Today, the Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Bill Blair, announced the appointments of Colonel Stephen Strickey and Colonel Nancy Isenor as Military Judges.

• Colonel Strickey was called to the bar of the province of New Brunswick in 1999 and joined the Office of the Judge Advocate General in 2002. He served in various director roles and as the Special Advisor to the Judge Advocate General. Col Strickey deployed twice to Afghanistan in support of both conventional and special forces operations as part of OP ATHENA and OP ARCHER. Since being promoted to Colonel in July 2018 he assumed the roles of Deputy Judge Advocate General Administrative Law, Military Justice, and Military Justice Modernization, was seconded to the Department of Justice as Visiting Senior Counsel and Special Advisor to the Assistant Deputy Minister and most recently served as the first Vice Judge Advocate General in the modern history of the Canadian Armed Forces.

• Colonel Isenor was called to the bar of the province of Manitoba in 1998 and joined the Office of the Judge Advocate General in 1999. She has served in a number of positions including as a military prosecutor, Deputy Judge Advocate Trenton, Legal Advisor to North American Aerospace Defense Command, Legal Advisor to Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit, Strategic Joint Staff Legal Advisor and as Assistant Deputy Judge Advocate General for both Operations and Military Justice. Col Isenor deployed to Bosnia as the Senior Legal Advisor, Afghanistan as the legal advisor to Task Force 58 and domestically in support of the 2010 G8/G20 Summit and the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2023 she was promoted to the rank of Colonel and has served since then as Deputy Judge Advocate General/ Military Justice.

• Military judges preside at courts martial and perform other judicial duties provided for under the National Defence Act such as judicial review of pre-trial custody.

• The National Defence Act requires that military judges be military officers for at least 10 years and members of a provincial bar for at least 10 years.

• The current military judges that Col Isenor and Col Strickey are joining are:

  • Captain (Navy) C.J. Deschênes (Chief Military Judge)
  • Lieutenant-Colonel Louis-Vincent d'Auteuil (Deputy Chief Military Judge)
  • Commander Martin Pelletier

Associated links

• Military Judges

Simon Lafortune
Press Secretary and Communications Advisor
Office of the Minister of National Defence
Email: Simon.Lafortune2@forces.gc.ca

Media Relations
Department of National Defence
Phone: 613-904-3333 
Email: mlo-blm@forces.gc.ca