Feature Interview with LGen Steve Boivin, Commander of CJOC. 

LGen Boivin joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in 1991 and attended the College Militaire Royal de St-Jean from 1991 to 1995 before being transferred to the Royal Military College of Canada for his final year.

In July 2004, after completion of his Special Operations Assaulter Course, LGen Boivin joined Joint Task Force 2 (JTF 2) and served the majority of the next six years with the Unit, including multiple rotations to Afghanistan.

LGen Boivin assumed command of JTF 2 in 2013 and commanded the unit until 2016. In May 2018, LGen Boivin became the Deputy-Commander of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) and officially assumed command in May 2021. LGen Boivin took Command of Canadian Joint Operations Command on July 8th, 2024.

CDR: General Boivin, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. You are new to the CJOC portfolio after having been in command of CANSOFCOM. How do you feel your previous command will help guide you in your approach to leading CJOC?

LGen Boivin: It’s very nice to chat with you, Joetey. You ask a very interesting question. I’ll tell you first that I’m privileged to command the Canadian Joint Operations Command — being the commander that’s responsible for CAF domestic and international operations is something that I’m really proud of. I’m also privileged to be transitioning from an operational command that is CANSOFCOM to another operational command. In the last number of years, we have shared a lot between CANSOFCOM and CJOC, and it’s really a common mandate — which is to deliver excellence on operations in a challenging environment, but to deliver that excellence on operations.

So, to answer your question, SOF is very command centric, and I intend to continue to be that kind of Commander, to be hands on, be accessible to my people, to my staff. This approach has always allowed me to provide clear, precise direction and guidance to the team, and I intend to do the exact same thing as commander of CJOC. I believe that approach allows us to optimize our staff efforts, and I intend to continue doing that.

CDR: What advice did Vice-Admiral Auchterlonie share with you during your handover?

LGen Boivin: I handed over CANSOFCOM at the beginning of May, and took over CJOC at the beginning of July, so we had a relatively long handover, and it was really well organized. I actually had a chance during the handover to do a trip to the Middle East with Admiral Auchterlonie, and during that trip, what I saw is the amazing relationships that Admiral Auchterlonie has cultivated and maintained with our key allies. So that’s the example that I’m focusing on. I intend to continue to invest in building and maintaining those relationships with our allies and our partners, both at home and abroad. You know that we don’t execute operations in isolation, so I’ll continue working here at home with our different partners, Global Affairs Canada, being one of those key partners that we work with on so many operations, and then abroad, working with allies and partners so that we are complementary to each other.

CDR: Canada has a new Chief of the Defence Staff. What guidance have you received from General Carignan?

LGen Boivin: We’re fortunate to have an operationally experienced Chief of the Defence Staff. She’s invested in CAF operational success. I have the standing authority that I need to command and control CAF domestic and international operations, and I’ve engaged her point-to-point when I needed additional guidance. We’ve already had a number of meetings, mostly senior leadership engagements, where she’s had a chance to start laying out her guidance for the CAF. So it’s been very positive, and I believe we’ve got a solid group of senior leaders that are positively engaged, and we’re all going to work in the same direction.

ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT GLOBAL SECURITY LANDSCAPE

CDR: The previous CDS, General Eyre, spoke of increasing and constantly evolving threats. How do you assess the current global security landscape, and what are the primary threats facing Canada and its allies today?

LGen Boivin: That’s a very interesting, and at the same time, complex question. I’ll start by telling you that it’s an increasingly contested global security environment. I’m sure that you’ve heard that term before, and I classify it as complex. It’s very complex with a number of different agendas and players. It’s very interconnected, and that’s been increasingly the case over the last number of years, and more importantly than anything else, it’s a contested global security environment that’s uncertain.

So, we’re conducting our operations in a time of geopolitical uncertainty, and it’s marked by increasing strategic competition. It places great pressure on international norms and rules, and I’ll give you four manifestations of that. Number one, we’re seeing more countries asserting themselves in the Arctic. Number two, we’re seeing destabilization in Europe as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Number three, we’re seeing increased tensions in the Indo-Pacific. And number four, the ongoing Israel / Hamas conflict raises concerns for wider regional stability in the Middle East. So you’ve got a number of hot spots around the globe. Now, when you look at that, and you extrapolate, if you look at just 2024, we’re going to see over 50 countries going to the polls, globally. Amongst that, 7 of the 10 most populous countries will go to the polls. If you look at the West, and you look at other democracies in the West, this means a democratic tradition, and it also means different viewpoints that are being brought forward. In countries where democracy is less established, these elections amplify risks of civil unrest, political violence and coups — all realities that have to be dealt with. Now on top of that, you add misinformation, and disinformation that’s on the rise, combined with the confusion caused by just the sheer volume of information available in our interconnected world.

Going back to the original point on the operating environment, it makes for a very confusing information space. In the background, we’re seeing peer and near-peer competitors are increasingly investing in their militaries and prioritizing weapons development enabled by AI and machine learning. Non-peer competitors are leveraging new and inexpensive technologies, and that can challenge our ability to conduct operations. So, all this to say that, with the interconnected global environment that we have in 2024, we’re no longer geographically immune to threats from abroad, so we must take these very seriously as it is the reality of our current operating environment.

