24. Andrew MacGillivray.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix
24. Andrew MacGillivray.mp4: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Andrew MacGillivray:
I'm Lieutenant Navy retired Andrew MacGillivray. I'm a 12 year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. I was a naval warfare officer, and I was medically released from the Canadian Armed Forces in August of 2021. I have over 500 days at sea, three high readiness deployments and plenty of operational experience. I finished my career at the recruiting center in Toronto. Based on my recent experience, the two biggest threats to the operational capability of the Canadian Armed Forces are not from foreign entities but are from federal government policies. The first being anti racism, critical theory and other Marxist ideologies being forced onto the Canadian Armed Forces. And the second is the COVID vaccine mandates. For the purpose of this testimony, I will be focusing on the latter. So I have several stats I'm going to read off and they are accurate. As of the 16th of March 2022, the 365 rolling day average for the attrition rate of the Canadian Armed Forces is 11%, almost double the average. Our regular force has 62,898 personnel, reserve force 29,874 for a total fighting strength of 92,772 members. Out of those members, 894 are not vaccinated. 409 are not vaccinated and requesting accommodations for a total of 1303. The next state. I will speak about our members who are untested. So untested means they are not willing to disclose my medical info and at that time there was 1991. Most of those members are most likely not vaccinated. So that leaves us with approximately 3300 or 3.6% of our fighting strength.
Andrew MacGillivray:
Now, these numbers are not entirely, entirely accurate due to some unvaccinated members being offered what we call a four Charlie release, which means they'll be released in good standing. And they do not have to go through the mountain of paperwork and administrative reviews for a five foxtrot release, which is equivalent to a dishonorable discharge. So some of our members did not want to go through that and they decided to take the four Charlie release. So some of these members who I've spoken with have served our country for over 20 years and there are only a handful of years away from getting their pension. So it's usually about 20 or 25 years for them to get their pension and their medical benefits. With a five foxtrot release. They do not get their pension. They are not entitled to the public service health care plan and they are only given a return on contributions, which is a wildly fluctuating return that they get heavily taxed on. So I'm part of some of their chats and some of their members. Within a month, their return on contributions has decreased by 100,000. And so in my personal opinion, that is a disgrace. You have people who have served our country a handful of years, 2 to 3 years away from their pensions, and they get released with nothing. And so when other people see that who are looking to join and they said, well, look, we have people who served our country that is getting kicked to the curb with nothing.
Andrew MacGillivray:
That's not going to help with our recruiting numbers. In March, the national defense minister, Anita Anand, said that there is an urgent need to attract Canadian Armed Forces Member Canada Armed Forces members personnel amid a, quote, clear and present danger, unquote, and that she was going to do, quote, everything I can with General Eyer and the broader defence team to make sure that happens unquote. Well, everything does not include dropping the mandate for over 3000 CAF members who have already passed their basic training and are at very various stages of their career, who probably have in excess of 2000 years of experience in the Canadian Armed Forces that they are kicking out. Another number that should be alarming to Canadians is there's approximately 800 million worth of our tax dollars that are being flushed down the drain as a result of these mandates. We have 17 pilots who are getting kicked out. Two of those pilots are 4 to 7 squadron pilots, which is our special, our country's special forces pilots. Each pilot, the approximate training value is $30 million per pilot. For snipers, it is 1 million per sniper. And the list goes on. I want to touch too much on the medical side is that's not my area of expertise. I will say that a lot of staff members are young and in decent shape, and that makes me ask the question, what is the percentage of healthy people who have died from COVID between the ages of 17 and 60, which at 60 you reach compulsory retirement age? And if that percentage of people who have died from COVID between those ages is low, why are we taking the risk of forcing an experimental vaccine that could potentially have serious side effects on our country's entire fighting force? And that fighting force does a lot that the average Canadian doesn't see behind the scenes.
Andrew MacGillivray:
So Canada's not a militaristic nation like the United States, but our soldiers and sailors, they handle a lot of domestic problems. They respond to states of emergency. They met, they get northern communities, Ontario, the indigenous communities. They get them out when there's forest fires and floods. And they are a massive work force for our country. And so putting that jeopardizing that that capability that's in place to protect Canadians to me is concerning. Another interesting point is that over the 90 different trades that we have in the Canadian Armed Forces, why do our medical officers have the highest percentage of unattested members by far? What does that tell you? I'd also like to know the percentage increase or decrease of Canadian Armed Forces member suicide rates since these mandates were implemented. When you're part of the armed forces, there's a healthy esprit de corps that is established within the service.
