Remembrance Day Meeting
Nov 09, 2022
Brigadier General Don Macnamara
Remembrance Day Meeting

Don Macnamara – a strategic intelligence and national security policy analyst - first retired in 1988 as a Brigadier-General from a 37-year career in the RCAF and Canadian Forces. His last fourteen years of service were spent in the areas of international security strategy, strategic intelligence and strategic planning, including academic appointments at the Canadian Forces College and National Defence College. He joined the Queen’s University School of Business as a professor of international business, ultimately retiring again in 2009. He continued as a reservist for 15 years retiring in 2014 after 52 years of uniformed service.
He was appointed Officer in the Order of Military Merit in 1978, and is a recipient of Chief of Defence Staff, RCAF Commander and Canadian Defence Academy Commander Commendations, the Department of National Defence Distinguished Service Award, all three Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medals, the Canadian Forces Decoration with four clasps and the 2013 the Vimy Award for “outstanding contribution to the defence and security of Canada”.
He and his wife Lee were refugees from central Canada in 2005 and are happy residents of Sidney – as far as possible from Ottawa, still in Canada but on the US border.
He has spoken to many Rotary clubs in and around Kingston and Victoria and became a Paul Harris Fellow in 1994 through Kingston Rotarians in recognition of his contributions to international education.

His talk is entitled ‘To Remember You Have To Know’, addresses the challenges of making Remembrance Day meaningful for Canadians today.