And down goes another officer. Unfortunately, it's Major-General Dany Fortin, who is currently seconded to Public Health to handle logistics for the vaccination campaign. Well, WAS seconded to Public Health. Now on a leave pending investigation of a complaint against him.
You don't. You rip and replace. Set up a civil defense force focused on border security (including patrolling coastal waters), search and rescue, and disaster recovery. Still need military training for doing things like providing security in disaster areas and dealing with illegal activity in our waters, but combat wouldn't be their focus. Create a national reserve force, possibly with mandatory national service similar to Israel and Switzerland, for home defense. Put very, very strict limits on overseas operations of any kind other than disaster recovery. Canada is not going to be a military power. Ever. So let's focus on helping and protecting Canadians and let the big boys duke it out on their own dime.
(Yes, this would likely also involve withdrawing from NATO and declaring ourselves neutral and that carries some consequences esp. given our necessary relationship with the US.).
Given that this is likely not happening, though, my suggestions upthread about beefing up civilian oversight of defense and the military is probably the best approach. Make the generals as subservient as possible to the Department and Minister and put in place a civilian complaints commission with judicial powers and the ability to remove or demote any personnel right up to the Chief of Defense Staff to deal with these sorts of problems. Military officers need to be treated as managers, not as some kind of special people who deserve deference.
