Eric Osborne
1947-2018
Passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family on October 13, 2018. He was the beloved husband of Odette Osborne for 48 years. He was the most awesome father to Paula Osborne (Tanyssa, Shannel) and Lynn Schoug (Wally, Zachary, Haley, Blake, Kassandra, Emily and Jayden). He will be greatly missed by his sister Bonnie Loder and brother Colin (Jana) Osbourne and a large circle of family and friends.
Visitation will be held at the: 
Westboro Chapel of Tubman Funeral Homes,
403 Richmond Rd, Ottawa (at Roosevelt Ave)
On Wednesday, October 17, 2018 from 6 pm to 9 pm. Memorial service on Thursday, October 18, 2018 in the Chapel at 2:30pm. Reception to follow.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Ottawa Heart Institute. Condolences, tributes and donations may be made at www.tubmanfuneralhomes.com

The inaugural issue of "Thunderbird Journal" is published as an official periodical of the Security Branch.  The Thunderbird Journal would remain in print for nearly 16 years. 

You can catch up on back issues of Thunderbird Journal here on the CMPA website.

​10 Service Detention Barracks (SDB) moves to Edmonton from Calgary, while SDBs in Winnipeg and Esquimalt were closed.  A fourth, 14 SDB, remained open in Valcartier. 

10 SDB would later be disbanded and closed on 30 September 1968.  However, 14 SDB was eventually relocated to Edmonton, and on 1 August 1980, was renamed Canadian Forces Service Prison and Detention Barracks (CFSPDB).  It remains in service to this day. 

​Cpl Farquharson and Cpl Worsnup of MP QL3 course 7403 become the first two female members of the Security Branch, and thus the first female MPs since unification.

You may have heard the rumours...and it's finally true.  Membership in the CMPA is now better than ever!  

As our Canada Day gift to you, we've made massive changes to your CMPA membership that will significantly benefit you now and for years to come.

These changes to the CMPA Membership, Departure Gift, and Retired Credentials bylaws will make it easier to become and remain a member in good standing of the CMPA and be eligible for departure gifts and retired MP credentials.  

BLUF:  

1. Any regular member who has paid dues for at least five (5) consecutive years will automatically become a Lifetime member.  You must apply for your Lifetime membership prior to 31 Dec 19. After this date, you will be required to apply as a new member.
2. Any regular member who has previously received a CMPA departure gift or Retired MP credentials will become a Lifetime member upon application at no further cost.
3. Any regular member who has either missed annual payments or paid their dues sporadically, is considered to be a member NOT in good standing. In order to be a member in good standing, you have until 31 Dec 19 to pay a one-time payment of $125. and will then become a Lifetime membe​r.

Anyone who wishes to join the CMPA for the first time can pay a one-time fee of $250 and become a lifetime CMPA member.  Anyone who is on a MP QL3 or MPOC course will receive a discount of $50.  

​All members of the CMPA are entitled to a once in a lifetime departure gift, at no cost, when leaving the MP Branch.  Credentialled MP may receive their MP Badge mounted in a shadow box with an appropriately engraved name plate.  Non-credentialled MP and other CMPA members will receive a gift approved by the CMPA Executive.  

Any member of the CMPA who was a credentialled MP and is fully retired or released (including medical release) from the CAF may purchase either Retired or Veteran MP Credentials from the CMPA Kit Shop, some restrictions apply.  

You can read a detailed description about the changes and the process by clicking on this link, or by visiting our website's homepage.

Happy Canada Day from the CMPA to all members of the MP family...Regular, Reserve, civilian, and dependants!

​The CMPA’s co-Director of History and Heritage, LCol (Ret’d) Paul Thobo-Carlsen, is researching the history of CAF Military Police working dog programs from 1972 to present (after the RCAF Police Sentry Dog Program ended*) and is seeking relevant information and photos from anyone with knowledge of any of these locally-run K9 programs.

​To date, twelve MP handlers and eleven working dogs are known to have operated in support of MP operations from 1987 to present. These include:

​A significant amount of information is known about the three most recent MP K9 teams operating from 2006 onward.  However, much less is know about the earlier MP teams and the security dog programs in Germany.  

​Former supervisors or co-workers of dog handlers, or anyone with knowledge of one or more of these earlier programs, is requested to contact the CMPA.  Of particular interest are details on how these teams came into being, trained, operated and were supported at the MP unit and base levels.  Other historically relevant information includes photos of handlers and dogs, unit-level documentation (e.g. K9 SOPs, commendation letters, etc), newspaper articles related to MP K9 programs, stories about cases that K9 teams worked on, and amusing anecdotes.

​Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated to help shed light on an area of MP Branch history that has not been yet be well covered.

NOTE:  ​The recently published book by LCol (Ret’d’) A.J. Murtagh and Maj (Ret’d) A.W. Kendall (The History of the RCAF Police Sentry Dog Program: 1963-1972. Burnstown ON: Burnstown Publishing House, 2017) does an excellent job of telling the story of Canada’s only formal and sustained military working dog program.  If you're interested in purchasing a copy of this book, you can do so by visiting www.rcaf-sentrydogs.ca/order.html (website is not associated with the CMPA).

​The CMPA is working with the National Air Force Museum of Canada, at 8 Wing/CFB Trenton ON, to create a new exhibit showcasing the role of RCAF Air Force Police and CAF Military Police in securing the nuclear weapons used by Canada’s air force during the Cold War.

​The exhibit project lead is Lieutenant-Colonel (Ret’d) Paul Thobo-Carlsen, CMPA Co-Director of History & Heritage.  The project technical advisors are Major (Ret’d) Wayne Kendall, CMPA Director of Membership (Veterans) and a former AFP sentry dog handler, and Lieutenant-Colonel (Ret’d) Andy Murtagh, who organized and implemented the Sentry Dog Program while serving as a staff officer at RCAF 1 Air Division Headquarters, Metz, France.

​The exhibit will be implemented in two phases:

​The National Air Force Museum of Canada has established a specific trust fund to collect the money necessary to create a professional looking exhibit.  The money collected in this trust fund will be used only to build and maintain the AFP/MP exhibit, and donors will be provided charitable donation receipts for tax purposes.

Donations to the trust fund may be made by cheque to the “National Air Force Museum of Canada.” Please ensure all cheques are clearly annotated with “Attn: Air Force Police Exhibit Trust Fund” to ensure they are appropriately directed.  Donation cheques should be mailed to:

  Executive Director
  National Air Force Museum of Canada
  220 RCAF Road
  Astra, ON
  K0K 3W0

Any former AFP or MP sentry dog handlers who wish to donate related artifacts in support of this exhibit should contact the CMPA (cmpa.apmc@gmail.com) with the details of all items for consideration.  Any artifacts subsequently accepted into the NAFMC collection will also be eligible for income tax receipts.

The Military Police Branch celebrates its 75th Anniversary.  While celebratory events are held at locations throughout Canada, the centre of gravity was in Ottawa, where numerous events, including a Casino Night, Golf Day, the return of Thunderbird Challenge, and a Gala Dinner at the Canadian War Museum were held throughout the week to celebrate this auspicious anniversary. 

The Security Branch flag was formally approved by the Chief of Defence Staff.