True Patriot Love - Canadian Military： Secrets Revealed

00:00:00.000 In a country like Canada, which is over 41 million people, the Canadian military has approximately 60,000, give or take, frontline regular force soldiers.

00:00:22.060 And of that, just an elite few are members of the Tier 1 operators, JTF-2, the Canadian version of the Navy SEALs or the SAS.

00:00:31.260 And one of them joins me today, a former captain of the Canadian Army, Brian Isted.

00:00:35.140 Brian, how are you?

00:00:36.060 I'm well, how are you?

00:00:36.800 Good, thank you.

00:00:37.580 First of all, you know, everyone has, we were just talking before we started, had different journeys to the military.

00:00:43.780 Tell us about your childhood and what your life was like, maybe through high school and your early adult years.

00:00:49.100 Yeah, so I grew up in Mississauga, so just outside Toronto, I guess that's part of the GTA.

00:00:55.620 Yes, it is, yeah.

00:00:57.220 Relatively normal, you know what I mean, middle class, lower middle class, upbringing, playing sports, video games with my friends.

00:01:04.120 I was not strong academically, that's for sure.

00:01:06.820 Like, I did okay my senior years, I did even less than okay.

00:01:10.780 I was just, I don't know, probably spending too much time partying and enjoying, you know what I mean?

00:01:15.160 It happens.

00:01:15.580 Yeah, like, I have no grades to write home about.

00:01:19.100 A couple attempts at college, I dropped out my first attempt, I just wasn't feeling my program.

00:01:24.900 Ended up going back for a policing, a police foundations diploma at Humber, and then that segued into a bachelor's at Western University in criminology and with a minor in poli-sci.

00:01:37.040 Wow.

00:01:37.240 Which is like a bachelor of arts, you know what I mean?

00:01:40.260 It's super useful nowadays.

00:01:41.840 But that bachelor's enabled me to apply to the military.

00:01:45.840 So I would have been 28 at that point because I had a lot of hiccups and hurdles in between in my young adult years.

00:01:53.720 And so that bachelor's enabled me to apply to the military as an officer because I was either going the policing route with my police foundation's criminology degree.

00:02:03.840 I had a lot of trouble getting hired in policing because of speeding tickets and kind of a misled youth there a little bit.

00:02:09.980 So I did many interviews that sort of went nowhere.

00:02:14.360 And then along the process of a hiring freeze with TPS, when I was somewhere in that process of being applied to a couple other police forces in the background, the military ended up coming through with their offer first.

00:02:27.260 So I took that, you know what I mean?

00:02:28.540 So I joined the military as a second lieutenant in the infantry in a reserve unit here in Toronto, the Queen's Own.

00:02:35.040 Oh, the Queen's Own Rifles.

00:02:36.280 Well, it's one of the most famous infantry regiments in the history of Canada.

00:02:39.260 Yeah.

00:02:39.460 Amazing history of that unit.

00:02:40.800 Amazing guys there.

00:02:41.720 I've had some really good leaders, some really good junior guys that worked for me, but I learned way more from them than they did for me for sure.

00:02:49.180 And that segued into a regular force contract offer that came through a couple years later.

00:02:54.840 I think I was in the reserve for almost four years and then joined the regular force as a military police officer.

00:03:00.640 And then immediately got a deployment to Iraq as a close protection team leader.

00:03:08.080 So that's a fancy way of saying you're a bodyguard for high ranking.

00:03:14.140 It's supposed to be on paper.

00:03:16.440 You do it for a general, usually a multiple star general at that point that's got PDSS.

00:03:23.800 I think it's a person designated special status or something like that.

00:03:27.620 I can't remember.

00:03:27.920 That sounds correct.

00:03:28.600 I don't remember what all the acronyms stand for, but my tour is a bit different because we worked for one general and then there was 16 colonels that worked below him for him as part of the MLT or the ministerial liaison team, which was a infrastructure rebuilding of Iraq through Operation Impact in 2018.

00:03:49.060 Yes.

00:03:49.320 That operation went on a lot longer than that, but I was there in 2018.

00:03:53.340 It's a U.S.-led mission.

00:03:54.660 So we worked very closely with the U.S. military, their CP guys and gals.

00:03:59.100 A lot of overlap with the U.S. military, the U.S. military, a lot of overlap with Italians, French, Germans, Swedes.

00:04:06.420 We worked with a bunch of different nations there, but we had probably the most mobility and responsibility amongst the colonels that were moving around to have meetings with the MOI or the Ministry of the Interior.

00:04:20.500 So they were equipping, training, funding the Iraqi military, police, different government assets that were trying to rebuild Iraq, essentially, with U.S. money and U.S. training.

00:04:33.860 The interesting thing about all of this, you know, I can picture you kitted out with your, you know, bulletproof vest and your sidearm and your carbine and everything that goes with it.

00:04:45.140 But in 2018, so little was said or discussed in the Canadian public, Canadian media, even the House of Commons, that we had that kind of force over there, that kind of presence in Iraq at that time.

00:04:58.080 Yeah, that's a good point.

00:04:59.360 And it's something I didn't think too much about in the years leading up to that deployment.

00:05:05.240 Afghanistan was still probably the main focus in the media.

00:05:08.040 Absolutely.

00:05:08.620 There was still a pretty heavy presence there.

00:05:10.280 I wouldn't say that Canada had a big presence in Iraq, but we definitely had a specialized presence there.

00:05:16.740 There were still a lot of CanSoft people floating around in the background doing their thing and the support elements that make that a reality.

00:05:22.020 There, again, not a lot of numbers, but with all the really, really strong performing troops that I met over my career, I'd like to think that Canadian troops in general, especially the specialized folks, act as kind of a force multiplier.

00:05:38.900 So you can have one man or woman doing the job that might take multiple individuals of another force to have the same effect type of thing.

00:05:47.120 So I'm just really lucky to have been around the people that I was with and the leadership that I was learning from.

00:05:53.040 Your path is quite fascinating.

00:05:55.240 Before we get to JTF2, were you on cyber intelligence after this time in Iraq, before you went to JTF2?

00:06:02.200 Yes.

00:06:02.920 So I came back from the deployment in the fall of 2018.

00:06:07.060 So this would have been five or six years now in the military for me at that point.

00:06:12.660 And the whole reason I got the close protection training and then subsequent deployment was because I was in kind of a holding platoon when I got posted to Ottawa in 2017 because the posting was to an intelligence unit at CFNCOM.

00:06:28.340 So it's the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, which is kind of is an umbrella that houses a bunch of intelligence teams that all work under it.

00:06:34.760 It's a very big organization.

00:06:36.580 A lot of bright folks working there.

00:06:38.140 I know they have a facility in Halifax in the dock or it's attached to the Canadian Navy for their intelligence for all the ships out there other than NATO things.

00:06:46.280 So, yeah, it's a pretty complex unit in the Canadian military.

00:06:49.480 Not a lot of people in the country know about it.

00:06:51.400 No, and probably for a relatively good reason, I mean, intelligence should kind of exist in the background doing its thing without needing the applause or the recognition.

00:07:02.920 But I was not I didn't have the levels of top secret and above clearances that enabled me even access to the buildings I was posted to.

00:07:11.080 Really. So I was kind of stuck in this holding pattern or holding platoon where you're you're literally not allowed to do the job yet because you don't have you haven't been cleared, literally cleared to see the get read in on the intelligence products and files that you're supposed to be working on and the other folks that are in the meetings that you sit around and you overhear things.

00:07:32.080 So there's a whole vetting process that takes over a year, so very fortunately for me, that year was spent training in Academy in the fall and winter of 2017 and then immediately 2018 early we went to Petawawa to do our pre-deployment before Iraq, which was a couple months long and then a six month deployment that took me to the fall of 2019 or sorry, the fall of 2018.

00:07:56.280 So by the fall of 2018, I had my clearances had finally come through, so I think it was very early 2019 or very late 2018 top secret showed up for me and then it was like, okay, here you hop on the treadmill on sprint and start figuring out intelligence products.

00:08:11.760 Now, I'm not obviously I'm not going to ask you to divulge state secrets and Canadian secrets, but for someone as intelligent as you with your background and you've been in country in Iraq or even you surprised and were your eyes open once you got privy to some of this information.

00:08:26.280 That's a great question.

00:08:31.280 So if I can touch on a meeting that I had, it wasn't my meeting, but when I was in, when I was in Iraq, I'm going to be sort of careful about how I word this because I don't know exactly what I'm allowed to talk about.

00:08:44.280 I'll be as vague, but as detailed as appropriate.

00:08:48.280 So the general that I was working with, working for in Iraq, who sort of recognized that there was not a lot of other officers around, like there was lots of colonels, you know what I mean?

00:08:59.280 But I was a captain at the time.

00:09:00.280 And you got stuff done.

00:09:01.280 Captains.

00:09:02.280 Yeah, they did.

00:09:03.280 You're like the sergeant of the officer world.

00:09:04.280 Really?

00:09:05.280 Yeah.

00:09:06.280 A captain.

00:09:07.280 Yeah.

00:09:08.280 Kinda.

00:09:09.280 And that's kind of how I like to compose myself, I guess.

00:09:11.280 And I had a lot of folks around me that sort of wanted that kind of leadership.

00:09:16.280 So it was it worked both ways, I think.

00:09:19.280 But I was the general that we were protecting over there recognized the fact that I was kind of on my own in terms of officer colleague.

00:09:29.280 So he said every week you're going to come and sit in on the senior, senior level meetings with the generals, like the US three star was there, the Canadian two star who I was working for.

00:09:40.280 And then all the colonels.

00:09:42.280 So they would give their back briefs every week of what had been accomplished within the MOI and where's the money going and what training are we getting done?

00:09:50.280 Are the uniforms coming through the equipment, all that stuff?

