SAINT-HUBERT MILITARY
BASE, SUMMER 1966

“CANADA’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE KIND of military operation necessitated by zones of high-intensity conflict,” droned the general, tapping out the rhythm of his words on the headquarters’ map with his baton, “must be limited to the deployment of the 4th Brigade of Engineers, at the moment stationed in Germany, with sufficient tactical air support. The rest of our Armed Forces are going to need to rapidly reorganize and be given the flexibility necessary to intervene in a vast repertoire of possible conflicts. Which means that our Armed Forces must, among other things, concentrate on the problems of revolutionary agitation, terrorism, and urban guerilla warfare. It must prepare itself to withstand a prolonged anti-insurrectionist war . . .”

During the Question Period that followed, a member of Parliament from Quebec who had listened attentively to General Bédard’s talk, asked with a perplexed, not to say slightly disconcerted, air: “General, if I understand you rightly, you’re proposing that we increase the effectiveness of our military component in areas of low conflict . . .”

“Exactly,” said the general.

“Except that your model, it seems to me, suggests just the opposite: that the importance of the military component must diminish, and that of the civil engineering section be increased, until the intensity of the conflict decreases . . . isn’t that right?”

“Yes. And that’s why I’m the first to recognize that the Armed Forces cannot operate to their highest potential in situations of low-intensity conflict. Hear me: the groups best placed to pacifically solve most of these types of conflicts are civil organizations — governments, police, and so on — that may or may not require military assistance. I insist on this point: in the lower half of the spectrum of applied force, the role of our troops is to support organisms implicated in the search for a solution. This seems to me to be absolutely essential. And that’s why we need to develop a structure dedicated to being able to coordinate police, civil, and military actions on a large scale. The basis of this structure already exists in Canada: you no doubt understand that I’m talking about our three levels of government. In other words, the law can be modified in such a way that the military can act as agents of peace having as their mission to assist legally constituted authorities. I’m glad you raised this question.”

The Honourable J. D. Sheppard, P.C. member for Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, had removed his earphone, which had practically disappeared into his ear, and was scraping the inside of his ear cavity with his little finger. He interrupted this operation to raise his hand.

“You mentioned levels of government . . . Last week, I read in the paper that the police had nabbed two separatists who were getting ready to steal a cache of arms from a military post in Montreal. Now, am I completely out in left field here, or if, when you speak of social agitation, and recycling the Canadian army into an anti-guerilla organization, you’re . . .”

The general thrust his square jaw forward.

“Putting Quebec in our sights? That’s what you were about to say, is it not?”

“Well, er . . .”

The general smiled. Everyone smiled except for Sheppard. What a bumpkin.

“It’s three hours later in Regina,” sighed the Honourable Jay Vaugirard, District of Joliette, chin in hand. “Appetizer time,” he said to himself.

“Mr. Minister,” said General Bédard, still smiling, “I’m going to have our documents office send you the last few issues of The Masses, a small, clandestine journal that I don’t think is distributed in Saskatchewan. In it, I’m sure you’ll be surprised to learn that at this very moment, as we speak, there is in Montreal a paramilitary organization whose goal is to replace our democratic government with a socialist state much like the ones they have in Cuba and Moscow.”

The general looked at his watch. Almost time for dinner. He cleared his throat.

“To sum up, gentlemen, on the matter of our internal field of operations, we must be sure to apply all available forces to achieve maximum effect. Remember that the enemy operates on the lower part of our level of intensity in conflicts, where its efforts don’t habitually meet any but feeble opposition and can take advantage of a disproportionate amount of publicity. And therefore, while the atomic weapons of our allies continue to prevent the outbreak of a total world war between the West and the Soviet powers, we are going to prevent, by the imposition of forces far superior in numbers, equipment and logistics, strikes, demonstrations, disruptions of order, riots, homemade bombs, Molotov cocktails, that can easily degenerate into more serious conflicts. Allow me, in summing up, to leave you with what I call my Mugger Theory. The best way to protect yourself from a mugger isn’t to take out your knife and confront him with it on equal terms. It’s to corner him at the end of an alley, point a dozen machine guns at him and tell him to drop his knife. And that, gentlemen, is exactly what we intend to do with these young thugs. When the time comes, we’ll know how to provoke the right occasion. We’ll bring them along to precisely where we want them, and then, after we’ve surrounded them with our squadrons, we’ll provoke them to bring out their knives. And then, and only then, will we engage them . . .”

The Minister of Defence was one of those who went up to General Bédard during the discussions that followed, armed with transcripts of the Commander of Mobile Forces’ talk, and walked with him toward the mess hall.

“A simply remarkable presentation, my dear sir . . .”

“Bah. Let’s just say I’m doing my best to attract the attention of our political men to certain realities.”

“Remarkable, simply remarkable,” echoed the Honourable Peter Dryden.

“Not for me to say,” replied the Commander of Mobile Forces, with a shrug of his shoulders.

Three weeks later, General Jean-B. Bédard received his fourth star. At the same time, he was promoted to Chief of Staff Major General, the first French-Canadian to have risen to the highest rank in the Canadian military. From then on, he had the Armed Forces in the palm of his hand.