Flit

FRASER FINAL: ARMY RESERVE STILL TREADING WATER

The Ministerial Committee on the Army Reserve, headed by John Fraser, wrapped up three years of monitoring of how the army reserves had succeeded in enacting the widely lauded recommendations of the 2000 Fraser Report. The full final report, released earlier this month, is here. The short answer would be, "not very well, but at least now it's hard finding anyone who gets too worked up over it anymore."

Back in the late 1990s, professional-reservist antagonism in Canada's military was far more trouble to senior defence staff than the reserves were worth politically or operationally, so even this could be seen an improvement of sorts. The best that can be said about the Fraser report was that it got all the hidden agendas out in the open. It never solved the funding or institutional will problems, but at least it's got everyone to agree that there is a problem. And so, exit Fraser, stage right.

EID MUBARAKH

A blessed Eid al-Fitr to all my Muslim friends and relations.

AH, YES, THE NDP

"Cut Israel off the $300 billion they're [the Americans are] giving them each year."
--Joe Comartin, NDP member of parliament

(Total U.S. aid to Israel in 2003: $2.7 billion.)