00:09:52.280 So they debrief the generals every week on what they're doing and how it's going.

00:09:58.280 And I can't remember exactly which representative colonel.

00:10:02.280 Like you had a medical guy.

00:10:03.280 You had an intelligence guy.

00:10:04.280 You had people that work with the police or the Iraqi special forces.

00:10:09.280 And all these different teams had different colonels that would sort of help facilitate.

00:10:14.280 You know what I mean?

00:10:15.280 Their progress.

00:10:16.280 Yeah.

00:10:17.280 And their growth or their learning.

00:10:19.280 So at some point in one of these meetings, one of the colonels was given his opportunity to stand up and he gives his piece and he said, oh, and sort of as an aside to all the things that we're working on.

00:10:32.280 And I don't remember the exact dollar figure, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of I'll downplay it just so I'm not exaggerating the story.

00:10:41.280 Hundreds of millions of dollars had evaporated in front of the literal money that was being given to the Iraqi government to figure out.

00:10:50.280 You know what I mean?

00:10:51.280 How to train them and equip them.

00:10:53.280 And I want to say it was 250 million.

00:10:56.280 It might have been 500 million, but like.

00:10:58.280 Staggered.

00:10:59.280 That's a big.

00:11:00.280 Yeah.

00:11:01.280 10 digit amounts of money had evaporated into the ether over the course of a number of months or whatever it was.

00:11:08.280 And like the answer from the generals in this meeting was essentially like, okay, next slide.

00:11:15.280 You know what I mean?

00:11:16.280 Like nobody.

00:11:17.280 And I'm a captain.

00:11:18.280 You know what I mean?

00:11:19.280 That's like toilet paper compared to the ranks of the people of the room sitting.

00:11:22.280 Yes.

00:11:23.280 And I'm just kind of in awe of what's going on around me.

00:11:26.280 And I've no idea what to make of this information or if it matters in the grand scheme of things.

00:11:31.280 But it just sort of this is a very long winded answer to your original question of I think was, you know what I mean, your experience there.

00:11:40.280 What was that like and sort of did it light anything up for you?

00:11:43.280 And this was kind of my first aha moment of there is an unbelievable amount of corruption and graft going on that I have no idea what to do with even this information.

00:11:54.280 I obviously have no ability to affect it or at all or deflect it or or change anything.

00:12:01.280 But at least I was sort of made aware and think I'm thinking again, I'm thanking this general for giving me the opportunity to sort of sit in on this and just become aware of what's going on, because this was this was pretty mind bending information to to absorb as a junior officer in this room.

00:12:19.280 And then I sort of somehow was able to silo that, put it in my back pocket and move on.

00:12:25.280 You know what I mean? Next mission.

00:12:26.280 You know what I mean?

00:12:27.280 I probably had two or three missions that same day where we were moving around the city in Baghdad.

00:12:31.280 So yeah, like, is that, does that make sense?

00:12:35.280 It does.

00:12:36.280 You know, and one of the, I really love the answer, Brian, and it really explains a lot.

00:12:41.280 Like I hear that answer and then I see how the American involvement in Afghanistan ended with tens of billions of dollars of brand new military equipment left there with.

00:12:53.280 With, oh, well, and for a lot of, not even veterans, but just average Americans, like, wait, that's our tax dollars.

00:13:01.280 And we just, there's hundreds of billions of dollars we just left there.

00:13:04.280 And that's the general public mind doesn't understand that there is waste that goes on in these kind of ventures in these kinds of countries.

00:13:12.280 It's even something as simple if like, if that's the sort of macro looking at the waste and the unnecessary expense of what goes on in the military.

00:13:22.280 If you bring it down to a very micro level, let's say you're in the field and you're on an exercise or whatever, and it's a day long, two days long, two weeks long or whatever.

00:13:31.280 If you're lucky enough to have what's called a hay box meal.

00:13:33.280 So you have food, warm food brought out to you.

00:13:36.280 And it's like a huge kind of container, right?

00:13:39.280 Yeah.

00:13:40.280 It's like a, it's a tall sort of cupboard on wheels thing that they, that's heated.

00:13:44.280 Picture any catering event you've ever been to those, those steel rectangles full of, you know what I mean?

00:13:49.280 Food and they bring that to you and you serve it in the field and you're, you're lucky to have that.

00:13:53.280 You're lucky to have warm field food in the field.

00:13:55.280 So you're pumped about that.

00:13:56.280 But 99% of the time you'll eat, I don't know, 50% of it.

00:14:02.280 Maybe sometimes less, maybe a little bit more depending on how many people you're feeding or how hungry they are.

00:14:07.280 But then you'll watch because the fastest way to sort that out because you got to get back to work is to throw everything out.

00:14:13.280 You know what I mean?

00:14:14.280 And there's no way to take it home and repackage it and put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

00:14:19.280 Like that's not how it works.

00:14:20.280 Yeah.

00:14:21.280 So, and you're back to rations the next day.

00:14:23.280 Yeah.

00:14:24.280 And, and you don't want rations.

00:14:25.280 And again, this is not me complaining.

00:14:27.280 You know what I mean?

00:14:28.280 That the food is not allocated.

00:14:29.280 Like it's better to have too much than not enough.

00:14:31.280 Yes.

00:14:32.280 But at some point it becomes, oh my God, they just threw out 150 chicken breasts.

00:14:36.280 You know what I mean?

00:14:37.280 20 pounds of coleslaw or whatever.

00:14:39.280 And it's like, this is, this is a lot of waste.

00:14:42.280 You know what I mean?

00:14:43.280 So it's just, I don't know what that's worth, but it's just, it's a very small example of kind of the same thing that takes place with nine and 10 figure amounts of money.

00:14:53.280 Obviously you're a very fit human being and fitness and exercise and strength training is an important part of your life.

00:15:00.280 How much of that was an ongoing thing before you started to do the entry level process to become JTF2?

00:15:07.280 Um, well, I, I always stayed in shape because I, I played competitive hockey up until my late teens.

00:15:13.280 And then I sort of stumbled into weightlifting at the, literally just went to the gym with a buddy of mine.

00:15:19.280 I think when I was 18 or 19 and after the first day of just being super sore and him, um, he was really cool.

00:15:27.280 He corrected all my lifts and showed me stuff and our, our abilities and knowledge at that level is very rudimentary, but it was still enough to sort of, again, ignite something inside of me.

00:15:37.280 And I think I became addicted almost right away to the weightlifting side is kind of hockey had taken a back seat and now I needed something else.

00:15:44.280 And that replaced it.

00:15:45.280 Yeah, more or less.

00:15:46.280 I became sort of super fascinated with that, read everything I could about nutrition, training, recovery for years and years and years.

00:15:52.280 That was kind of all I absorbed as a, as a hobby.

00:15:55.280 Um, that definitely helped me getting into the military and being my baseline level of fitness, being much, much higher than the average person getting in.

00:16:05.280 And then how, and then being again in my late twenties, having sort of a better grip of myself and confidence and maturity that comes with someone that's not 18.

00:16:13.280 That's, that's 20, 28, 29 kind of thing.

00:16:16.280 It's a big difference.

00:16:17.280 Yeah.

00:16:18.280 Going through basic training.

00:16:19.280 So does it help?

00:16:20.280 You know what I mean?

00:16:21.280 When you start getting ready to train for, uh, to go to CanSoftCom, like yes and no, because I'm six one right now.

00:16:30.280 I'm probably about 220 pounds, which is probably roughly what I was a few years ago, um, making my way to the unit.

00:16:37.280 But it's like, it's not that helpful to be big and muscly and heavy because there's so much, there's so much work to do all the time and so much stuff you have to carry. 0.85

00:16:49.280 In my experience, it's kind of the smaller, lighter, more nimble or agile guys that are better performers.

00:16:56.280 Like they seem to be more robust and more resilient.

00:16:59.280 Like if you're five, nine, five, 10, 170 pounds, like you are the perfect specimen of the guy.

00:17:05.280 That's probably going to outlast everybody else because you just have less body to manage.

00:17:11.280 If that makes sense.

00:17:12.280 No, it totally does.

00:17:13.280 Right.

00:17:14.280 And from what I, my research, what I understand about a joint task force to our tier one operators.

00:17:20.280 They, it, there's an expectation that you're not going to have to be handheld getting there.

00:17:26.280 Like they're not going to, like they're expecting a professional who comes in, who'll do the training and learn.

00:17:33.280 How soon into the process, beginning your work with JTF2, do you realize that you're working with some very elite special people?

00:17:40.280 You learn that in selection.

00:17:42.280 Oh, is that right?

00:17:43.280 Like you're in your week long tryout before you even get there and you watch them, uh, you're, you'll be given a task and then they'll demonstrate the task.

00:17:53.280 And then they say, okay, do what I just showed you.

00:17:56.280 You know what I mean?

00:17:57.280 But you watch the guy do it and you're like, okay, there's no way, there's no way I can do that.

00:18:01.280 Or the speed at which he did it or the, or the whatever, you know what I mean?

00:18:06.280 And you just realize that you're just trying to kind of survive, but still perform.

00:18:11.280 Um, you, you know, like, you know, that way before you get there, that these guys are different and you come across them sometimes in your career, whether it's Seesaw, uh, Segyru, JTF2.

00:18:20.280 Uh, I, I didn't know many 427 folks, the pilot, the helicopter pilots.

00:18:24.280 Um, but yeah, like they're just, they're just quiet professionals and you, you should be aware of that before you get there, but on selection, you definitely learn it right away.

00:18:33.280 So we, we, there's a myriad of things on YouTube about the physical expectations on selections.

00:18:40.280 Just for people checking this out and watching you, what kind of physical, um, things test did you have running, pull-ups, push-ups?

00:18:49.280 What did they make you do just to get through selection to even start the training?

