Clarifying the role of the CDS

Further to this post, a letter of mine in the Hill Times, June 25:

Hillier is Canada's top soldier

Re: "Political heat eventually 'eats up' Canada's defence ministers," (The Hill Times, June 18, p. 1). Simon Doyle writes that Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier is "one of the most powerful and influential bureaucrats" in Ottawa. He also describes Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Hillier as being at the "helm" of the DND bureaucracy. Funny, I thought Gen. Hillier was the top solder in the Canadian Forces and that Deputy Minister Ward Elcock was at the bureaucratic helm. And I guess the reporter missed what Gen. Hillier said in 2005: "We're not the public service of Canada," he said. "We're not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people."

Mark Collins
Ottawa, Ont.