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In his Oct. 16 appearance, Walbourne said he stood behind all the recommendations he has made over his tenure. What he said next, however, is very disturbing. Walbourne pointed out the reason some of his recommendations have not been acted on. “Some have not been implemented based on personalities rather than practicality,” he told Parliamentarians. “That is sad. The second we let personalities interfere with what is right for those who wear the uniform in service to Canada, we begin to lose the plot.”

Walbourne didn’t provide details on which specific individuals in the senior DND/Canadian Forces leadership were standing in the way of acting on recommendations to improve the lives of military personnel and their families.

But Walbourne has faced intense pushback from the Canadian Forces and the DND for his recommendations. In 2017 Walbourne publicly stated the senior leadership of the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence are so thin-skinned they strike back each time they see something they don’t like emerge from his office. Since they control the Ombudsman’s budget – Walbourne even has to get permission from the department to travel to meet military personnel– the power of these bureaucrats in and out of uniform is indeed great.

In a 2017 interview with the Canadian Press, Walbourne alleged that a pattern has developed whereby defence officials make life more difficult for his office any time it releases a report they don’t like. “You can almost trend my administrative burdens and the way this office is received with my systemic reviews when I release them and there’s a challenge to the department to change something,” he said.