00:18:52.280 Yeah, you can count on doing a lot of running and pushing and push-ups and pull-ups and sit-ups.

00:18:57.280 It's, it's very body weight focused.

00:18:59.280 That's why, again, the calisthenics portions tend to favor the guys that are a little bit lighter, uh, maybe even a little bit shorter.

00:19:07.280 You know what I mean?

00:19:08.280 Rangers of motion are a little bit less.

00:19:10.280 Uh, not to say that there's not monsters like Devon Larratt, you know what I mean?

00:19:14.280 Who have, who have gone through and that guy, that guy's a freak of all proportions.

00:19:19.280 So some people are genetically, yeah.

00:19:22.280 And he went through selection at that, not much weight.

00:19:24.280 Yeah, the guy's a legend and he's one of the best arm wrestlers, wrestlers of all time.

00:19:28.280 Um, but yeah, you can expect that you're going to be doing, you should get very good at running and very good at push-ups and sit-ups for sure.

00:19:35.280 I have heard that no matter how proficient you are with a pistol or rifle, that they'll retrain you on every weapon you've ever used.

00:19:42.280 Is that, was your experience?

00:19:43.280 Yeah.

00:19:44.280 Yeah, I came in with probably more weapons training than most, given the fact that I had done the close protection side, which offers you time on the SIG 226 and your C8, which a lot of infantry guys won't get time with.

00:19:57.280 Even if you're part of the combat arms, you're not really touching these as much as you should, in my opinion.

00:20:02.280 Uh, so I came in with more experience, but even, but potentially bad habits, like I had high level instruction, but not to that degree and not to the specifics that you're looking for there.

00:20:12.280 So maybe it's a double-edged sword.

00:20:14.280 You might be better off coming in with nothing because then you have to don't, you don't have to unlearn anything, but it's also just good to be comfortable handling some of these firearms just because your exposure to them makes you very aware of kind of how they work and what to do with them.

00:20:29.280 Sense of pride, what was it like to get the sand colored beret when you graduated?

00:20:32.280 I didn't graduate.

00:20:33.280 You never graduated.

00:20:34.280 No, no.

00:20:35.280 I was under the impression that you made it through before and then you were part of it.

00:20:38.280 So I was part of the, I was part of training.

00:20:41.280 Um, so you, when you, when you get selected from select, sorry, when you pass selection and if you get picked up, you go through, uh, what's called SOAC.

00:20:50.280 So that's your special operations assaulter course.

00:20:52.280 Okay.

00:20:53.280 So that's a, it was at the time that I was doing, it was 13 months long.

00:20:56.280 I see.

00:20:57.280 So you started in, I think it was July, June or July.

00:21:00.280 I think it was July of 2021.

00:21:03.280 And that would have run until I believe the end of July or even into August of 2022.

00:21:09.280 So it's more than a year long that you're on this course.

00:21:12.280 More than a year.

00:21:13.280 Yeah.

00:21:14.280 And it covers everything you can think of.

00:21:15.280 You can imagine how much training you can get done in that time.

00:21:17.280 So you're talking field craft, rappelling from a helicopter, everything.

00:21:21.280 Yeah.

00:21:22.280 All this, all the things.

00:21:23.280 And then I was about four, I was about four months into course when, um, I just, I demonstrated a bunch of different deficiencies with, uh, I had, I struggled in a shooting range or two, um, failed a couple tests.

00:21:37.280 You know what I mean?

00:21:38.280 Yeah.

00:21:39.280 Yeah.

00:21:40.280 Yeah.

00:21:41.280 Yeah.

00:21:42.280 Yeah.

00:21:43.280 One of the things that was eating away at me the most when I was in this course was the fear of not just failing, but going back to the unit that you came from.

00:21:52.280 Cause when you, oftentimes when you fail, they'll do what's called an RTU.

00:21:56.280 So you returned to unit.

00:21:57.280 So you go back to your original unit and stay in kind of another holding pattern for if you get to go back the next year or maybe the year after that, depending on a bunch of different things and that's up to them to decide.

00:22:09.280 But I was, I had left such a toxic environment of people who were just horrific leaders in one way or another that were malicious and petty and sad in their, in their careers because of things they did or didn't do.

00:22:24.280 And they made it very clear to me as I was exiting that they were sort of just being really terrible to me on my way out.

00:22:31.280 Um, I was very happy to leave, but terrified to go back.

00:22:35.280 You know what I mean?

00:22:36.280 And the attrition rate on this course is probably more than 50% at least.

00:22:40.280 By the sound of it, I can see why.

00:22:41.280 Yeah.

00:22:42.280 And, and, and, and different years will have different success rates.

00:22:45.280 So maybe it's better, maybe it's worse than some, but I was, I was like haunted by this, this fear of you fail a test and it's like, oh no, you know what I mean?

00:22:53.280 Am I go, am I going back or you get a safety?

00:22:56.280 You know what I mean?

00:22:57.280 Like I'm going to accumulate these safeties and I'm going to go back.

00:22:59.280 So you, and these things follow you.

00:23:01.280 Like if you get, if you get a safety in week one, you know what I mean?

00:23:04.280 In week 52, like that safety is still there.

00:23:07.280 So you, they, they add up and then you're gone.

00:23:09.280 So I had, I just, I struggled with a bunch of things.

00:23:12.280 I was my own worst enemy for a bunch of different things.

00:23:14.280 And, uh, ended up experiencing so many health problems, like immediately thereafter that it just didn't, it wasn't happening for me no matter what anyway.

00:23:22.280 So, uh, yeah, like didn't, wasn't successful in my attempt, but, uh, I, sorry, I must say that it's very noble and courageous of you to explain that in detail.

00:23:35.280 Cause I think a lot of people in life, no matter what their profession, the, the admission that, Hey, I didn't make it.

00:23:41.280 I wasn't successful is difficult.

00:23:43.280 That's a, that shows a lot of maturity on your part, Brian, that you're able to explain it that way.

00:23:47.280 Like, Hey, I didn't do this and this, and I didn't make it.

00:23:50.280 Well, like, to be honest, I've, I've had a few appearances now, uh, with different folks.

00:23:55.280 Um, and I like, I'm just gonna tell the truth.

00:23:57.280 I have no reason to sugarcoat anything or to pretend something happened or that I'm something that I'm not, I'll tell you exactly what happened and how it went.

00:24:06.280 And then again, it's, it's obviously my interpretation of the events.

00:24:09.280 So it's, so it's gonna be biased to some degree, but I'm not gonna fabricate and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna sugarcoat things.

00:24:15.280 When did you start suffering from some health issues?

00:24:20.280 I know that you were experiencing health issues along the way.

00:24:24.280 Um, cause you had the COVID vaccine, am I correct?

00:24:26.280 Yeah.

00:24:27.280 And then as a result, some people have been affected by it and you were one of them.

00:24:30.280 So walk us through the timeline about when you got your vaccine, when the health issues arose and what it meant to you and how it affected you.

00:24:37.280 Sure. So again, in, in segue from my last statement there in the essence of transparency, I don't have proof of anything, but there's an awful lot of coincidences.

00:24:49.280 You know what I mean? And sort of, um, temporal associations.

00:24:53.280 So correlations of what happened and then what happens sort of immediately thereafter.

00:24:57.280 So, uh, the timing of it is very suspect.

00:25:00.280 So, so backtracking a little bit to the spring of 21, when you get, when you, I had completed selection.

00:25:06.280 Uh, so I, I finished all 10 days.

00:25:09.280 Um, and then I was waiting for about a month or so when you get the email and it's the best email ever.

00:25:15.280 You know what I mean? That comes in your inbox at work that says, uh, congratulations.

00:25:19.280 You know what I mean? You've been, uh, deemed a successful candidate throughout selection.

00:25:24.280 So appear at this place at this time and bring this stuff.

00:25:27.280 Wow.

00:25:28.280 And, and by the way, you also will be fully vaccinated when you get there for force protection reasons or whatever they called it.

00:25:35.280 Yeah. Because you could be sent anywhere eventually, right?

00:25:37.280 Yeah. So it will, you're also going to be surrounded by these folks that you're going to live and breathe and sleep and do everything beside for the next 13 months.

00:25:45.280 So in the essence of not letting anyone die from COVID or getting sick from COVID, you, you will have these things.

00:25:51.280 So this was like two weeks before it was supposed to start.

00:25:55.280 It may have even been less than that, um, that I had to go get these vaccinations.

00:25:59.280 So I called the orderly room or sort of the administrators that support roles that handle this kind of thing for, uh, JTF two.

00:26:06.280 And I said, I don't have any of these shots yet.

00:26:09.280 Cause I, I had my res, I had my reservations about doing this.

00:26:12.280 I wasn't screaming from the mountain tops for people not to get it, but I didn't think I needed it.

00:26:16.280 You know what I mean?

00:26:17.280 I just demonstrated that I can keep up with the fittest of the fittest in the military with guys 10 plus years younger than me.

00:26:23.280 Um, cause 37 is a tall order to do my second selection and it took a toll on me.

00:26:29.280 Right.

00:26:30.280 But I, but I was okay.

00:26:31.280 And I didn't think that I needed this thing that I, uh, for a bunch of different reasons we can get into after if you want to.

00:26:36.280 But anyway, so they tell me you do need it.

00:26:40.280 You will have this thing.

00:26:41.280 Go get your first one.

00:26:42.280 We'll figure out your second one.

00:26:43.280 Cause that timeline's too condensed to get both.

00:26:45.280 Yes.

00:26:46.280 They thought it was not a good idea.

00:26:47.280 And I agreed.

00:26:48.280 So literally I think it was that day or the next day I drove to the base in Ottawa cannot ranges where they had the bed tent set up where they were just churning people through in a belt fed.