Andrew MacGillivray:
Jokes, banter, telling, war stories, that sort of thing. When I was when the mandates were implemented, we were all sent home. I miss that bond of brother and sisterhood that we had while we get together and work. And I'm sure a lot of our members at the time were going to be having mental issues, being away from the camaraderie of the of their units. I also wonder how our members getting forced out of their careers and if PHAC or Veteran Affairs Canada will cover them for any potential mental health issues of being kicked to the curb. And then I have one final point about my concerns with recruiting, is I was in recruiting for two years. We are having trouble getting members in and a lot of people we get in are family members of current serving members. And so if we treat our current serving members this way where we kick them out, you're actually losing that lineage of of people who join the Canadian Armed Forces. There's a lot of people that's like my son is in or my daughter's in, my parents, grandparents and with overall, from from my perspective, the morale within the Canadian Armed Forces being extremely low. And the way we're treating our members in 10 to 15 years, we're not going to have an efficient fighting force being able to defend the sovereignty and of Canada sovereignty. Sorry. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.
Trish Wood:
Thanks very much. It's pretty scary. The numbers are pretty scary. Do you know how many of the unvaccinated who are being punished did active duty in Afghanistan? Our Afghanistan vets included in that?
Andrew MacGillivray:
No, ma'am, I wouldn't. I don't have that information.
Trish Wood:
Some would be, I guess. Yes, ma'am. My point being that you can serve in a foreign country and risk your butt and they kick you out for not getting a vaccine. That's.
Andrew MacGillivray:
Yes, ma'am. And we have, you know, people, when I'm out there and I'm talking to people, they call me an anti-vaxxer. But I have a vaccination booklet that is full. And I probably have more than vaccines than 99% of the world's population. And so we're not anti-vaccine. But for us, I remember I was talking to a medic friend of mine, and when this first came out and we were debating whether they were going to make this mandatory, and he said no, he said this is going to be a crime against humanity. There's no way they would make an experimental vaccine mandatory. And sure enough, they did.
Trish Wood:
Okay for the panel now. I'm sure they've got questions.
Preston Manning:
Yes. Thank you for taking it. And I'm sure this is a painful exercise for you to have to be engaged. What internal mechanisms exist within the military to make the arguments that you are making, like before the decisions are made? Is there any was there consultation with the troops, with the medical people? Was there an internal mechanism to try to make the points that you're making?
Andrew MacGillivray:
No, I don't think so. So right now, from my understanding, there is a class action lawsuit that's being filed by a couple of several hundred of our members who are taking the federal government or the Canadian Armed Forces to court to fight against their release. I can't speak to that too much. I don't have the details. But basically in the military, we take orders and a lot of people are too afraid to ask questions because they don't want to rock the boat or they don't want to create a bunch of paperwork for their chain of command. So I have nothing but respect for the people who've stood up and stepped forward and are going through the the headache of administrative reviews, etc., for them to to sort of to fight against this. But from my understanding, the vast majority have just been accepted, the fact that they're going to take the vaccine and they just did what they were told.
Preston Manning:
And if a national investigation is ever held into this and you were asked what changes in the military should be made so that this sort of thing doesn't happen again? Is there any one major or two steps that you would suggest? I don't know. That's kind of a broad question, but we're trying to not not just collect what went wrong, but we're groping for how can it be prevented in the future?
Andrew MacGillivray:
I think that's a that's a tough question. I was a junior officer and that's definitely a strategic level piece. But I think getting the Army sergeants will probably hate me for saying this, but getting feedback from the troops, the sailors, the airmen at the ground level about their concerns with this sort of thing and having maybe open or sort of town halls about this, where they can actually take some feedback from the the rank and file to and discuss what their what their issues are with the the or whatever's being forced on them, whether it's a vaccine or whatever. So that might be a good measure. But then also having advice from the outside and not just stuff coming from the right, from the federal government is maybe get some external medical advice to the the medical community within the armed forces.
Trish Wood:
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Preston, do you have another question?
David Ross:
I just want to thank you for your service to our country. Just a quick comment. It seems to me that that that there's a pretty widespread. Problem with with a lot of people recognizing that there's an inseparable link between making choices and the choices have consequences. And I just I kind of sense that there's that that in terms of decisions that have been made, that there's been a much heavier weighting on political decisions than on scientific or logic and common sense. So anyway, I guess, you know. All of this, these things should be drawn out, I think, especially when it comes to something as as important as our armed forces. Thanks again for your service.
Andrew MacGillivray:
Yes, sir. Thank you very much for your time.
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