MEET YOUR BOARD
Glenn Rippon
Meet Your Board: Glen Rippon
On flying, the military, the law, and being your new VFC Secretary the legal branch. I tried private practice for a bit, but when I saw that the Canadian Forces were recruiting lawyers to become officers in the Judge Advocate General branch, I put in my application. That conjoined two of my passions, and when family and finances permitted I got my pilot’s license and completed the set.
Tell us a bit about yourself. My interests are threefold: aviation, law, and the military. I’ve been able to combine all three—sometimes two at once, sometimes three at once. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to pursue my passions together. What can you tell us about your You wouldn’t think they would, but time in the military? they conjoin at various places. I joined the Canadian Forces in 1990 and How did that happen? served in Ottawa and I’m a lawyer. Growing up, I was at various bases across interested in aviation, the military, Canada and on overseas military history, and the law. When deployments. Because of I was an undergraduate, my father our military’s size we’re not sent all of his children for career dedicated to one particular testing. Mine came back as a lawyer environment, so I had what or a military officer. was called a ‘joint career’ At that stage I didn’t know you and worked in land, sea, and air. I could do both, but in law school I was in what’s known as a purple became aware of military law and trade; called that because it’s the colour you get when you mix the three uniforms together. I went to sea three times, slept in leaky tents in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and spent time with the Maritime Patrols based in the Persian Gulf during sanction enforcement against Iraq.
Which was the most interesting? Afghanistan was the most interesting and hands on conflict — and the hottest conflict. We were responsible for the crafting and application of the rules of engagement to achieve that end. We brought to bear, particularly on the air side, issues related to targeting and use of appropriate 14 AUGUST 2021
force to avoid collateral damage. I went twice, the first time a microlevel event that involved a friendly fire inquiry where we had to sort out what happened. The second time I served with the International Stabilization Assistance Force HQ in Kabul. That was a much larger scale, very much the macro-level. It was all interesting and unlike many jobs, there was a sense of purpose in the work. Very gratifying.
I also did some traditional lawyering as counsel at the Somalia Inquiry and for both prosecution and defence at courts martial; including a few flying offenses where I was able to apply training acquired on the CF Flight Safety Investigator Course. What did you do after the military? When I retired in 2017, I knew that I wanted to live in one of three places: Ottawa, Calgary, or Victoria. I’d never been posted to Victoria, but I’d been out a number of times and was able to get a position as a Pensions Advocate with Veterans Affairs Canada. I did that for close to three years, getting better pension judgements for veterans, and then decided I wanted to relax a bit.
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