‘Anything is possible’: Gen. Jennie Carignan takes over command of Armed Forces

OTTAWA — Gen. Jennie Carignan was a little emotional on Thursday as she spoke to reporters about what it means to take over command of the Canadian Armed Forces.

It’s an honour that felt like the natural next step in her career, she said, something she’s worked toward for the last 38 years. It also means, for other women or marginalized people, that “it’s possible, folks — the door is open.”

“This is actually what my parents used to tell me: ‘Anything is possible. You can do anything,'” she said.

“But I realized in 1986 that that was not necessarily true for everybody. Even if the doors were open, perceptions stay. There’s unconscious biases that, frankly, I do have to question, myself, regularly.”

Carignan became chief of the defence staff in a ceremony at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on Thursday morning, taking over from Gen. Wayne Eyre, who is set to retire after three years in the job.

“I feel ready, poised and supported to take on this manifold challenge,” Carignan said at the ceremony, with dignitaries including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon looking on.

“So I embark on my tenure as your chief of defence staff with confidence. Confidence in our team, in our partners and in Canadians. We’ve got this,” she said.

There are some big challenges ahead for the Armed Forces and its new leader.

Carignan said her first priority is recruiting more Canadians to join the military, and keeping existing troops in uniform.

There are more than 16,000 vacant positions in the military, with shortfalls throughout its various ranks and professions. At the same time, more than 70,000 people applied to join the Armed Forces in the last year — but just over 4,300 actually got in.

The government’s defence policy says modernized recruitment processes are aimed at rebuilding the military by 2032. Carignan said she will start gathering her team to figure out how to make that happen faster.

“Recruiting personnel is a complex affair,” she said. “If we can get the momentum and get more people in, then sometimes it has a contagious effect.”

For the last three years, Carignan led the office of professional conduct and culture, which was created as a result of the sexual misconduct scandal in 2021.

Culture change is still “at the heart of everything we do,” she said, adding that in 2021, her office set a course to create “irreversible change” over five years.

Carignan said she believes the military is still well on track to meet that target. “We will always deal with misconduct, but it’s how we navigate,” she said.

There is another five-year timeline she’s thinking about, too.

Carignan told reporters that based on talks with allies, she believes Canada has about five years to get ready to face a new set of threats — conventional military threats from adversaries like China, Russia and Iran, as well as emerging threats like disinformation.

“I think Canadians need to understand that if we are not ready, we might not be able to react appropriately in defence of them,” she said.

Defence Minister Bill Blair said his government feels a sense of urgency to get the Armed Forces the equipment it needs. His department has pledged to overhaul the notoriously slow and bureaucratic procurement system.

“We have to be ready to meet the moment,” he said, cautioning that building new ships and planes is not a quick process.

In his comments at the ceremony Eyre spoke about “what could be existential threats,” and said Canada has a history of being unprepared at the outset of wars.

“The security situation out there is not getting any better and we will continue to face many crises, often stacked one upon the other,” he said.

“To do our part in the free world, we need to be at our own peak capability and readiness, and thus peak deterrence, to meet that threat.”

Carignan brings “highly relevant experience” to her role, Eyre said. He told her in French: “You are ready for this role, and you deserve it.”

She was the first woman to command a combat unit in the Canadian military, and her career has included deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Syria.

Following the formal handover of power, Trudeau thanked Eyre, saying he was “the exact right person to help lead Canada through incredibly difficult times.”

He praised Carignan as someone of the right calibre to take over, and pointed out she is the first woman to lead the military of any G20 country.

“You’ve demonstrated time and time again the ability to lead with both strength and flexibility,” Trudeau said. “You’ve shown a tremendous sense of agility, vision and courage.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2024.

— With files from Alessia Passafiume.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press