While the Royal Canadian Air Force plans to add more control over how fighter pilots get their call signs, a senior officer says there are no plans to abolish the nicknames — or the social gatherings where they are handed out.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Maj.-Gen. Iain Huddleston said he is aiming to have a formalized process for assigning call signs in place by the end of January.
Yet he also defended such nicknames as important for morale and esprit de corps.
“They’re a tool that’s been used for many years to bring those teams that are focused on fighter operations together,” Huddleston said. “So, I think it’s important to have that team spirit, that esprit de corps, that camaraderie.”
Huddleston’s comments follow a disciplinary hearing last week in which two senior officers under Huddleston’s command were reprimanded and fined for not intervening after a sexually inappropriate call sign was assigned to a junior fighter pilot.
The call sign, which was homophobic and targeted a female pilot, was assigned during what is known as a “call sign review board” on June 22 at one of Canada’s two fighter-jet bases, 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta.
Despite their official-sounding name, such boards are social events where pilots tell funny or embarrassing stories about each other over drinks before deciding on an appropriate nickname for new aviators.
Describing the call sign assigned on June 22 as “egregious,” Huddleston said the nickname and review board clearly crossed the line and “had nothing to do with esprit de corps, it had nothing to do with teamwork.”
Yet he also said that he does not want to change the basic structure of such review boards, adding: “They’re still going to be social events, because it is about esprit de corps. … And I feel that it is still a tradition that we want to support, but with structure.”
Exactly what form that structure will take remains uncertain, but Huddleston said one idea is to have a senior member in the room who will not drink and whose job is to control the group.
“Someone has to be there to be able to say: ‘Hey, this is stupid, knock it off,'” he said.
Asked how a roomful of fighter pilots would assign such a name at a time when military members are supposed to have been warned about inappropriate sexual behaviour, Huddleston said he was at a loss.
“I can’t understand it myself,” he said. “It’s stupidity. I don’t understand it. This is not something that I’m familiar with even in my 33-year career.”
He also couldn’t say why Col. Colin Marks and Lt.-Col. Corey Mask, who were the senior officers in the room, didn’t intervene.
However, he said both have accepted responsibility and worked to understand the harm that was caused by their failure to act.
The two officers pleaded guilty during a summary hearing held in front of 50 Air Force members at 4 Wing Cold Lake on Monday. Marks was deprived of eight days’ pay while Mask lost five days of pay.
Marks and Mask are also receiving a six-month “mentorship” to ensure they learn from their mistake, Huddleston said.
That mentorship, which Huddleston is conducting with Marks while 4 Wing commander Col. David Turenne works with Mask, involves various discussions about leadership and reviews of the military’s orders on sexual misconduct.
The mentorship program falls under what the military has described as its “reintegration framework.” Launched earlier this year, the framework aims to help Armed Forces members learn from mistakes, rather than simply kicking them out.
“I think it gives us a path to allow people to make mistakes, reasonable mistakes, and then move forward and be part of a cultural evolution,” Huddleston said.
It remains unclear what position Marks, who was poised to take command of Canada’s other CF-18 base in Bagotville, Que., and Mask will be assigned in the future. That decision will be up to Air Force commander Lt.-Gen. Eric Kenny and defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre.
Lori Buchart, who previously served as co-chair of “It’s Not Just 20K,” a support and advocacy group created by victims of military sexual misconduct, said they should be required to take specific actions before being considered for another command position.
“For instance, they have to show they’ve learned by making connection with the (military sexual trauma) community,” she said. “They have to understand how their actions caused pain and suffering. They also need to know their role in preventing this from occurring again.”
She added: “If they were to be immediately appointed to a command position without some sort of restoration and time for reflection and learning, this would be a mockery of all CAF says they are doing to bring about meaningful change.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2022.
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
