# CAF veteran: Without US, Canada ‘would stand no chance’ at defending itself | With Brian Isted

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-really-big-show-with-jim-csek-iain-burns-7118319/caf-veteran-without-us-canada-would-stand-no-chance-at-defending-itself-with-brian-isted
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-really-big-show-with-jim-csek-iain-burns-7118319/caf-veteran-without-us-canada-would-stand-no-chance-at-defending-itself-with-brian-isted.md
Podcast: [The Really Big Show with Jim Csek &Iain Burns](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-really-big-show-with-jim-csek-iain-burns-7118319)
Published: 2026-05-24T00:24:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ai-ev/episodes/CAF-veteran-Without-US--Canada-would-stand-no-chance-at-defending-itself--With-Brian-Isted-e3jq3ql
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/10fa926fc/podcast/play/120442133/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-23%2F424757786-44100-2-7f9cd6f01daf6.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-really-big-show-with-jim-csek-iain-burns-7118319/episodes/caf-veteran-without-us-canada-would-stand-no-chance-at-defending-itself-with-brian-isted
Duration seconds: 3866

## Resource

The Canadian military flew a signals intercept aircraft over the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa in 2022, lied about it when journalists asked, changed their story when the tail number was identified, and have been blocking ATIP requests ever since. Brian Isted, a former Canadian Army captain, military intelligence analyst, and founder of True Patriot Love Media, explains what he found when he went looking for answers. On recruitment: Canada has a current complement of approximately 55,000 personnel against a full complement of around 75,000. But it is not that Canadians do not want to join. Isted says six-figure numbers of Canadians have applied in recent years and cannot get in because of bureaucratic and administrative dysfunction so severe that by the time applicants complete a sixteen-month process, they have already found other work. Meanwhile the military pursued a DEI-driven push to recruit non-citizens who in some cases had been in the country for only a few months, placed them together in officer training platoons, and experienced massive attrition and serious conflict between different national groups. The irony, Isted notes, is not lost on anyone.On equipment: military police officers were sharing pistols because there were not enough to assign individually. When the pistols broke, they were cannibalizing existing firearms for parts because the weapons were so old that replacement parts no longer existed. Isted spent close to two years in procurement and has firsthand exposure to this. Seven of fourteen audited military housing units were found unfit for habitation by the Auditor General. Isted personally found asbestos removal teams quietly working in buildings where soldiers were sleeping, scheduled for times when soldiers were supposed to be away.On…

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