00:26:58.280 Needle, needle parade, they call it. 0.97

00:27:00.280 And, uh, you get there and there's a, I don't know, three by four whiteboard with green Sharpie written of 25 different bullet points of like your, uh, the information that you get when you're, you're, uh, what's it, what's the word I'm looking for here?

00:27:19.280 When you're sort of read in on something and you've been informed, this was your informed consent.

00:27:24.280 Right.

00:27:25.280 Was your 20 bullet points on this, on this whiteboard.

00:27:28.280 So then the, the, the doctor or the PA or whoever was there, you get to the front of the line.

00:27:33.280 Now it's your turn.

00:27:34.280 And they say, did you see the board?

00:27:35.280 And I said, yeah.

00:27:36.280 Do you have any questions?

00:27:37.280 You know what I mean?

00:27:38.280 Yeah.

00:27:39.280 Tons.

00:27:40.280 You know what I mean?

00:27:41.280 But like, I gotta be, I gotta report for work in two weeks.

00:27:43.280 So here we go.

00:27:44.280 So I sit down and this is where I'll own, like, this was a bit of a cowardly act on my part.

00:27:50.280 Cause I really, really didn't want to do this.

00:27:53.280 Like I, I, the anecdotal evidence at that point of it didn't, it didn't stop transmission.

00:27:59.280 It wasn't stopping infection.

00:28:00.280 Like all the goalposts that they kept moving to say, oh, but it'll keep you out of the hospital.

00:28:04.280 Oh, but it'll prevent you from dying.

00:28:06.280 Oh, but grandma won't die because you, you know. 1.00

00:28:08.280 So there was just so much misinformation, disinformation floating around.

00:28:12.280 Like, I really didn't want to get this thing.

00:28:14.280 I didn't think it was a good idea, but at the same time I'd been working for the better part of a decade to be at this place.

00:28:20.280 So sort of, I'm owning the sort of cowardice of, I just kind of sucked it up and took it.

00:28:26.280 Cause you want to get to the next step of your life though.

00:28:28.280 Yeah.

00:28:29.280 Like I really wanted this job.

00:28:30.280 So I sat there, I took my first shot, no issue other than a bit of a sore shoulder you get from injections, whatever, like that's just trauma to the tissue.

00:28:39.280 So I rode my bike home, no issue.

00:28:42.280 Um, it was about a month.

00:28:45.280 I think it was almost exactly a month later that I was in Dwyer Hill.

00:28:49.280 So we were doing our, our indoctrination still, it was about a week or two into the course and, uh, the platoon warrant stands at the front of the class in one of our break periods and said, Hey fellas, like, is there anyone here that still doesn't have a fully vaccinated like medical profile?

00:29:04.280 Uh, do you not have any shots or do you not have two?

00:29:07.280 And only myself and one other guy put our hand up.

00:29:10.280 So in a room of dozens of people, candidates here where you and one other guy are the only ones that are not sort of towing the line, he basically looks at you and says like, go to the med tent and get it right now.

00:29:21.280 Like this is your, your, this is happening or you're leaving type of thing.

00:29:25.280 Right.

00:29:26.280 And I'm not, and I'm not putting any blame on the individual that said that I actually have a lot of respect for this guy and we worked together for a little bit and he's a, he's a good dude.

00:29:32.280 But that was his rules of engagement he was working with at the time.

00:29:35.280 Well, yeah, well, he's being told, make sure that the platoon you're managing is sorted out.

00:29:39.280 So literally we walked over and I got my second shot that day.

00:29:44.280 And I had, I think every conceivable side effect that night that you can have of the sweats, the shakes and all fever, chills, nausea, uh, just nonstop, like basically horrific flu symptoms that started occurring almost immediately.

00:30:00.280 Cause it was kind of at the end of the day when I did it and then went back, I got no sleep that night.

00:30:05.280 Uh, like I was literally shivering and sweating the whole night and then had to be at work the next morning.

00:30:10.280 Um, took me a couple of days to bounce back from that just because of the sleep deprivation that I experienced.

00:30:14.280 And I don't think we were on the range until the following week.

00:30:17.280 So luckily I wasn't shooting that day, but man, was it, was it a rough night after that second shot?

00:30:22.280 But then, um, if, if I jumped way ahead in the story to about a year or so later, when I was describing those side effects to, uh, one of the doctors, uh, hematologist, I think she was telling me that that's normal.

00:30:34.280 And that's a, that's a sign of a positive immune response and that your body's your, your immune system is healthy and strong and you're supposed to react that you're not supposed to react that way, but it's not, it's not negative or something.

00:30:44.280 It's not a red flag.

00:30:45.280 Well, it was a red flag for me to have this conversation with this doctor.

00:30:49.280 Cause I'm like, that's, that's odd.

00:30:51.280 That's odd.

00:30:52.280 You know what I mean?

00:30:53.280 That someone would say that anyway, um, going again, I'm like, I'm rambling here a little bit.

00:30:59.280 No, Brian, please.

00:31:00.280 So, so to, so that was in late July of 2021.

00:31:06.280 So it was approaching August timeframe by the time I got my second shot.

00:31:10.280 So fast forward two months and I'm in the field in Petawawa, we've been there for about a month and it's almost October.

00:31:18.280 And I have this pain behind my right knee, like at the top of my calf that like, we, we've been going hard now for weeks and weeks and weeks.

00:31:27.280 So things hurt.

00:31:28.280 Yeah.

00:31:29.280 Like, and I'm an old man there compared to most of, I actually wasn't the oldest guy there, but I felt like I was most days.

00:31:33.280 Oh, you weren't.

00:31:34.280 There was one guy older than me, uh, by about a year.

00:31:36.280 Um, and he seemed to be doing fine.

00:31:37.280 So like the aches and pains come with this kind of training.

00:31:40.280 Like you're running and you're literally running and gunning oftentimes all day.

00:31:44.280 And then you're doing it at night with NVGs on.

00:31:46.280 And how much weight are you carrying on your pack?

00:31:49.280 Uh, anywhere from like 20 to 40 pounds consistently.

00:31:53.280 Plus your weapon.

00:31:54.280 Plus like.

00:31:55.280 And you're doing all this.

00:31:56.280 Ammunition's heavy, right?

00:31:57.280 Yes, it is.

00:31:58.280 So, uh, like, I'm, I just think that I'm, I'm old and I'm, and I'm, and I'm suffering.

00:32:03.280 So you just put it away and you deal with it and you go to sleep and try to recover.

00:32:07.280 But I have this nagging pain in my right leg that I'm, I'm not quite limping yet, but it's every time I take a step on my right foot, I feel it.

00:32:14.280 Huh?

00:32:15.280 So, uh, again, comes back to the performance challenges for me, all the stress I put on myself, I met with the leadership and they sat me down and basically said, like, you're obviously struggling.

00:32:27.280 Um, like we're, we're pulling you off course.

00:32:29.280 Uh, I, I didn't know what my future was at that point, but I knew it wasn't continuing.

00:32:32.280 So literally the next day I'm clearing out from the unit and I, and this, this pain in my right leg is, is doubled or triple what it was.

00:32:41.280 So I'm not quite in agony yet, but it's like, okay, something's wrong with my right calf.

00:32:45.280 I think that I pulled it or it's tweaked it or something maybe during one of the assault training things that we were doing and you, you're off, you're often running and jumping and diving and crawling.

00:32:55.280 But it's not a pain you felt before.

00:32:56.280 Is that correct?

00:32:57.280 No, it's, it's unlike anything I'd felt before.

00:32:58.280 I just felt it was something in my calf.

00:33:00.280 Okay.

00:33:01.280 So now, so now I'm, I'm home and I'm kind of on intro, uh, transferring back sort of administrative lead transferring back to my old unit.

00:33:12.280 And I think there's about a one or two day in between.

00:33:14.280 So I've been off course for maybe a few days and, uh, the pain is so intense in my right leg.

00:33:20.280 Now I can't, I can barely walk and like standing up is very, very painful.

00:33:25.280 So I'm like, okay, something's wrong here.

00:33:27.280 So I, I sort of drove myself to the military hospital in Ottawa and I kind of hobbled in there.

00:33:34.280 Like again, barely being able to walk, like this was next level pain for me.

00:33:38.280 And, uh, I, I sat down in the chair and they kind of rushed me through cause they could see how uncomfortable I was.

00:33:43.280 And the nurse, and I wish I could remember his name, but he had a pretty good intuition of what I was dealing with.

00:33:48.280 So they rushed me to an ultrasound, uh, where they discovered a six centimeter blood clot in my right leg.

00:33:53.280 And, uh, that's no joke.

00:33:56.280 No.

00:33:57.280 So they put me on blood thinners right away.

00:33:59.280 I was informed, like I wasn't going back to work anywhere anytime soon.

00:34:02.280 You're going to take these blood thinners for at least a month.

00:34:04.280 You're on bed rest, sort of just relax and, uh, go home type of like, I didn't have to stay in the hospital.

00:34:11.280 Um, my, I thought I was going to have to do an overnighter, but they actually allowed me to go home.

00:34:17.280 So I was able to drive back.

00:34:19.280 Uh, my girlfriend at the time had come and gotten me cause she wasn't sure if I had to stay there, but she, she, she came and saw me there and then we both drove back.

00:34:26.280 And I was literally just like horizontal for a couple of weeks because I couldn't just standing up was, was horrific.

00:34:33.280 Uh, and I'd like to think I have a relatively high pain threshold.

00:34:36.280 You know what I mean?

00:34:37.280 Compared to, I think the average person I can push through certain.

00:34:40.280 And Brian, let's be honest at that point with your training, just to get to JTF and through that you're probably in the elite one or 2% fitness level.

00:34:49.280 Some of your age in the country. 0.86

00:34:51.280 Yeah.

00:34:52.280 Like you think about that?

00:34:53.280 Yeah. I appreciate that.

