By Gloria Kelly The National Veterans Week Speaker Program is in full swing within Winnipeg and communities scattered across southern Manitoba in the lead up to Remembrance Day on 11 November.   Each year members of all ranks at 17 Wing and its various lodger units step up to the plate and volunteer to visit schools, legions and community groups to promote Veterans Week and to talk about why it is important to remember.   This year about 180 requests will be filled across the region in a...

By Martin Zeilig Every November 11, as Canadians gather to honour those who served, Indigenous Veterans Day and Remembrance Day offer a moment not just of reflection, but of reckoning. For Justin Woodcock, Program Manager of the First Nations Veterans Program at the Southern Chiefs Organization, the days leading up to Remembrance Day carry profound weight — not only as a former soldier, but as a relentless advocate for First Nation veterans whose sacrifices have long gone unrecognized....

Over the past five years, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has navigated a rapidly shifting global landscape marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising geopolitical instability, and domestic labour shortages. These challenges tested operational readiness and recruitment, but the CAF responded with resilience and reform. Today, equipment and maintenance issues are being actively addressed, and recruitment has rebounded—so much so that Regular Force enlistments for the 2024–25 fiscal year surpassed...