CBC Chastises CFB Kingston for Media Ban

On Friday, CBC columnist Kady O’Malley chastised a media advisory issued by the Land Force Doctrine and Training System – a department of the Canadian Forces located at CFB Kingston,  tasked with directing Land Warfare intellectual development and Land Operations training.

As quoted in her column, the DND advisory stated:

Land Force Doctrine and Training System
June 4, 2010
Media Advisory: Exercise Closed to the Media

KINGSTON, ONTARIO – June 4, 2010 – Due to the lack of media interest, the June 11, 2010 Pre-Deployment Training Exercise for Civilian Employees of the Federal Government is closed to all media.

O’Malley initially posted that the media’s apparent disinterest might be a result of poor awareness – as she could not find any mention of the event in her email – but later corrected herself when she found the May 18 advisory after a more thorough search.

The article ends with O’Malley’s observation that “closing it to all media seems a little harsh. We’re reporters — we’re not good at advance planning! (Ask anyone who’s tried to get us to RSVP on time.)”

A press release about the event, dated May 31 and titled “Pre-Deployment Training Exercise for Civilian Employees of the Federal Government”, was also issued by the Land Force Doctrine and Training System:

Media are invited to observe first hand, the final day of the Hazardous Environment Training (HET) exercise being conducted by the Peace Support Training Centre (PSTC) for civilian personnel of other government departments (OGDs) about to deploy to various overseas missions.

HET is designed to allow participants to practically apply the knowledge and skills they have been taught over the previous four days. While the training consists of eight components, media will be escorted to the following three stands: Explosive Threats Awareness; Human Rights Violation; and First Aid, Multiple Casualties.

…

The exercise will be conducted at CFB Kingston on Friday June 11, 2010.

HET incorporates those aspects of military pre-deployment training that OGDs have determined as being useful to their people deploying into various mission areas. The aim of HET is to teach participants how to work safely in hostile operating environments.

Although the CBC column – entitled “Passive Aggressive Media Advisory of the Day” – appears to slightly mock the petulance of banning the media from this exercise, when none of them apparently said they would attend anyway, a keen observer might notice a slight note of contrition at the end of the article where she uses the (subject/keyword) tags: “hurt feelings”, “national defence”, “we didn’t know”, and “we’re sorry”.

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Further Reading / Resources:

CBC Column | May DND Press Release | Land Force Doctrine and Training System | Peace Support Training Centre

Tags: CFB Kingston

Category: News