STATUS OF CAF OPERATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

CDR: Let’s focus on the largest of the CAF’s current operations — please give me a status snapshot of each.

LGen Boivin: So, I’ll be true to what I just told you, and that is I am focused domestically first. I’ll start with a little bit on Op Lentus and Op Nanook. They’re the home game, and are really important to me. Op Lentus is an operation that sees both regular and reserve force collaborating with our federal, provincial, territorial and municipal agencies. As you know, it’s meant to assist Canadians during increasingly frequent episodes of natural disaster. This summer was a less demanding summer than preceding years. You’re probably tracking that in 2023 we conducted Op Lentus for 131 consecutive days, where this summer in 2024 we carried four operations. They were all the result of forest fires, and we supported different levels of government with that.

Moving on to Op Nanook, that’s an area that Canadians need to know more about. We’re currently wrapping up the evolution for Op Nanook for this calendar year. Our success on Nanook really hinges on our ongoing engagements with partners amongst the Indigenous communities in our North and with our allies. So looking at this operation really as our marquee Op domestically and in North America. It is going to be a priority going forward for me. The recent publication of “Our North Strong and Free” clearly establishes our priority as the continent, so I intend to prioritize Nanook in the coming years.

Shifting to overseas, I’ll start with Operation Reassurance. You know that we are the framework nation for the multinational brigade in Latvia. We’re lucky that the contribution of other countries is now at 13. So we’ve got 13 sending countries who contribute to our multinational brigade, and as we speak now, we’ve got over 2,500 people deployed to Latvia with tanks, helicopters, and artillery, amongst other equipment. So it’s a major effort for us. It’s a marquee contribution for Canada to NATO’s mission of deterring further Russian aggression. In addition to our troops and equipment, we’re investing heavily in infrastructure. As you can imagine, with the number of people that we have there, we have to build this infrastructure for people and capabilities, and that’s meant to support Canadian and NATO forces. The last thing I’ll mention on Reassurance is that this Fall, in November, we’ll complete our up-lift to the multinational brigade. It culminates with Exercise Resolute Warrior 24.

Operation Unifier is the CAF military training mission in support of Ukraine. It was stood up in 2014, and until 2022 we trained 40,000 members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Following Russia’s invasion in 2022, we’ve trained another 9,000 AFU members on different lines of efforts, and we continue to deliver on those lines of efforts ranging from basic training, engineer training, medical combat training, M777 maintenance, Leopard main battle tank training, battalion staff training and others.

CDR: And does that include the training for the fighter pilots that are learning the F-16?

LGen Boivin: So those numbers are not included — we’re currently working on finalizing that.

Now, one of our key lines of effort is partnering with the UK on Op Inter ex where we’re delivering some basic training in the UK as part of that operation. Interfex is the UK operation and we support it with our own Operation Unifier by sending members of the Canadian Army, under my command, to the UK in order to be part of the basic training for Armed Forces of Ukraine soldiers. We’re also part of the American-led Strategic Advisory Group – Ukraine, and as this transitions to the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, or NSAT, as announced at the Washington summit, we’re part of that too. So we’re linked up with our allies, and coordinated and synchronized in order to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine as best we can. We’re also delivering lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine. We’ve been doing that since 2022, and up to now we’ve delivered over 20 million pounds of aid.

When I look at this operation, it highlights the importance of our personnel. Our trainers are assisting Ukrainians, both training basic trainees and instructors, and helping them to generate the forces that they need to fight the Russian invasion. We talked a little bit about technology at the beginning in terms of where the operating environment is going. I think it’s really important that we look at new emerging technologies, that we pay attention to those and how they impact the operating environment. But I would tell you that core combat arms training remains absolutely vital, so people and training them properly remains vital, and we can see evidence of that with what Ukraine is accomplishing.

I’ll add that it’s very challenging for the Task Force Commander. The operation has troops that are dispersed in many different locations. Inter ex is delivered in the UK. Some of the lines of efforts that I’ve covered are delivered in Poland. We deliver the Battalion staff training in Latvia. So it’s dispersed quite a bit and challenging. On top of that we’ve got coordination nodes in Germany and in other different locations, so it becomes quite dispersed and challenging.

For Operation Horizon — we’ve got a growing presence in the Indo-Pacific. I mentioned our partnership with Global Affairs Canada — we really see it on Op Horizon, where we work hand-in-hand to execute the government’s Indo-Pacific strategy. So as we speak, we have two frigates in the Indo-Pacific and we’ve got a third one that’s going to be transiting there later this year. I talked earlier about pan-domain activities, and in that region, it is really important for us to integrate those different domains in order to maintain our meaningful presence supporting peace, security and our national interests.

THE FUTURE OF CDN MILITARY OPERATIONS

CDR: In light of recent global developments, how do you foresee the future of Canadian military operations? What strategic shifts might be anticipated in the coming years?