00:34:54.280 It's like, I had made a very deliberate attempt to, or, or effort rather to, to be there and maintain that.

00:35:00.280 So it's like part of that is like pushing through the aches and pains of the training that gets you there.

00:35:04.280 So pushing all that sort of out of my mind while it was happening, I was now sort of faced with this.

00:35:09.280 Potentially career ending injury, because if you, if you have something where you have to be on blood thinners forever, you're definitely not being part of a tier one assault unit where if you get nicked by something or shot, like you're just going to bleed out.

00:35:23.280 Right. So, yeah.

00:35:24.280 So I'm, I'm dealing with this sort of, um, mental challenge of like, oh my God, failing course, failing health, uh, failing relationships at work with previous leadership.

00:35:36.280 And like, there was just, there was almost nowhere to turn where it made sense for me to, um, put the pieces together of what I was dealing with at the time.

00:35:45.280 It was kind of a lot to manage and, uh, it was just test.

00:35:49.280 And then it was just week after week and month after month of ongoing tests and ultrasounds and blood work and hematocrit levels, which is your sort of thickness of your blood, which causes blood clotting.

00:35:59.280 And eventually the clot dissolved and went away according to the ultrasounds.

00:36:03.280 But then I started sort of, uh, realizing that the back pain that I was also experiencing during course was creeping up and creeping up and creeping up and kept getting worse and worse.

00:36:12.280 And I wasn't, I was no longer training.

00:36:14.280 Like I was basically on bed rest for a long time.

00:36:17.280 So why is your back?

00:36:18.280 So why is my lower back?

00:36:19.280 It's as sore as even more sore than it was when I was doing running and gunning.

00:36:23.280 Um, so I started asking the doctors questions and ask them if they can look into it.

00:36:26.280 So they do more imaging, more blood work.

00:36:28.280 And it turned out that I have a, I, they, this is now, I guess the summer of 2022, like it was a long time of me sort of on the downturn, um, medically.

00:36:41.280 And by the summer of 22, the doctors basically confirmed to me that I had a degenerative autoimmune condition starting in my lower back.

00:36:48.280 So my spine is fusing together.

00:36:51.280 Really?

00:36:52.280 Yeah.

00:36:53.280 In your SI joint.

00:36:54.280 It's called ankylosing spondylitis.

00:36:55.280 Uh, yeah.

00:36:56.280 A Mick Morris from Motley Crue had that.

00:36:58.280 Yeah.

00:36:59.280 Yeah.

00:37:00.280 Yeah.

00:37:01.280 So, uh, I know that cause I'm a crew fan, but yeah.

00:37:02.280 So yeah.

00:37:03.280 Yeah.

00:37:04.280 There's a, there's a few people that have talked about it openly that I started looking up and their experiences and their treatments and whatnot.

00:37:08.280 So, um, again, so another issue compounded, it was around the same time that I was getting ready to be released.

00:37:17.280 So now many more months go by and they, they're putting me on this pain medication, this anti-inflammatory medication, nothing's working.

00:37:23.280 Um, I'm basically preparing now to get released from the military because like, they're like, I'm a, I'm a bag of hammers at this point.

00:37:31.280 You know what I mean?

00:37:32.280 Like I'm not doing much for anybody.

00:37:33.280 I can barely sort of keep my, myself together.

00:37:35.280 So.

00:37:36.280 Right.

00:37:37.280 The medical that they give me on the, so once they sort of, once you prepare for release, they give you a release medical.

00:37:42.280 So they give you an ECG, your blood pressure, your hearing, I think, vision.

00:37:49.280 They, they want to see, they want to sort of compare your, cause you do all that stuff when you get in and then they want to compare it when you get out to see where you're at and what's, what's better.

00:37:57.280 What's worse, probably nothing's better, but like how, what's worse and how much worse is it?

00:38:01.280 So the ECG that they gave me came back with some really troubling information that I had sort of in a regular heart rate and rhythm.

00:38:09.280 So like they started, so then I had to go see a cardiologist specialist and it was just one thing after another.

00:38:15.280 Like it just never, I had to wear that.

00:38:17.280 Um, I forget what it's called, but there's a device that's about the size of a cell phone.

00:38:21.280 My wife had a little bit thicker and it's, and you wear wires, you're just totally wired up just to, and like, they're basically go through a couple of days and they want to see.

00:38:30.280 Oh, it was a couple of weeks.

00:38:31.280 Yeah.

00:38:32.280 Well, the guy stiff.

00:38:33.280 Yeah.

00:38:34.280 But they want to monitor what happened.

00:38:35.280 It was a real treat to wear this thing for two weeks where luckily you can take it off to shower.

00:38:39.280 You can clean yourself, but then you put it immediately back on.

00:38:42.280 So you have to sleep with this thing.

00:38:43.280 Um, they couldn't find anything conclusive from this device that I wore, but I I'm still seeing this cardiologist every once in a while to make sure.

00:38:50.280 To this day.

00:38:51.280 Yeah.

00:38:52.280 To make sure that whatever they detected on that ECG is not still there getting worse or whatever.

00:38:57.280 So like the, the decision to medically release me, I think was a relatively easy one for the military.

00:39:02.280 Uh, that happened in, I guess it's been almost a year.

00:39:05.280 It's been a year and a half now.

00:39:06.280 Cause it was April of 2024.

00:39:08.280 Yeah.

00:39:09.280 I was, I was what's called three B or medically released.

00:39:12.280 Um, so my, my pension activates immediately.

00:39:15.280 Uh, it, it's, it just, it makes it financially.

00:39:19.280 It's, it's much more beneficial for that to happen, especially if it happens to you when you're younger, cause you're no longer able to pay into your pension, but they sort of immediate annuity you anyway.

00:39:28.280 Um, yeah, man.

00:39:29.280 But it's like, it's just been a, it's just been a battle of.

00:39:32.280 Health and mental health for a long, for quite a while now.

00:39:37.280 And I want to get into this with you, Brian.

00:39:39.280 I, Jonathan Taves of the, now the Winnipeg Jets missed two years of playing in the NHL from long COVID.

00:39:44.280 And there are all these stories about elite athletes, triathletes, marathon runners, people of elite fitness levels like yourself who were affected.

00:39:53.280 From the vaccine or COVID and I'm just a regular, you know, dad, uh, who got multiple shots and I try to exercise, but not at that level.

00:40:03.280 And I really had like, so there's a real correlation between elite fitness people who got affected by it and just average people who didn't.

00:40:10.280 It's, I find that weird.

00:40:12.280 Something that I think is, I agree.

00:40:14.280 Something I think is interesting is that I don't know of anyone.

00:40:18.280 Again, anecdotally, I don't know of anyone or haven't really heard of anyone that has long COVID that isn't vaccinated.

00:40:25.280 Yeah.

00:40:26.280 So like that long COVID in quotations really seems potentially like it could be vaccinated, vaccination related, or, or maybe a combination of you got COVID and the vaccination.

00:40:36.280 Like maybe you didn't need that after you already had COVID as every other vaccination in history has gone down before this one.

00:40:43.280 But, uh, no, I, I agree with that.

00:40:45.280 There was definitely some type of correlation between the more fit you were, the more, and young, the more likelihood that you would have a serious side effect.

00:40:55.280 Uh, cause there was a lot of examples of that, am I correct?

00:40:58.280 A lot of examples of that.

00:40:59.280 Yeah.

00:41:00.280 Especially with heart problems with people.

00:41:01.280 And a lot of those heart problems are permanent for the folks that are suffering from, uh,

00:41:05.280 myocarditis or, or other things.

00:41:08.280 And growing up, I had assumed that you and your family, you had measles, mumps, all those kinds of vaccines as a kid.

00:41:14.280 Oh yeah. I took everything.

00:41:15.280 And then when you joined the military, you had a round of vaccines as well.

00:41:18.280 And you would have had some before you went to Iraq.

00:41:20.280 Yeah. You, before you deploy, you get another fresh booster of pretty much everything.

00:41:25.280 And I took everything.

00:41:26.280 I sat there.

00:41:27.280 I never questioned anything.

00:41:28.280 I never had a reason to.

00:41:29.280 And no side effects.

00:41:30.280 As far as I can tell, no, no side effects from that stuff.

00:41:33.280 Yeah. So I just want to establish that you're not some wackadoodle anti-vaxxer that people see in the news.

00:41:38.280 You're someone that had the COVID vaccine and had an adverse physical reaction after the fact.

00:41:44.280 And there are examples of that in medical textbooks.

00:41:47.280 Yeah.

00:41:48.280 It's the, the risk is not zero, you know, it's safe and effective, but like safe as according to definition implies no risk.

00:41:56.280 So that's not, so it's definitely not safe.

00:41:59.280 And it sure as sure as hell wasn't effective.

00:42:01.280 You know what I mean?

00:42:02.280 So Brian, I I've always wondered about this.

00:42:04.280 You know, a tier one operator by its very nature, as you say, you can get the best, the best from the PPCLI, the van dues, the RCR, all these units across the military apply for JTF to barely half make it.

00:42:18.280 Should there be two sets of rules for the elite tier one operators and people just in the regular military?

00:42:24.280 Rules for what?

00:42:25.280 Rules for everything.

00:42:26.280 Rules.

00:42:27.280 Like you, you talk about being in country.

00:42:29.280 Should you have to have one rule for every single person in the Canadian Armed Forces about?

00:42:34.280 Are we talking like dress and deportment?

00:42:36.280 Dress and deportment, vaccines, everything else.

00:42:39.280 Dress and deportment, I can, this, this, this, this can get real slippery real quick, depending who you ask for things like dress and deportment.

00:42:50.280 I think you should be clean cut all the way through your basic and sort of trades training until you're sort of professionally qualified.

