From: Cleroux CPO1 JAR@CDS@Ottawa-Hull Sent: Tuesday, 19, February, 2013 09:35 AM To: Westholm MWO BL@JPSU E ON Region@PetawawaCc:

Hornbrook CWO MR@C Army DGLCD/COS Land Strat@Ottawa-Hull; Dalcourt CWO AC@CMP@Ottawa-Hull; Cadieu Col TJ@CDS@Ottawa-Hull; Head CWO DW@CMP DCSM@Ottawa-HullSubject: FW: Letter of Resignation: MWO Westholm, Regional Sergeant Major, JPSU, Eastern Ontario Region MWO Westholm I am e-mailing you to let you know that the CDS has seen your letter and has tasked CMP to follow up with you. I was aware of the issues in the JPSU having visited the IPSC's in Petawawa, Halifax, Edmonton and Esquimalt. The issue with permanent staffing is similar in all four locations not only with ratios but also in my opinion with training. I however would have preferred that you would have contacted me before going to the entire chain of command with your letter of resignation. I trust that CMP will reply to you shortly and I want to assure you that the CDS remains committed to the welfare of our men and women serving the CAF.

CPO1/PM1 R. Cleroux CF CWO/ Adjudant Chef des FC National Defence/ Defence Nationale Ottawa, Canada K1A 0K2 robert.cleroux@forces.gc.ca tel: 613-992-8270 cel: 613-355-2729 fax: 613-992-3945 From: Westholm MWO BL@JPSU E ON Region@Petawawa Sent: February-19-13 1:49 PM To: Cleroux CPO1 JAR@CDS@Ottawa-Hull Subject: RE: Letter of Resignation: MWO Westholm, Regional Sergeant Major, JPSU, Eastern Ontario Region Sir 1. Thank you for your reply - WRT our future communications, I respectfully request that all further correspondences between you, I and the CDS be given Privileged Platform Status. I request this not to be cocky, disloyal to my CoC or to take advantage of the situation, but I think given the circumstances its a prudent measure. I will though differ to your good judgment if you feel otherwise.

2. Although I didnt get into it in my resignation letter, there were a number of additional reasons that influenced the manner I resigned, and for the contents of my letter. As for the contents of my letter, I thought it best to focus on the most urgent issue, which was getting my troops some much needed support rather than a myriad of other issues, which are of concern to me. 3. WRT my Letter of Resignation; I exhausted all normal means (several times over) to correct the items mentioned in my letter, and although my recommendations were sound, they all failed at the HHQ Level. Most recently, my former OC used traditional lines of communication and diligently applied himself to correcting these long-standing issues (noted in my letters references (attached)). However, despite his dedication to this task, he was unsuccessful at the HHQ Level and was subsequently removed from his position as OC. He was then and given fairly rudimentary duties in an office three down from his former one, and submitted his resignation a short time later. (He is now a civilian living in Alberta). Should I have exercised any further efforts through traditional means, I am certain I would have been reassigned as well. If that was the case, and I submitted a similar resignation after being removed from my duties, it may have come across as my having a case of sour grapes and had less impact. Therefore, with this in mind, I went the route I did I intended no offence to you, your office or the CDS. 4. As a Sergeant Major, I have to support my Command Team partner despite any misgivings I may have about his/her leadership style and direction we must always show a united front outside of the confines of an office. I have worked diligently to maintain this working relationship up-to my Letter of Resignation. Every concern I have had in my Region was staffed and re-staffed (and re-staffed!) and I always stayed within my arcs; to have contacted you directly would have been against my view of the role and conduct of the Sergeant Major position. 5. However, I am now on the periphery of that role and I will provide SA to you on other areas of concern, as foll: a. Manning. The HHQ has stipulated that no one will be turned away frm the JPSU, together with no additional staff will be hired essentially this provides an equation of unlimited intake with finite capacity. This is a wholly unworkable equation, you can only get so much liquid into a container before it A: overflows, or B: explodes. However, since the JPSU deals with injured and ill CF mbrs, the ramifications of over-capacity are far more serious than water on the floor and some broken glass they can be deadly. My former OC understood the situation we were in and when he was offered support of 2 CMBG (who saw the situation and wanted to assist), he staffed a plan for Bde Augmentation to the HHQ. However, HHQ would not support it. Recently, we had another mtg with 2 CMBG Command Teams and again they offered their support, however their offer was declined by the recently appointed A/OC (who was the first OC of this Region 09-11). When the Pl Comd frm IPSC Petawawa, said at this mtg that he would welcome Bde Augmentation, he was shut-down by the A/OC and told essentially to cease discussion on the matter;