LGen Boivin: I’ll break my answer into two parts. The future of Ops — I see a more extensive focus on continental operations, including the Arctic. Beyond maintaining that focus on North America, we’ll continue to prioritize Europe through our NATO obligations and increasingly the Indo-Pacific as per the order that I give you on current ops. Of course, we’re maintaining awareness and we’ll be engaged when required in the Middle East, Africa, South America.

On the strategic shift — my view is that deterrence is key. We don’t want a war, and the best way to prevent it is to be ready for one. In order to deter potential enemies, the CAF needs the resources to detect, to deter and to defeat threats. So those resources are people, equipment, training and infrastructure. The implied tasks for CJOC in this are clear and we must have a CAF that is combat ready across all domains.

CDR: In what ways has the nature of warfare evolved in recent years, and how is the Canadian Joint Operations Command adapting to these changes?

LGen Boivin: On the nature of warfare, we are seeing state and non-state actors exploit technological developments and that enables them to use new approaches. We’re seeing drone usage to a level that we have not seen before, and long-range precision guided munitions – those are just a few of the approaches that are enabled by technology. We’re also seeing non-state actors that have access to those technologies, including AI, and they exploit them to challenge more powerful opponents. Information warfare, which I have already shared, and disinformation, is now being exploited more than ever, including by state actors. So, the environment is more contested than ever, especially for logistics and communications. And then to make it more complex, you’ve got state actors that are willing to push the tolerance of other states with regards to what was previously seen as red lines. So, always pushing those red lines further. In aggregate, all of this contributes to what we call activities below and above the threshold of conflict, and that’s across all domains.

So, to answer the second part of your question, how do we adapt to this? We’re adopting a pan-domain force employment approach where we understand, exploit and integrate diverse capabilities to achieve deterrence. Starting with sensing the environment, our C4ISR function is increasingly important, so we are putting more and more emphasis on sensing and understanding, and then needing to act on this information — being capable of supporting decision makers and translating this into more responsive actions in the operating environment. Now, in this era of pan-domain operations, integration with our allies is more important than ever. We talked about relationships — building them, maintaining them, and integration with those allies is more important than ever. It’s actually a step beyond interoperability — you hear about interoperability, and integration is a step beyond that. What does this mean for our people on the ground? It means delegation forward, delegating to the edge. I’m a  rm believer that environment is being more contested than ever, and I’ve mentioned communications and logistics requires us to trust and empower our people and delegate to the edge so that they have the  exibility of decision making, understanding the bigger intent, the bigger context, and being capable of delivering on our mandate. So it’s an adjustment of mindset, and I think we’re turning to it very well. We can’t be blinded by technology. We’ve got a good example in Ukraine where well-trained troops with a stronger morale than the enemy has a  ghting chance. So that’s how I would summarize it.

DEFENCE POLICY UPDATE AS IT RELATES TO CJOC

CDR: How do you view the recently released DPU in the context of priorities for CJOC?

LGen Boivin: What I can tell you is both the DPU and the NATO 2% announcement are great news for the CAF and the Department. We need the equipment to equip our troops. That’s both individual and common collective equipment. What we now need to do is to implement with purpose as a CAF / DND defence team. Now for CJOC, there is clear regional prioritization — defence of Canada, including the Arctic in the North American context; defence of the Euro-Atlantic in the NATO context; expanding our presence in the Indo-Pacific, and we need to continue paying attention to the Middle East, Africa and South America.

CDR: What capabilities are you most in need of?

LGen Boivin: I need more people. It’s a common problem, by the way, not only for ourselves, but also for some of our allies. But it’s our best asset, our people are our most important resource, but also our most important capability. When I engage with allies and partners, I’m routinely told that CAF personnel are value added; that they bring excellence to operations and they want more CAF people. So, from my point of view, the CDS’ priority on recruitment and retention for the CAF is very well justified. Now, if with those people, we can synchronize individual and common equipment acquisitions, including some of the key joint enablers that we need, and I’ve talked about C4ISR, I’ve talked about sustainment and logistics, then we’re going to continue to provide a disproportional effect.

CDR: What aspect of CAF operations is least well known?

LGen Boivin: I’ll start by saying that there are many areas or aspects of CAF operations that I’d like Canadians to be more exposed to, but I’ll choose Search and Rescue to answer your question. I’ve been absolutely amazed at the work that our search and rescue enterprise does. It’s a 24/7 operation. We’ve got personal and aircraft postured around the country ready to launch at a moment’s notice to save Canadians in distress. The Search and Rescue Technicians themselves, they’re truly inspiring in terms of individuals and in terms of group capability. In 2024 alone, our Joint Rescue Coordination Center, working with the Canadian Coast Guard Maritime Rescue sub-centers, have registered and resolved over 6,300 cases. Of these, 1,279 were deemed to require immediate intervention in order to preserve life. So, our own CAF airplanes and our crews are at high readiness to respond 24/7, 365 days a year, and this year, they’ve already carried out 411 SAR taskings, including a decisive role in the rescue of seven fishershermen off the coast of Newfoundland in July. So, I’m really proud of the work that our SAR Techs and our whole SAR enterprises are doing. Their motto is “so others may live,” and I really think that they deliver on that motto on a daily basis.

CDR: I agree. Thank you, General.

Joetey Attariwala is CDR’s Senior Staff Writer