National Defence committee  What we are saying is that we have to--not we, but you--think about what kind of reserves Canada wants. There are two different philosophies of having reserves. With a country like Canada, which does not have a big population and either does not want or cannot afford a big regu

National Defence committee  Obviously, labour law does not apply to the Armed Forces, as you are aware. Once a service is over, it is over. However — we must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's —, the contracts are, normally, respected. It remains that, for budgetary or other reasons, the military authoriti

National Defence committee  I was talking earlier about the matter of proportions. Perhaps this is the first time that so many reservists are being hired on contract. This situation was jokingly compared to a placement agency, but it really is no joke. These people are considered to be trained, prepared; we

National Defence committee  If we take the example of the Olympics, it's quite reasonable to think that you need some reservists to be on full-time duty for this specific operation. This is one of the roles of the reserves, to conduct or to be part of domestic operations, but again this is a matter of propo

National Defence committee  In principle, yes, but, with all due respect, I would remind you that our Armed Forces are at war, but that the people of Canada are not. Consequently, the reasoning that applied in the case of the Second World War, a war of massive proportions, is hardly applicable to the presen

National Defence committee  You have to look at that for the complete system.

National Defence committee  In the former structure there was, if you remember, something called Mobile Command. As a matter of fact, that was the equivalent of Land Force Command now. The country was divided into sectors, and those sectors were commanded by a brigadier from the reserves. He had a permanent

National Defence committee  If I may add something, we are not against the fact that reservists serve full time, because it is one of the missions, one of the purposes of militia or reserve to be a reserve for the regular force. I am not against that. It is quite normal that some reservists go into external

National Defence committee  Good morning. I am Colonel Marcel Belleau. I also was a citizen soldier for a long time. I had the honour to command a prestigious unit, the Regiment de la Chaudière, and also number three militia district in Quebec. In my civilian life, I made a career in the university world