Read Your Job Description General

One of the first articles of the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sevice of Canada says: Public servants must work within the laws of Canada and maintain the tradition of the political neutrality of the Public Service.

General Rick Hillier is a public servant, so in all logic, this Values and Ethics Code must apply to him. Judging by recent statements he made, that fact hasn’t sunk in.

This morning, General Hillier told the annual meeting of the Conference of Defence Associations that "Over the past one to two years, we have begun to fully realize the immense, the negative impact of the defence expenditure reductions in 1994 and the lasting, almost negative legacy that they brought into effect that has to be put right."

He went on to say that "Those actions, dollar deprived, have now led to some deep wounds in the department in the Canadian Forces over this past, what I would call, a decade of darkness."

And this is political neutrality?

Hillier defended himself by claiming that he has a duty to paint a clear picture of the state of the Armed Forces. That’s perfectly true, but when you start littering your reports with figures of speech such as “deep wounds” and “a decade of darkness”, they lose their objectivity.

Again, by his sheer lack of judgment, Hillier has demonstrated that military intelligence is indeed an oxymoron.