00:42:58.280 I don't see any harm in enforcing at least a strict standard of how you appear professionally.

00:43:06.280 And then like some of the inspection stuff of making your bed and folding your shirts and cleaning your soap dish and stuff like those, those go a bit far.

00:43:14.280 In my opinion, I think that's a bit, again, it's not about having a clean soap dish.

00:43:19.280 It's about attention to detail and following instructions.

00:43:21.280 So I get, I get it.

00:43:23.280 But at the same time, like sometimes you'll come back, you'll, you would have been outside training all day.

00:43:28.280 You'll come back and your whole room has been tossed upside down.

00:43:30.280 And now all, and on your, your closet's thrown down the hallway.

00:43:33.280 You know what I mean?

00:43:34.280 As resilience training.

00:43:35.280 And it's like, you're going to learn something from that.

00:43:36.280 You don't really learn anything from that other than how to like, you're going to get less sleep now because you have to clean up the mess.

00:43:42.280 So to answer your question, I, there should be two sets of rules for people that are untrained and people that are now trained. 0.99

00:43:49.280 If someone has long hair and a beard, I don't give a shit. 0.98

00:43:53.280 If you do your job, you know what I mean? 0.99

00:43:54.280 Do you show up to work on time?

00:43:56.280 Are you a positive contributor to the team?

00:43:59.280 Do you come up with solutions?

00:44:01.280 Do you always complain?

00:44:02.280 You know what I mean?

00:44:03.280 Like I, like there's so many variables that really all that matters is, are you doing your job?

00:44:07.280 And are you an effective soldier?

00:44:08.280 And by soldier, I mean, sailor, airman, whatever, woman, cook, logistics.

00:44:13.280 I don't care.

00:44:14.280 Just do your job.

00:44:15.280 What you're talking about is a reality in every place of work, every business in the world that no matter if you are a cook on one of the naval frigates or you're a tier one operator, you're part of a team in a workplace.

00:44:29.280 And you know, there, there is a certain level of professionalism, no matter what your job, whether you're an accountant or an HR or whatever it is.

00:44:36.280 So, uh, just to back up a little bit, like, again, on treating people the same, when you get to the more advanced teams, you have direct access to what's called a weapons tech.

00:44:47.280 So this, this guy or, or, or gal is a wizard of firearms.

00:44:51.280 You know what I mean?

00:44:52.280 Oh, really?

00:44:53.280 And they will upgrade your grips.

00:44:54.280 They will upgrade your sites.

00:44:55.280 They will upgrade your.

00:44:56.280 What to what your specs are.

00:44:58.280 Yeah.

00:44:59.280 So if you have a bigger hand, you might need a bigger grip on your pistol.

00:45:02.280 You might need a different rail system to accommodate.

00:45:05.280 You prefer what's called a bad lever, maybe on your C eight.

00:45:08.280 So a bad lever is a battery assisted device.

00:45:11.280 So it's a, it's a, it's a attachment that enables you to hit your bolt catch with your trigger finger.

00:45:20.280 So instead of having to use your left hand to engage your, your bolt catch, to slide that bolt forward again, in terms of a reload.

00:45:27.280 Once you put the magazine in, because that lever wraps around and touches the, your bolt catch from the trigger side, you just have to move your finger a centimeter.

00:45:36.280 And it's locked and loaded.

00:45:37.280 So as soon as you put your magazine in, hit it, it's, it's shaving fractions of seconds.

00:45:42.280 So these are things you're allowed to do in can soft calm, but you're definitely not doing this in basic training because you haven't really earned and demonstrated the fact that you're proficient enough and safe enough that you can do these things.

00:45:54.280 So.

00:45:55.280 I guess that's my way of saying you should treat everyone the same until they've demonstrated.

00:46:01.280 Yeah.

00:46:02.280 I totally get it.

00:46:03.280 Is that.

00:46:04.280 No, no, no, no.

00:46:05.280 It totally makes sense.

00:46:06.280 Before we get to some where you're at now in your future, I, I always think of someone like you who had your experience.

00:46:11.280 And what you did in the military, if I could wave a magic wand and make you the minister of national offense, what are some of the two or three things you would do that from your experience to change things for the better?

00:46:21.280 Oh, man.

00:46:22.280 Uh, I got asked this once too, on a, on a pod earlier this year, and it's such a wild question for a junior officer with sort of limited, you know, you were in country.

00:46:32.280 Yeah.

00:46:33.280 So reserve and regular force.

00:46:34.280 It's a great question.

00:46:35.280 Um, the things that I'm aware of that still exist that are problematic is the DEI stuff like tampons in the men's bathroom or like specific recruiting drives to get minority or whatever representation in whatever trade or the forces as a whole.

00:46:51.280 It's like I never met anyone in the military that ever cared about where you were from or what you looked like to a certain unless you were sloppy and lazy.

00:47:00.280 You know what I mean?

00:47:01.280 Like that's that's kind of part of it.

00:47:02.280 But it's if you if you can keep up and you're doing your job, I don't care where you're from or what you look like or your green, brown, purple, black.

00:47:12.280 Like it doesn't matter.

00:47:13.280 And again, no one else does either that I know.

00:47:16.280 Um, but to fix the problems like the DEI thing has to go for sure.

00:47:21.280 It's just destroying morale across the board.

00:47:23.280 And it's too top heavy.

00:47:25.280 The Canadian military has 150 or something generals for a military that is we have that many generals.

00:47:32.280 It's it might be more than that.

00:47:33.280 Again, don't quote me on that.

00:47:34.280 I'm giving a ballpark.

00:47:35.280 Okay.

00:47:36.280 I don't know if we can look this up in real time.

00:47:37.280 I'm sure we can.

00:47:38.280 But, uh, Nick can.

00:47:39.280 It's, uh, it's, it's one.

00:47:41.280 It's, I think one of, if not the most top heavy militaries in the world.

00:47:45.280 So you have this, you have dozens and dozens and dozens of generals who are just quite literally padding their pensions with these postings to Europe and Australia.

00:47:54.280 And it's like, yeah, like these guys have earned it.

00:47:56.280 They've been there.

00:47:57.280 Then they go to a board on a, you know, a company.

00:48:00.280 But, but the problem is that it's just slowing everything down to a crawl.

00:48:05.280 145.

00:48:06.280 There you go.

00:48:07.280 I wasn't too far.

00:48:08.280 No, you were pretty close.

00:48:09.280 That's a lot of go forward general officers to have for, and you said, I think 60,000.

00:48:14.280 We're just under 60,000.

00:48:15.280 Regular.

00:48:16.280 I think it's way less than there's no, it's not even close to that for reg force.

00:48:19.280 I think that's total.

00:48:20.280 With the reserves as well.

00:48:21.280 So if you combine army, Navy, air force, reg and reserve force, I don't think it's even 60,000 anymore.

00:48:27.280 Yes.

00:48:28.280 It's could be as low as like 45.

00:48:30.280 My dad joined a 57 in the air force.

00:48:32.280 The Canadian military was close to under 50,000 for a country half the size.

00:48:37.280 Yeah.

00:48:38.280 Yeah, exactly.

00:48:39.280 And again, I don't know if it's necessarily about numbers of recruiting about having a bigger military probably doesn't necessarily make it better.

00:48:47.280 If anything, again, putting my M and D hat back on that you just gave to me, I would probably trim it down even further.

00:48:53.280 Really?

00:48:54.280 Starting with the generals and then getting rid of a lot of the folks who are, I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but this was going back four or maybe five years, COVID era timeframe, where they eliminated the fitness testing for promotions.

00:49:07.280 So I think there was always an option to sort of opt out of doing fitness testing to some degree.

00:49:14.280 I did not know that.

00:49:15.280 It would deny you a promotion and it would definitely deny you a deployment.

00:49:18.280 So you could still sort of exist in the background as a as a plug who's not willing to be fit for their job and still sort of maintain your job in some capacity.

00:49:30.280 Yeah.

00:49:31.280 But then they got rid of it for needing it for promotion.

00:49:33.280 So I just I can't imagine that's a good idea.

00:49:37.280 You know what I mean?

00:49:38.280 And I'm not saying everyone has to be selection ready.

00:49:40.280 Like I don't recommend doing that.

00:49:41.280 It's actually not mentally or physically healthy to maintain that for a long period of time anyway.

00:49:46.280 So I would probably trim it down even more so that the people that are there are just super capable people that actually want to be there.

00:49:54.280 Like if that happens to be 30,000, 20,000, I don't know.

00:49:58.280 You know what I mean?

00:49:59.280 It's hard to put a number on that because I really have no clue.

00:50:01.280 But I think having a really specialized folks who are really motivated and want to be there, pay them more money because they've earned it and then sort of enable them the same treatment as we just talked about.

00:50:13.280 Like if you want to grow your hair, I can't imagine caring.

00:50:16.280 If you want to have a beard, good.

00:50:18.280 A lot of countries, militaries allow it, especially Scandinavia, and they seem like they're ready to rock if they have to.

00:50:25.280 But you're also going to be fit.

00:50:27.280 You're also going to be capable.

00:50:28.280 You're also going to have the attributes and you're going to be hoping to move up in your career.

00:50:32.280 And then at the same time, once you get to that point in your career where it's just pension padding and what I call military tourism, you're just being posted around the world on the government's dime.

00:50:41.280 Yeah.

00:50:42.280 It's like this isn't helping anyone anymore.

00:50:44.280 No.

00:50:45.280 This isn't part of a team.

00:50:46.280 This is a, this is a me event.

00:50:48.280 And I'm just going to.

00:50:49.280 And the war ranks can see that, Brian. 0.99

00:50:50.280 They're not stupid. 1.00

00:50:51.280 Oh yeah. 0.99

00:50:52.280 They definitely see it.

00:50:53.280 And they're definitely resentful of it.

