Jonathan Wade

About the author

is a Consulting Fellow for the POLARISK Group. He served in the Canadian Forces with distinction for more than fourteen years prior to his honorable discharge in June 2014, a career which led him to travel across the globe, deploying to Afghanistan in 2009 to mentor and advise the Afghan National Army—where he was awarded the Chief of the Defence Staff Commendation—and shortly to Haiti following the earthquake of 2010. Drawing upon the knowledge of defence issues and foreign affairs gained throughout his military career, Jonathan Wade is a contributing editor for SOFREP and the content manager of The Loadout Room, as well as a frequent guest on Sun News Network. Fluent in both French and English, he is presently studying Military Arts and Science at the Royal Military College of Canada.

Canada Joins The USA In Support of Ukraine

The Canadian Government has joined their main ally, the United States of America, and other allies in a strong message against Russian intervention in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russian citizens and military personnel were at risk in Crimea, most notably around Sebastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, but ignored US President […]

Canadian Terrorism Portrait Part 1: Omar Khadr

Throwing a grenade at US Army soldiers and killing their medic at the age of 15 years old makes you a Child Soldier? Aren’t we convicting criminals of the same age as adults here in Canada and the United States? Where’s the difference – that one was fighting an insurgency in a foreign country? Omar […]

Chris Kyle’s Craft International Trains Snipers in a Canadian Football Stadium

Activities in the BC Place Stadium located in downtown Vancouver were set aside recently to let the Vancouver Police Department snipers train with the instructors of Craft International LLC, co-founded by Chris Kyle. The training helps ensure the criminals will lose the game on a third and final down. In recent years, SWAT teams and Emergency […]

Winter Warfare: Canada’s Expertise Part 3

In part 3, I will focus more on the political side of winter warfare, including the Arctic Council and the Russian and Chinese futures in the Arctic. I will finish with my opinion on the future of winter warfare for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Although this 3 part article was supposed to be focusing […]

Winter Warfare: Canada’s Expertise Part 2

In part 2, I will elaborate on the importance of sharing experiences with our allies, even more with the United States Military. I will only scratch the subject regarding the United States Military, as I intend to do a full article about it. Because of the current world situation and the importance of NATO, in […]

Winter Warfare: Canada’s Expertise Part 1

No this is not the Hoth system, it’s Canada … In this series of articles, I will elaborate on the importance of being able to fight in winter warfare here in Canada. It is also important to share our experience with our NATO allies but even more with the United States Military as we share […]

Back To Conventional Warfare: Canada post-Afghanistan

When I joined the Canadian Forces (CF) in 2000, our main focus was still fighting against fictional countries from the Warsaw Pact. We used to breach defensive positions, establish them with the help of the engineers, conduct combat team attacks on prepared positions, etc. But when the two towers went down on 9/11 our focus […]

SOF Teams in Afghanistan Post-2014

With the withdrawal of the majority of the NATO troops, can we say that Afghanistan is more ‘’secured’’ than it was 13 years ago? Is the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) ready to take over and keep a certain degree of security in the major populated areas such as Kabul and Kandahar? One thing is […]

The Future of Drones in Canada

Everyone who has deployed in a combat zone understands the utility of both intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) drones and strike drones. We could also add other possible roles the drone could have, such as communication relay, electronic warfare, target designation, CBRN drones and so on. Canada has eight different types of UAVs that are either […]

Bending The Minimum Medical Standards: RCAF Pilot Shortage & How It Affects SOF

How does lowering pilot standards affect SOF forces? If you’ve ever been pinned down by gun fire or an overwhelming enemy force in some dark corner of the earth then you know how important air support is, and how much good piloting is appreciated. The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is now looking into bending […]

Canadian Soldiers: Trading Rifles for Game Controllers

In 2007, the Canadian Forces acquired 150 VBS2 licenses for use at CFB Valcartier. They later reacquired another 500 licenses for the rest of the Canadian Armed Forces. The overview on the website states that Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2) is a comprehensive open platform with proven capability for training, simulation and development. Next generation gaming […]

Combined Task Force 150: Canada In The Arabian Sea

Canada is one of 29 nations that contribute naval assets to Combined Maritime Forces, the naval coalition that promotes security and stability in the international waters of the Middle East. This area comprises some of the world’s most important shipping lanes. Combined Maritime Forces was formed in February, 2002 as the coalition headquarters responsible for […]