Episode 4.15: Mistrusted to Serve? with Dr. Jean-Christophe Boucher

Welcome to a new episode of Battle Rhythm with co-host Artur Wilczynski, retired DG of Foreign Intelligence Operations Canada and Senior Fellow GPSIA, University of Ottawa; Artur and Steve Saideman discuss what Canada’s military is doing in the Philippines to reinforce our Asia Pacific Strategy, while back at home the CAF is under media scrutiny after senior military leaders get caught trying out propaganda and surveillance techniques on Canadians. Today’s feature interview is with CDSN Co-Director, Jean-Chritophe Boucher. Steve and JC discuss capturing Canadian attitudes on defence through survey work in advance of their co-authored paper Mistrusted to Serve? Discrimination in the Military and Its Impact on Public Support in Armed Forces & Society Jean-Christophe Boucher is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He is currently a director of research in civil-military relations at the Canadian Defence and Security Network funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. A fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute; a research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Security and Development at Dalhousie University; Senior Fellow at the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les relations internationales du Canada et du Québec. He holds a BA in History from the University of Ottawa, a MA in Philosophy from the Université de Montréal and a PhD in Political Science from Université Laval. He specializes in international relations, with an emphasis on Canadian foreign and defence policies, international security, and methodology. References: Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy: https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/indo-pacific-indo-pacifique/index.aspx?lang=eng Message from David Hartman, Ambassador of Canada to the Philippines: https://www.international.gc.ca/country-pays/philippines/manila-manille-rep.aspx?lang=eng Burke, Ashley. How Canadian military members violated intelligence-gathering rules during COVID-19. 7 April 2026, CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/military-intelligence-gathering-violations-pandemic-9.7152467 Feaver, Peter D., Thanks for Your Service: The Causes and Consequences of Public Confidence in the US Military (New York, 2023; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 July 2023), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197681121.001.0001,