Osside Institute inaugurates the CWO Brissette Award

December 2, 2021 - Defence Stories

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Brigadier-general (BGen) Steven Hunter, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) Deputy Commandant and Canadian Armed Forces Chief Warrant Officer, Chief Petty Officer (CPO 1) Gilles Grégoire chaired the presentation of the Osside Institute’s new CWO Dan Brissette award, created to recognize the academic excellence of ALP candidates at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on November 12th.

On 12 November 2021, Brigadier-General (BGen) Steven Hunter, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) Deputy Commandant, Chief Petty Officer (CPO1) Gilles Grégoire, Canadian Armed Forces Chief Warrant Officer, and several other L1 Command chiefs presided over the selection of the inaugural presentation of the Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Dan Brissette Award for the Advanced Leadership Programme (ALP) offered at the Chief Warrant Officer Robert-Osside Profession of Arms Institute (Osside Institute). The aim of the ALP is to develop prospective chief petty officers, 2^nd class (CPO2), and master warrant officers (MWO) for subunit and unit-level duties in leadership, staff and advisory positions by focussing on the transition from leading people to leading the institution.

As part of the ALP curriculum, the candidates must choose a professional issue they are facing at their unit and use the knowledge acquired throughout the semester to create a final report. Eric Bégin and Alexandre Bradette, Osside Institute civilian instructors, were part of the team who proposed the creation of an award that would recognize the academic excellence of candidates who demonstrated a remarkable understanding of the theories, notions and concepts of the programme, and whose final reports offer innovative recommendations that contribute to the development of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

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CANSOFCOM) Deputy Commandant and Canadian Armed Forces Chief Warrant Officer, Chief Petty Officer (CPO 1) Gilles Grégoire chaired the presentation of the Osside Institute’s new CWO Dan Brissette award, created to recognize the academic excellence of ALP candidates at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on November 12th.

Naming the award was no easy task; with the names of many past and current leaders of the CAF being considered, CWO Brissette, MMM, MSM, CD, however, stood apart. He enrolled in the CAF as an infantryman in 1987 in Ottawa, Ontario. In 1995, he became a member of Joint Task Force Two and continued with the Special Forces community becoming the CANSOFCOM Command CWO in July 2013. CWO Brissette retired in 2017 after 30 years of loyal and dedicated service and was chosen to be the namesake of the award due to his being an extremely committed and innovative leader.

All of the presentations were very well received and contained timely and relevant topics for consideration within the CAF. MWO Janet Ekstrom, from 16 Wing, presented her paper on “How does policy affect how diversity is weighted during senior promotion and/or appointment activities?” MWO Trevor Knight, from CJOC HQ, discussed, “Systemic Racism in the Canadian Armed Forces.” Finally, CPO 2 Michelle Seaman from HMCS CARLTON, spoke on “Gender Inclusivity in the Canadian Armed Forces; The Role of the Chief Petty Officer Second Class/Master Warrant Officer.” Due to the high quality of all the presentations, it was a difficult decision for the presiding but CPO2 Seaman was selected as the winner. The candidates for this first year of the CWO Brissette Award have set the bar very high for next year’s presentations.