Cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers Group Command Team
Brigadier-General D.N. Brais, CD
Brigadier-General Dominique Brais enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1991 through the Regular Officer Training Plan at the Collège militaire royal de St-Jean. Following completion of the Bachelor of Administration in 1995, she was commissioned as an Air Combat Systems Officer and completed training at the Canadian Forces Air Navigation School in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Upon receiving her Navigator’s Wings in 1996, she was posted to 14 Wing’s 405 Long Range Patrol Squadron in Greenwood, Nova Scotia, where she served in CP-140 Aurora flying positions as an Acoustic Sensor Operator and Squadron Deputy Flight Commander. In 2001, she was posted to 404 Long Range Patrol and Training Squadron as an Instructor, Simulator Operator, and Squadron Deputy Operations Officer.
Following a transfer from the Regular Force to the Supplementary Reserve in 2004, BGen Brais moved to Ottawa and returned to full-time service, this time as a reservist in 2008. She served within the Military Personnel Command’s (MILPERSCOM) Director Reserve Support Management in a variety of roles supporting the administration and career management of the members of the National Defence Headquarters and MILPERSCOM Primary Reserve.
In 2014, she was selected to attend the Joint Command and Staff Programme following which she was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and selected for employment within the Directorate Force Management of the Canadian Special Operations Command (CANSOFCOM). She held three simultaneous roles, appointed as the Commanding Officer of the CANSOFCOM Primary Reserves, and responsible for both the CANSOFCOM Selection program, occupation management, and during which she led the creation of a SOF occupation.
Promoted to Colonel in 2019, BGen Brais was appointed to the position of CANSOFCOM’s Director Force Management, where she assumed the wide portfolio and responsibilities for the Command’s military and civilian personnel management.
BGen Brais was promoted to her current rank in 2023 upon completion of the National Security Programme at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.
BGen Brais is from Chapleau and Sudbury Ontario. She currently resides in Ottawa with her spouse where they enjoy spending time with their blended family of five adult children and two granddaughters.
Appointed to the position of Commander of the Cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers Group, BGen Brais is honoured to be entrusted with the leadership of one of Canada’s foremost youth programs.
Chief Petty Officer 1st Class David Bliss MMM, CD
Prior to enrolling in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1977, Chief Petty Officer First Class (CPO1) Bliss was a cadet for four years with the 1913 Ontario Regiment Army Cadet Corps in Oshawa, Ontario. After enrolling in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), as a Naval Weapons Technician, he was assigned to the West Coast where throughout his career he served in Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS), Terra Nova, Qu’Appelle, Restigouche, Algonquin, Regina and Winnipeg as well as two postings to Sea Training (Pacific).
Aside from shipboard postings, CPO1 Bliss also served as a basic recruit instructor at Canadian Forces Recruit School Cornwallis, Life Cycle Material Manager for naval weapons systems, and Career Manager for the Naval Weapons trade. His final posting in the Regular Force was as the Strategic Readiness Chief Petty Officer for the RCN.
His operational tours include: Standing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Maritime Group Atlantic in 1991, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia in 1992, Persian Gulf in 1999, and Standing NATO Reaction Force Maritime Group 1 for in Africa in 2009.
CPO1 Bliss was selected as Coxswain of HMCS Winnipeg in January 2009 and in July 2010 was appointed as the Pacific Fleet Chief Petty Officer. He retired from the RCN on 05 June 2014 and re-enrolled to the Cadet Organization Administration and Training Service (COATS) component of the Reserves.
He was tasked as the Regimental Sergeant Major for the Vernon Cadet Training Centre for the period of 2014 through 2018, and then was appointed as the Regional Chief Warrant Officer for Regional Cadet Support Unit (Pacific) in Victoria B.C. In May 2020 he was appointed as Formation Chief Warrant Officer for the National Cadet & Junior Canadian Rangers Support Group.
CPO1 Bliss had the honour to be invested into the Order of Military Merit in November 1992 and be presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal in June 2012. He and his wife Laurel have three grown children all living on Vancouver Island.
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