b. Training. I agree that our staff requires training and I submitted a proposal for both specialized and leadership training all requests I submitted were not supported. The specialized training I requested (included in the references) was required to better relate to pers with OSIs which were severe enough to be given intensive treatment at a mental health facility. However HHQ would not support this training because of liability concerns. The leadership training I requested had to do with the unique construct and challenges of our Support Platoon, where a Sgt could have a LCol in his Section. My view was that this type of situation took a high degree of finesse and communication skills. To this end, I recommended that ILQ/ALQ training would be an asset, even if the mbr was not ready for promotion. I touched base with the CF Leadership School and we had an informal arrangement where, should a position be vacant, one of our Section Commanders could attend the crse. When a position did become vacant, HHQ would not allow the mbr to attend as it was deemed irrelevant training for the job; c. Lead by Document. The prevalent leadership style in the higher echelons of the JPSU seems to be Lead by Document, whether it be CANFORGEN, DDP or similar directive there is very little of the lead by example, lead from the front that I am used to. There is a coldness to this leadership style that I dont care for; it has a very mechanical, dismissive and soulless feel to it far from the hands-on, camaraderie style I came to love in the EME Branch, and light-years away from the focused all-in style I enjoyed in the Canadian Airborne Regiment. Case- in-point was the way the staff received, much to their surprise, letters telling them of their cessation of service due to Reg Force Conversion. In many instances, a person walked up and gave them their letter without any foreknowledge, in many cases in my Region the letter was actually taken back leaving them with nothing to refer to. The same goes with the Annuitant Exceptions the stress brought on by the rather clinical way this was communicated was extreme and had a significant impact across the Region. To counter this, I suggested a well thought out plan, with benchmarks and reasoning be put in-place and invite the staff to provide input HHQ did not respond to my recommendation; d. Avoidance. There is a culture of avoidance in this Region that is having a detrimental effect on cohesiveness, morale and personal health; there have been many (many) instances where decisive action should have been taken, and was indeed recommended, only to have it ignored by HHQ. Ill send you a couple examples that deal with just one IPSC (Ottawa), but there is a pattern of this across the Region. In one case a WO and Capt were maligned in a SAV Report, which was more Inquisition than SAV report. The accusations in the SAV report where damning and prompted the former OC to initiate an investigation. Although the investigation found accusations against the mbrs to be groundless, the SAV Report remained in-place and circulating. This vexed the WO who was very disheartened about having his character attacked in a document with wide circulation; he requested many times through the CoC to have the document withdrawn and a retraction statement issued, however his request was ignored.

He considered putting a redress in, but feared reprisal, and perhaps to lose his job, so he delayed on doing this fairly mundane administrative task. I told him I would provide him back-up and that the Ombudsmans was also there to support him if required. He submitted his Redress in November 12, and of this writing it has not been actioned or even registered. The WO in question has recently put in his transfer for a position out of the JPSU. Another, rather distasteful, example was the withholding of Maj Chubbs Task Force Commanders Commendation for several months because of HHQs perceived poor optics of presenting it to him after reassigning him. When it was to be presented to him, it was attempted to be done in our foyer with whoever was around to spectate this, in my opinion, is not in keeping with the significance of the recognition and showed a distinct lack of respect (The Commendation was eventually given to him by the Bde Commander on his DWD apparently this did not go over well with HHQ); e. Structure. The JPSU is under-ranked almost right across the board, certainly in the leadership positions. With a posted-in strength of 500 (and growing) and the responsibilities of the Unit, every rank should be increased by one, and a more traditional one. My counterparts in the Bde are CWOs, and Ive had the honour to discuss JPSU matters with Parliamentarians and Members of Senate. The Regional Sergeant Major is without doubt a CWOs billet and the Regional OC should be a LCol, the Platoon WO should be CSM (MWOs) and the minimum rank for Section Commander as WO. Each Section should not have more than 20-25 personnel in it the numbers they deal with now are ludicrous. Another very unusual very characteristic of the IPSCs in our Region is that they lack a single POC (no-one is in charge). The IPSCs should have a Major as OIC IPSC to act as the POC to their supported Bases for both Services and Platoon Ops. The lack of a single POC has been a liability since day-one, to rectify it the former OC requested that, as an interim measure, the Platoon Commander (Capt) be appointed the OIC IPSC and would the face of the IPSC to supported Units his recommendation was refused by HHQ; and e. Fear. There is an uncomfortable climate where JPSU staff have fear of retribution this fear was fuelled by the reassignment of two OCs (Eastern Ontario, Pacific Region), the cessation of contract renewal to another OC (Southern Ontario Region). I also believe that the avoidance of dealing with issues, adds weight to staff being very concerned on where they stand and this is unfortunate indeed. It also may be a reason why the information sent about the Regions health is sometimes less than accurate I recall Maj Chubbs stating that HHQ did not want to hear about manning and not to put it in the report. 6. In the scans I will send you, you can read factual historical documents that relate to everything Ive mentioned above, I also respectfully request you contact the other JPSU Sergeants Major and ask them individually about the health of their Regions, their thoughts on the relevancy/accuracy of my letter and their frustrations. Im sure that they are, as I was, bound to the duties of the Sergeant Major position, and would not contact you directly because of their professionalism and commitment to the role. That

said, I believe this is a unique circumstance that would allow for your direct communication with them they are a good crew and I am proud to be counted amongst them. I also respectfully request that you share this email with the CDS for his SA and further, I would strongly recommend that you or the CDS give Maj (retd) Chubbs a call. lyndonchubbs@yahoo.com 403-464-5859. 7. With that rather long reply, sir Ill call it a email; I hope it doesnt come across if Im complaining for the sake of complaining, these are all legitimate affecting a Unit I care enough about to CT from the Reg F for, and also to resign for I care very much for the JPSU. I thank you again for contacting me, I look forward to meeting with the CMP representative. Respectfully B.L. Westholm Master Warrant Officer / Adjudant Matre Regional Sergeant Major / Sergent Major Rgional Joint Personnel Support Unit/Unit Interarme de Soutien au Personnel Eastern Ontario Region/Region Est de l`Ontario Director Casualty Support Management/Directeur - Gestion du soutien aux blesss National Defence / dfense nationale Petawawa, ON, Canada, K8H 2X3 E-mail / Courriel Barry.Westholm@forces.gc.ca Telephone / Tlphone: (613) 687-5511 ext / poste 2766 CSN: 677-2766 Tlcopieur / Facsimile: 613-588-2650 Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada