It Pays Not To Speculate on Defence

A couple of days ago a CANFORGEN went out, in response to some stories about the Canada First Defence Strategy. When the Citizen said it had obtained a copy I thought I'd try to see if it was available online. Turns out it wasn't, and now I know why: it hasn't been officially released yet.

I'm going to reprint this in its entirety since a) it's not classified, and therefore isn't a risk, and b) it's important to emphasize that nothing is official about this yet. (Just a note that I've made some punctuation changes, to make this read a little easier for people unused to military communications.)

01 01 010930Z FEB 07 RR RR UUUU CDS 002/07

NDHQ CDS OTTAWA
CANFORGEN

UNCLAS CANFORGEN 015/07 CDS 002/07

SIC EDCD

SUBJECT: CDS GUIDANCE ON SPECULATION RE THE QUOTE CANADA FIRST UNQUOTE DEFENCE STRATEGY

1. AS YOU MAY HAVE SEEN IN THE MEDIA RECENTLY, THERE HAS BEEN SUBSTANTIAL SPECULATION ABOUT FUTURE ROLES AND CAPABILITIES FOR THE CANADIAN FORCES WITHIN A NEW DEFENCE POLICY CALLED THE QUOTE CANADA FIRST UNQUOTE DEFENCE STRATEGY.

2. THE QUOTE CANADA FIRST UNQUOTE DEFENCE STRATEGY IS CURRENTLY IN DRAFT, UNDER CONSTANT REVISION, AND NOT YET APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA. COMMENTARY BASED ON ANY PREVIOUS ITERATIONS IS SPECULATIVE AND IN SOME CASES INACCURATE. I ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL BE FULLY INFORMED OF THE CONTENT AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE QUOTE CANADA FIRST UNQUOTE DEFENCE STRATEGY ONCE IT IS FINALIZED AND APPROVED.

3. WE ARE WORKING WITH OUR SECURITY COUNTERPARTS THROUGHOUT THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA AS WE DEVELOP THIS POLICY TO ENSURE WE COOPERATE EFFECTIVELY IN OUR EVOLVING SECURITY ENVIRONMENT WITHIN CANADA AND AROUND THE WORLD.

4. I AM DELIGHTED THAT CANADIANS ARE INTERESTED IN WHAT THE CANADIAN FORCES IS DOING NOW AND CAN DO FOR OUR NATION IN THE FUTURE. HOWEVER, I URGE YOU TO FOCUS ON OUR SIGNIFICANT AND CHALLENGING TASKS AT HAND AND RESIST THE DISTRACTION OF RUMOUR AND SPECULATION.

END ENGLISH TEXT

Frankly, I consider this good advice. For over a decade, the Liberals have tended to take at best a patchwork approach to defence policy, with the result that the CF has had a chronic underfunding problem. With the Tories trying to change course, pretty much all options for defence are on the table, which means there are a lot of potential client groups who want to use this leak as a means of steering policy towards their own benefit. The results of such an exercise, more often than not, are expensive muddles. We really don't need that anymore.