00:50:55.280 Not all of them.

00:50:56.280 You know what I mean?

00:50:57.280 They don't walk around with a dartboard with your photo on it.

00:50:58.280 You know what I mean?

00:50:59.280 As far as I never saw one of those, but like they, they do see it and they do get it.

00:51:03.280 And they're kind of wondering why their PMQs or I can't remember what PMQ, private military quarters.

00:51:08.280 Yeah.

00:51:09.280 That's what I grew up in.

00:51:10.280 They're wondering why their PMQ has mold in it.

00:51:12.280 Yeah.

00:51:13.280 But this, but this general, you know what I mean?

00:51:14.280 As is in his third posting to Greece.

00:51:16.280 We used to have to put a plastic on our windows growing up because the wind would blow in the winter.

00:51:20.280 Oh man.

00:51:21.280 Some of them are rough.

00:51:22.280 I've seen some that are just rough.

00:51:24.280 They are rough.

00:51:25.280 They need, they need to fix that.

00:51:26.280 Like these people deserve the dignity of, of having a home.

00:51:29.280 That's not gross.

00:51:30.280 Before we, I want to ask some more questions about you, but I am curious to get your take.

00:51:35.280 The war in Ukraine has changed the, the paradigm of warfare so much because of drones.

00:51:41.280 Um, we're seeing $500 drones destroy $10 million armored vehicles with ease.

00:51:47.280 How prepared are NATO countries and Canada, all of them for a warfare that includes that much drone warfare?

00:51:55.280 Man, that's sort of out of my pay grade.

00:51:58.280 Okay.

00:51:59.280 I was just curious.

00:52:00.280 It's a great question.

00:52:01.280 You, you have a lot of good questions.

00:52:02.280 So that it's sort of, I know it's being done by a state backed force, but the Ukrainian military is taking part in these, but it's, it's very sort of guerrilla style warfare where you're making the most of the least type thing.

00:52:15.280 And you're using your enemy's strength almost as a weakness by crippling their supply lines or their really expensive infrastructure with the minimal amount of effort or, uh, investment.

00:52:25.280 Um, how prepared is a NATO force to deal with that?

00:52:27.280 I don't think anybody's really prepared to deal with that just because of how.

00:52:31.280 I don't know how precise and stealth some of this new technology is.

00:52:37.280 Like you can do a lot of damage with a very small, inexpensive piece of equipment.

00:52:41.280 Um, there are warning systems.

00:52:43.280 Like in Baghdad, we had really sophisticated early warning systems for incoming artillery or rockets.

00:52:50.280 Really? Artillery as well.

00:52:51.280 Artillery and rockets.

00:52:52.280 Wow.

00:52:53.280 But they would also detect drones and, and each, each rocket, each artillery shell, each drone or insert, you know what I mean?

00:53:01.280 Whatever incoming aerial problem has a certain signature to it.

00:53:06.280 Like the, whatever, I am not a scientist.

00:53:08.280 I'm not going to pretend like I understand the technology behind this.

00:53:11.280 So like birds would fly freely around the base and that doesn't set it off because it knows that it's a bird, but a drone lifts up, uh, two kilometers away.

00:53:23.280 And it detects it.

00:53:24.280 And in seconds we get an alarm in our base.

00:53:27.280 Really?

00:53:28.280 The same thing.

00:53:29.280 The rockets or the artillery would come in so fast because those things can go kilometers in seconds.

00:53:36.280 Um, the alarm would go, but it's probably already landed.

00:53:40.280 So you're getting an alarm.

00:53:41.280 Like you heard the shell land, hopefully, and you could get away from it. 0.99

00:53:44.280 But the alarm will sound that there's like something's happening.

00:53:48.280 There might be more coming, obviously.

00:53:49.280 So sort of get inside, get away from it.

00:53:51.280 But the, um, the technology does exist to identify an incoming problem via drone.

00:53:58.280 But I don't know that it's obviously the examples of them using them effectively is proof that it doesn't necessarily work as well as it's supposed to.

00:54:06.280 But I, I, we did have some early notification drone warnings because we were given videos of ISIS and, uh, Iraqi insurgent capabilities and what they would do, um, to disrupt or, uh, assault allied forces would be to just something as simple as a drone flying at the exact height.

00:54:27.280 Known that it will have about a three or a four second fall for a grenade.

00:54:31.280 Cause the fuse on a grenade is, is about three and a half, I think four seconds.

00:54:35.280 So if you know what the, the, the fall time of, or drop time of a grenade is, and you fly a drone at exactly that height, you can remotely pull the pin on a grenade and then drop it.

00:54:46.280 So exactly when it lands or almost immediately after it lands, it detonates cause it causes way more problems than if you flew it and dropped it.

00:54:54.280 And then someone saw it and kicked it or someone saw it and was able to jump behind something.

00:54:59.280 So they were like, this is a real threat.

00:55:01.280 You guys need to be aware of this and there's nothing you can really do to stop it.

00:55:04.280 If you're out on a road move and they decided to drop a grenade on your armored vehicle, is it going to kill you?

00:55:09.280 I don't know, maybe not, but it's certainly going to ring your bell and your, your, your vehicle's probably not going to work if it lands in the right spot.

00:55:17.280 So you got a whole other host of problems now.

00:55:19.280 But, um, I don't, I don't think that there's any allied country that can effectively deal with that type of guerrilla style warfare, uh, because it's just proven so effective.

00:55:28.280 I I've talked to, um, many different people, whether athletes and are entertainers or who had did something for a while and stopped.

00:55:36.280 And over time they look back and that time gives them better perspective.

00:55:40.280 You've had a bit of time now since you had to medically leave the Canadian military.

00:55:44.280 Do you have a different perspective on your time in now, Brian, with a little bit of time space since then?

00:55:49.280 Wow. Yeah. No, one's asked me that before.

00:55:50.280 Um, yeah, I definitely do.

00:55:52.280 Uh, again, very, very fortunate.

00:55:55.280 I think I was in my career to have worked not only in the opportunities that I had, but with the folks that I had as well, especially with some of the leaders I had, uh, there's probably more bad leadership that I was exposed to than good.

00:56:10.280 But the good ones really leave a mark where you can kind of the bad ones you treat as kind of dead weight and you just leave them in your, leave them in the dust and, and move forward.

00:56:18.280 But the good ones really stand out, but the good ones really stand out.

00:56:21.280 And you try to apply the things you learn from them, not just in your, in your professional life, but in your personal life and the relationships that you develop with other seniors or, or guys that, or gals that work for you in the junior ranks.

00:56:33.280 And you, one of the things I'm, I'm most proud of looking back is the professional and personal growth I witnessed of the guys that were on deployment with me and just seeing them go, the guys in their early twenties, some of them sort of not fresh off basic training.

00:56:47.280 They're, they're all, they're all professional soldiers. They have been for a little while. They're still quite young, but just how well they adapted to the environment and we're looking for work and proactively solving problems.

00:56:59.280 Cause I had enough headaches administratively as a, like one of the only officers there in charge of my team.

00:57:05.280 So it was like, I had to handle a lot of paperwork, whereas these guys were really good at equipment and tactics and all the things that make a court, a good corporal or mass corporal sergeant.

00:57:15.280 Like these guys are just switched on and it was amazing to watch them learn and grow and, and make my life so much easier.

00:57:21.280 And I'm still friends with a lot of them to this day. And if I can sort of pivot a little bit and speak to what they call me and talk to me about, like they're embarrassed about the military.

00:57:32.280 Like they're, they're disgusted with the leadership and you're, you're supposed to be apolitical, like you're, you're wearing the flag, you fight for the flag, you fight for the guy beside you.

00:57:44.280 It doesn't matter who's in office. It doesn't matter that Trudeau is an absolute joke or Kearney, which is basically Trudeau 2.0.

00:57:51.280 But like, it does kind of matter to these guys and it kind of should, like, you should have someone that isn't a complete opposite of everything that you, you kind of, the reason that you signed up or the reason that I signed up was to be amongst people that were high performers in a very challenging and dynamic environment.

00:58:12.280 Um, and something that you're proud of doing, you know what I mean?

00:58:16.280 These are the reasons why I left sort of the business world that I was, that I had spent time in during college and university, which was considering that career as kind of a backup.

00:58:24.280 Right. And I was like, I'd rather be more of in an environment where I'm around kind of like when I played hockey, I want to be around guys who are athletes that care.

00:58:31.280 You know what I mean? That take pride in this. And that's, that's the military and that's the people that I was exposed to.

00:58:36.280 Now here's, you just brought up a really good point. I think most people watching this don't understand. They're probably thinking, well, what difference does it make of Trudeau or Kearney or prime minister to someone in a unit in the military?

00:58:49.280 Um, it's, it's, it's a, like, it's a, it's a pride thing. It's a professionalism thing. It's an intrinsic, for lack of a better term, giving a shit about what is going on behind the scenes.

00:59:01.280 Cause that stuff does matter. And I remember I sort of very briefly on my way out considered, um, moving lateral, like before my health problems completely spiraled out of control. 0.92

00:59:13.280 I was thinking, okay, well, I don't really feel at home here anymore. Where else can I go and use my skill sets to be a value? And I, I had applied to the RCMP to be on the prime minister's protective detail.

00:59:24.280 Oh, right on. Yeah. Cause that's who handles. 1.00

00:59:25.280 And you've done protective detail before.

00:59:27.280 Exactly. I did it city side as a bodyguard as well. Like I have a lot of experience doing this or enough anyway. And I, like, I made it, I don't know, well into the, the, the process of the application before I started having to sort of sit down and think like, would I take a bullet for this person? Because that's quite literally your job.

00:59:47.280 Correct.

00:59:48.280 And I, and I decided, no, like, I'm not going to take a bullet for Justin Trudeau. Like, is that a joke?

