OTTAWA – General Jennie Carignan has created history as he too charge as Canada’s chief of the defense staff to become the first woman to lead the armed forces of the country.
The Canada’s new army chief has replaced General Wayne Eyre, who served at the position since 2021. She has commanded troops in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq and Syria during her 35 years of service in the Canadian Army.
“I feel ready, poised and supported to take on this manifold challenge,” Carignan said at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
“Conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, heightened tensions elsewhere around the world, climate change, increased demands on our personnel at home and abroad, and threats to our democratic values and institutions are but a few of the complex challenges we need to adapt to and counter,” Carignan said.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday announced the appointment of Lt-Gen Jennie Carignan as the first woman to lead the G7 and NATO member nation’s military.
A highly decorated soldier and mother of four children, two of whom serve in the Canadian Armed Forces, Carignan will be promoted to the rank of general and take over from retiring General Wayne Eyre as chief of the Defense Staff at a ceremony on July 18.
“I am confident that, as Canada’s new chief of the Defence Staff, she will help Canada be stronger, more secure, and ready to tackle global security challenges,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
At a press conference in Montreal, he added that Carignan takes over the leadership of the military at a pivotal moment marked by “complicated geopolitics and increased threats.” The Canadian Armed Forces are also grappling with a toxic culture described in a damning 2022 external report as “hostile to women… (and) conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and assault.”
