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Just days after Canada’s top soldier publicly advocated for more openness on defence issues, his office has refused to release a copy of the speech in which he made such remarks.

Instead, the office of Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre suggests that, if this newspaper wants a copy of the speech he made in public on March 7, it will have to submit a request under the Access to Information law.

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Because of ongoing backlogs in the handling of such access requests by National Defence, the release of Eyre’s speech could take up to two years.

Lt. Col. Yves Desbiens, public-affairs advisor for the defence chief, could not provide an explanation on why Eyre’s office was refusing to release a written copy of the speech made in public at an Ottawa defence conference.

Previously, the Canadian Forces would not only provide transcripts of such speeches, but would also post them online. A copy of the speech by Defence Minister Bill Blair at the same conference on the same day has been posted on the federal government’s website.

Ottawa lawyer Michel Drapeau said Eyre’s refusal to release a copy of the speech was a symptom of the excessive secrecy surrounding the Canadian Forces and National Defence these days.

“This decision is petty and unprofessional,” said Drapeau, a retired colonel who has written a legal book on the Access to Information law. “There is no reason to keep the speech secret, and it raises the question that, if they are hiding this, then what else is being hidden?”

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Eyre’s speech was videotaped and broadcast on a parliamentary and public affairs TV channel. During his address to retired generals and industry executives, Eyre called for more discussions and “dialogue” with Canadians so they could better understand the threats facing the nation.

“What we need is a wider national security dialogue across the country to raise our collective appreciation of the true long term threats and to do something about them,” Eyre added.

In a question and answer session, Eyre also talked about the need to “educate” Canadians about defence matters so as to build up support for more military funding.

Critics have pointed out the military and National Defence are sliding towards more secrecy even as they advocate for billions of dollars in additional spending.

The problem has become so bad that the House of Commons Committee on National Defence has launched hearings into the lack of openness and transparency.

So far it has heard that National Defence violates the law in almost 40 per cent of the requests it receives to produce records under the Access to Information Act.

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The committee has also heard the department continues to withhold a wide range of records, including documents on shipbuilding and fighter jet requested by a Conservative MP in 2017 and 2018 as well as files needed by military sexual assault survivors for legal purposes.

In addition, some former soldiers have complained they face uphill battles to get the military to release documents needed for medical benefits claims.

In January, this newspaper reported that National Defence brought in a new and unprecedented shroud of secrecy around a controversial warship project estimated to cost taxpayers more than $80 billion. The department withheld records about the Canadian Surface Combatant for almost three years; when they were released under the access law, all cost figures were censored from the documents.

Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard testified she was taking the department to court in two cases to try to force the release of records, but she acknowledged military officers and department officials faced few real consequences for ignoring the law, which is supposed to provide for public access to federal records.

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In a Feb. 12 appearance before the defence committee, deputy minister Bill Matthews testified that he and Eyre had reminded senior leaders about their obligations to follow the access law and to improve transparency.

But in March 2023 this newspaper revealed that Eyre’s office had falsely claimed records requested under the access law didn’t exist.

In fact, the records in question had been leaked to this newspaper by sources concerned that copies were being destroyed or illegally withheld.

They showed Eyre received advice from a sexual misconduct survivors’ group on how to finesse his public statements about unethical behaviour as well as reassurances that the organization called INJ 700 wasn’t pushing for harsh punishment of senior officers.

National Defence later claimed a new search would be conducted and relevant files would be released. However, the department continues to refuse to provide those records.

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