Canada's prime minister announced Wednesday the appointment of Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan as the first woman to lead the G7 and NATO member nation's military.

Canada’s prime minister announced Wednesday the appointment of Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan as the first woman to lead the G7 and NATO member nation’s military.

  • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
    154·
    4 months ago

    She joined the military in 1986, three years before Canada allowed women in combat roles.

    Training as a combat engineer – a role in which soldiers clear bombs and erect and destroy battlefield structures – she rose quickly through the ranks, shattering preconceptions about women warriors.

    She went on to become the first woman to lead a Canadian combat unit, deploying to Afghanistan where she narrowly avoided a suicide bomber as well as an improvised explosive device that mangled a vehicle in her convoy.

    Carignan has also served in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Syria, led NATO’s training mission in Iraq from 2019 to 2020, and commanded the 2nd Canadian Division – the military’s largest regiment with more than 10,000 troops.

    About 4 or 5 strong titles in there but let’s use “First woman” instead.

    • Pregnenolone@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      Come on, this is just being obtuse. It’s plenty notable and newsworthy that she’s the first woman to lead the Canadian military.

  • psvrh@lemmy.ca
    91·
    4 months ago

    I’m waiting for some mask-off conservative to make a “woke army” comment. I know there’s a few that want to, and they’re probably seething that they’re now unable to without looking (even more) like the chuds they are.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
      61·
      4 months ago

      Pollievre has been complaining that the military is “too woke” for years, this isn’t new.

      The only specific thing he can ever actually point to is the new hair regs, which he claims everyone hates. This is a flat out lie; the military fucking love the new grooming strandards. The only people who don’t are the crusty old warrants who are still mad that we dissolved the Airborne for all the heinous war crimes they did.

      What he wants to say is “The military is too woke because they let gays and trans people and women and non-white people in,” but he’s still got to keep that part slightly quiet. So this is what he goes with instead.

  • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
    4·
    4 months ago

    This isn’t really super relevant, but the fact that this woman trained as a combat engineer is seriously hardcore. It’s widely considered to be the hardest course in the military, by a long stretch. You have to do everything the average frontline infanteer does, plus build entire bunkers and bridges by hand, under fire, and handle large amounts of high explosives without killing yourself and all of your section / platoon.