00:59:53.280 And again, you're supposed to protect the office. You protect the position and this is what they tell you. And they beat it into your head and this and that. And it's okay. I get it.

01:00:02.280 But at the end of the day, am I still going to sacrifice my life and never see the people again that I care about and have them deal with the loss of me or whatever.

01:00:11.280 And maybe that's selfish of me and fair enough, but for Trudeau, no, I wouldn't. He's, he's a joke. And so is Carney for that matter.

01:00:20.280 How, how much, um, influence can the company commanders, the, uh, Sergeant majors, the NCOs in the unit, uh, keep the people in the unit, the men and women on point and sort of shield them from maybe that like, Hey, forget about who's in office.

01:00:36.280 This is our job. This is what we're going to do. And we're going to do it together. Just in spite of them.

01:00:41.280 Is that, is that doable or is that.

01:00:43.280 I don't know where you dug these questions. Like I'm sweating trying to figure out the best answer to these. Cause I, I've not really thought of that before, but the, but it's, it's a really good question because you're asking about top cover.

01:00:55.280 Like how much top cover do you get from the RSM and your Sergeant major and all these people. So my dad was an NCO and then I, for when I grew up the, the senior non-commission officers, they make things happen.

01:01:07.280 Yeah. Yeah. Everyone knows that. Like you, you learn that, especially as a junior joining, as a direct infantry officer, you learned that the warrant and the sergeant's is who runs the platoon and you're the guy who pushes papers around.

01:01:18.280 But, uh, can they provide enough top cover to, I think maybe 30 years ago, but now because there's so much information and there's so much access to immediate headlines.

01:01:33.280 And I'm not talking about clickbait nonsense. I'm thinking like, if you want to do a deep dive into any subject, whether it's the person in office, the policy, the corruption, like I don't think they can anymore just because they, so they can, to a certain degree, they can sort of try to protect you from the bureaucracy machine that can overtake your life and become a nightmare.

01:01:58.280 Like they can definitely help with that. And I've tried to do that for guys that were getting the, uh, like a, a jerk, uh, Sergeant major breathing down their neck or their, or their OC or whoever was like, I had one guy try to, he, he was given what's called a CFTPO.

01:02:14.280 So, which is your, basically your marching orders that you're going on deployment. 0.88

01:02:17.280 Okay. And this outranks everyone in your chain of command.

01:02:22.280 Like this is coming down from, you know what I mean? The, the army commander is sending this down saying.

01:02:27.280 From NDHQ in Ottawa?

01:02:29.280 Yeah. Like Corporal Bloggans is going on deployment.

01:02:32.280 Like he will be at pre-deployment training under the guard of, not the guard of, but the, under the command of Captain Isted, you know what I mean? As they prepare.

01:02:40.280 So his chain of command was saying like, I don't care who Captain Isted is.

01:02:45.280 Like, we don't know this guy.

01:02:46.280 Like you're going to show up for, you're going to show up for parade on Monday or like, we're going to report you a wall.

01:02:51.280 So he calls me and he's like, man, what do I do?

01:02:54.280 Because I know I'm supposed to be there, but like, I don't want to get charged, but I need to go on pre-deployment training.

01:03:00.280 Cause I need to get all my checks in the box before I go.

01:03:02.280 And I said, look, dude, like who is this guy?

01:03:04.280 Like I'll talk to him.

01:03:05.280 I got this kind of thing.

01:03:06.280 Like, let me handle it.

01:03:08.280 So he gives me the name, my email.

01:03:11.280 I went back and forth with this guy for a couple emails where he's basically telling me to take a hike and that I don't matter.

01:03:17.280 And I'm just like, look, dude, you don't really understand that this isn't coming from me.

01:03:21.280 Like this CFTPO is 50 ranks above all of us.

01:03:24.280 Exactly right.

01:03:25.280 Right.

01:03:26.280 And like, you need to relax.

01:03:27.280 Like, I know you want to hang on to your guy cause he's a good dude, but like, stop.

01:03:31.280 You know what I mean?

01:03:32.280 So I ended up sort of offering him that kind of top cover from a toxic element of his leadership.

01:03:38.280 But can you, can you protect people from the information that's out there now?

01:03:41.280 I don't think so.

01:03:42.280 Yeah.

01:03:43.280 It's just, it's too, it's too, like the ether of it exists everywhere and your phone is all you need now.

01:03:50.280 You, you have such a great resume and a great skill set as a human being.

01:03:55.280 What's next for you, Brian?

01:03:59.280 I struggle with this question every morning.

01:04:01.280 Wow.

01:04:02.280 We're all day to day, right?

01:04:03.280 Yeah.

01:04:04.280 Honestly, the vast majority of my time is spent in appointments, managing my, like many, many appointments a week, managing health and pain.

01:04:16.280 So like, that's sort of my near to medium term goal is to get a firm grip of what I'm dealing with mobility wise, health wise, mental health, all that stuff.

01:04:25.280 So that's, that's my near term goal.

01:04:27.280 And then honestly, seriously considering, and at this point planning on an exit from Canada, because I don't, I don't think this country is trending in a good direction.

01:04:36.280 Um, seeing the concurrent parallel problems happening in the UK, Australia, the US as well.

01:04:43.280 Um, it's, it's a little bit shocking that we're not sort of getting a grip of this and we couldn't wait to vote back in Trudeau 2.0 with the threat of bad orange man.

01:04:53.280 Um, cause that's essentially what happened and the boomers just ran to the ballot box to protect their $2 million town homes.

01:04:59.280 So it's like, man, like just taking care of myself and the people close to me because, uh, the, the hurdles that I've faced in the last couple of years, health wise, have been pretty significant.

01:05:11.280 You, I mean, you look fit and healthy.

01:05:13.280 So what are you able to do physical fitness wise, uh, dealing with some of the health issues that made you have to leave the military?

01:05:20.280 It's, it's just, it's a lot of the same things, but with heavily restricted, um, potential.

01:05:27.280 You know what I mean?

01:05:28.280 I can't move the same ways.

01:05:29.280 I can't, the lower back pain thing goes from, it's, it's almost agonizing some days just to get out of bed because of the, the autoimmune thing is not something that anybody really knows how to understand or manage.

01:05:40.280 It's one of those things that like even the biologic drugs that they try to give me are, are quite scary, uh, in terms of the side effects of those, which can make it like you either get a side effect from the drug.

01:05:49.280 Or you deal with the side effect of your issues.

01:05:51.280 So it's like what, which one's worse rock hard place kind of thing.

01:05:55.280 Um, I, I still try to do a lot of the same things, but realistically, like I'm definitely slowing down and it takes a team of professional people.

01:06:03.280 One of them in this building, actually the massage therapist, um, that sort of enables me to slow the degeneration and sort of make the most of what I have.

01:06:12.280 I, I would never tell you what to do with your life and especially after what you've done to serve the country.

01:06:17.280 And I, I hope I w whatever I wish you the longest life of health and happiness, Brian, but the Canada is a country.

01:06:24.280 I mean, we're called true Patriot love for a reason.

01:06:26.280 We, we need people like you, not like wherever you end up.

01:06:29.280 Hey, I supported a thousand percent, but I hope part of Canada stays with you because for us to survive and thrive as a country, people like you are, are an important part of it.

01:06:40.280 I appreciate that. And it's, it's, I, it's not like I'm writing it off as a, as a nation or as a people or whatever, but it's definitely top of mind to consider, can I afford to live here?

01:06:50.280 You know what I mean? As someone who's definitely not going to inherit anything from my folks, I don't, I don't have family money.

01:06:55.280 I don't have the things that a lot of people can sort of lean on. And I've talked about this in the past on a different podcast where Canada's kind of almost devolving into a caste system of families that sort of own properties and ones that don't.

01:07:07.280 Um, and I'm not, I'm not taking on any responsibility or wealth from anybody.

01:07:13.280 Like it's, it's things I have to build and I'm, I'm fine with that. It's not a pity party, but it's like, where can I do that the most effectively? And it's trending more and more like it's not here.

01:07:24.280 Um, I wait months and months and months. Like I'm still waiting to see a specialist for my back. It's been a couple of years. There's no one in Toronto that's willing to take me on as a spine specialist.

01:07:35.280 Really?

01:07:36.280 Like where can I get better health care? You know what I mean? Where can I get access to things or how far will my money go? Can I afford a home? How bad is the traffic?

01:07:46.280 I heard Churchill, Manitoba is nice this time of year. It's not a lot of traffic, affordable housing. You might have a box of polar bears, Brian.

01:07:53.280 Oh man. Church. Is that like way north?

01:07:55.280 It's way like, that's like, like, yeah. Yeah.

01:07:58.280 Yeah. I don't think I'm moving to Churchill, Manitoba anytime soon.

01:08:02.280 Nothing against Churchill.

01:08:03.280 I know that the, the true Patriot love thing in the, and the love of Canada is still there. And I would love to turn this ship around and correct it for sure. I just, I don't know how.

01:08:12.280 Right.

01:08:13.280 And like my, my resources are quite limited as I'm, you know what I mean? A young single guy with, uh, only so much income to, to spread around as part of my pension. But it's like.

01:08:22.280 You may not realize it, but by just having this conversation, you're helping, you're helping a lot of people. There's a lot of people, a lot of walks of life, but maybe not military, but I've had struggles and ups and downs like you and see how you deal with it. And you're, you're helping a lot of people, Brian.

01:08:37.280 I hope so. Yeah.

01:08:38.280 I like in a perfect world, people would see this and, uh, hopefully pivot, you know what I mean? And, and make a better choice or, or make a different choice or, or keep on the path that they're on. Um, yeah.

01:08:50.280 Yeah. It's a bit of pleasure, my friend. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Brian.

True Patriot Love - October 23, 2025

Canadian Military： Secrets Revealed

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