now I’m trying to track down a civvie-fied Rick Hillier, who is apparently here in a suit, making it possibly the first time any of us have seen him sans uniform. I mean, not that he’s naked, but you know what I mean.

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