Canadian Forces Reservists behind fake letter warning of wolves being released

[captloadie]

I think it's more accurate to say that it's a case of exercise material not being clearly identified as such, which lead to unnecessary confusion.

But that would have negated the IA they were seeking to be successful. Hard to convince the OPFOR that wolves are in the area if you label all the poster "FOR EXERCISE ONLY". They were actually more successful in getting the results they were intending, as they not only convinced the OPFOR, but a whole civilian population.

What they should have done was brief all non-ex participants providing real world support to ignore anything they see, hear, or read.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The organization in question was not Int.

But anyway.

Darn, can’t randomly fire the wrong people

 

[CountDC]

Unless someone has evidence otherwise, I am going with the people responsible for the documents were properly dealt with.

Course staff should have confirmed what happened to the items rather than assume it was thrown out by the cleaners. As it turns out at least one document wasn't.

The CAF member taking a picture of a document at work and sending it to someone without authority. Unless training has changed that bad they would have received the lecture on security which includes all documents and the release of them. He released a document without any authority to do so and without confirming it was valid. he is working on a training base so should also be aware that until confirmed any document laying around may be from a course/training session. In my books he is the main cause of this event.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Couldn't resist...

 

[Furniture]

Unless someone has evidence otherwise, I am going with the people responsible for the documents were properly dealt with.

Course staff should have confirmed what happened to the items rather than assume it was thrown out by the cleaners. As it turns out at least one document wasn't.

The CAF member taking a picture of a document at work and sending it to someone without authority. Unless training has changed that bad they would have received the lecture on security which includes all documents and the release of them. He released a document without any authority to do so and without confirming it was valid. he is working on a training base so should also be aware that until confirmed any document laying around may be from a course/training session. In my books he is the main cause of this event.

The cause of the problem was the unit that carelessly left training material in a space that wasn't secure. Particularly since the material made to appear to be of public interest and from an open public source.

If it was a memo from NS MNR, they weren't "releasing" anything, they were just sharing an interesting public notice they saw... It would be like taking a picture of a newspaper at work and sharing it with your partner, or reading a public website and sharing the link.

They likely should have applied some common sense, but beyond that I fail to see how it is the fault of the member that shared public information that is in the interest of the general public.

Thinking about this for even a few minutes it's pretty obvious that the whole idea of convincing people that wolves had been released int he area was a bad idea. What happens when locals ask about the wolf sounds? What happens when inevitably the "news" gets out that there are wolves int he area? As I mentioned earlier, news of an apex predator being reintroduced to the area is of public interest. People are going to ask questions, and the scenario is going to get out. Maybe you get ahead of it, but in the age of the internet that highly unlikely.

 

[Kilted]

Unless someone has evidence otherwise, I am going with the people responsible for the documents were properly dealt with.

Course staff should have confirmed what happened to the items rather than assume it was thrown out by the cleaners. As it turns out at least one document wasn't.

The CAF member taking a picture of a document at work and sending it to someone without authority. Unless training has changed that bad they would have received the lecture on security which includes all documents and the release of them. He released a document without any authority to do so and without confirming it was valid. he is working on a training base so should also be aware that until confirmed any document laying around may be from a course/training session. In my books he is the main cause of this event.

If it was labeled Province of Nova Scotia, there is no reason for the member not to share it, as they would have no way of knowing that it was not genuine.

The real question is: why did it take three and a half years for an explanation to come out?

 

[CountDC]

The cause of the problem was the unit that carelessly left training material in a space that wasn't secure. Particularly since the material made to appear to be of public interest and from an open public source.

If it was a memo from NS MNR, they weren't "releasing" anything, they were just sharing an interesting public notice they saw... It would be like taking a picture of a newspaper at work and sharing it with your partner, or reading a public website and sharing the link.

They likely should have applied some common sense, but beyond that I fail to see how it is the fault of the member that shared public information that is in the interest of the general public.

Thinking about this for even a few minutes it's pretty obvious that the whole idea of convincing people that wolves had been released int he area was a bad idea. What happens when locals ask about the wolf sounds? What happens when inevitably the "news" gets out that there are wolves int he area? As I mentioned earlier, news of an apex predator being reintroduced to the area is of public interest. People are going to ask questions, and the scenario is going to get out. Maybe you get ahead of it, but in the age of the internet that highly unlikely.

We will have to agree to disagree on some of this.

Regardless of where the memo came from once it is in the hands of DND it becomes our document and is to be treated accordingly. I have received documentation that would be placed in an appropriate folder and distributed on a need to know basis regardless of the content or who it may have been sent to outside of us. Yes the staff should have been more careful but the "space that wasn't secure" is a bit off as there really isn't many spaces that are fully secure within DND. Even a locked room has people that can access it. It was left in the course area so anyone that entered there shouldn't have removed it.

How it is the fault of the member is that he may have shared what he thought was public information without confirming it and as it now came from a military source gave it some credence. He should have been more careful just like the course staff should have been.

What happens when the locals ask - as that would be after the event is over then you tell them the truth. It was part of a training exercise.

News getting out that there are wolves in the area only happened because one person quickly sent it to their spouse rather than confirming it. Again easily handled by "it was part of a training exercise and Cpl Bloggins shouldn't have sent anything out without confirming the information"

In reality this was really a nothing that became a big issue needlessly.

 

[CountDC]

If it was labeled Province of Nova Scotia, there is no reason for the member not to share it, as they would have no way of knowing that it was not genuine.

The real question is: why did it take three and a half years for an explanation to come out?

They also had no way of knowing that it was genuine. Confirm before causing panic.

Took that long for everyone to make sure they had the maximum coverage on their own ass before moving it ahead. This should have been a quick same day 1 minute "sorry, this was a training exercise that went astray and we will be more careful in the future" event.

 

[Harris]

Unless someone has evidence otherwise, I am going with the people responsible for the documents were properly dealt with.

Course staff should have confirmed what happened to the items rather than assume it was thrown out by the cleaners. As it turns out at least one document wasn't.

Point 1's answer is absolutely. The staff were briefed on the proper way to create and distribute/return training documents. Point 2's answer is also absolutely true. The staff were also briefed on proper exercise document control for future exercises and measures were put in place to ensure this didn't happen again.
At the end of the day, an over eager staff made some mistakes during training to try and make said training as realistic as possible. Let those of us who have not made a single mistake during training raise their hand. I'll wait.

It took so long for this version of the story to come out because the ATI process is broken and apparently it took nearly three years for the documents to be given to the Reporter that asked for them. The documents themselves were gathered in about a two week period and passed to Div for their action and furtherance onward. That took another couple of weeks. The remainder of the time was taken by orgs/pers further up the CoC that I can't speak to as I don't know why they took so long.

 

[daftandbarmy]

At the end of the day, an over eager staff made some mistakes during training to try and make said training as realistic as possible. Let those of us who have not made a single mistake during training raise their hand. I'll wait.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

If anyone wants to request the FOIA information so far released on this incident see the link below:

Informal Request for ATI Records Previously Released | Open Government - Government of Canada