Brian Walter Natale Santarpia is a retired Canadian naval officer and former Commander Maritime Forces Atlantic. He served in the
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...
from 1986 to 2023.
Career
He joined the Canadian Forces as part of
Maritime Command as a trainee MARS (Maritime Surface/Sub-surface) officer in 1986 and served in various postings before commanding from January 2007 to July 2008.
This was followed by a stint as Commanding Officer of Sea Training Atlantic.
In 2009 he was promoted to
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
and served as an advisor to the
Vice Chief of the Defence Staff before taking command of
CFB Halifax
Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Royal Canadian Navy Atlantic fleet, known as Canadian Fleet Atlantic (CANFLTLANT), that forms part of the formation (military), formation Maritime Forces At ...
.
He was promoted to commodore in July 2013 as Director General Naval Personnel.
In December 2014 he commanded
Combined Task Force 150
Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) is a multinational coalition naval task force working under the 34-nation coalition of Combined Maritime Forces and is based in Bahrain established to monitor, board, inspect, and stop suspect shipping to purs ...
.
He was appointed Commander Maritime Forces Atlantic in June 2020.
In 2020, as chief of staff of the
Canadian Joint Operations Command
The Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC; ) is one of the two unified commands of the Canadian Armed Forces, the other one being the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. CJOC was announced in May 2012 as the result of the cost-cuttin ...
, Santarpia privately supported using the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
as an opportunity to test
propaganda techniques
Propaganda techniques are methods used in propaganda to convince an audience to believe what the propagandist wants them to believe. Many propaganda techniques are based on social psychology, socio-psychological research. Many of these same tech ...
on Canadians, saying “This is really a learning opportunity for all of us and a chance to start getting information operations into our (CAF-DND) routine."
In March 2022, Santarpia was accused of failing to provide effective support to a female officer who had complained of sexual harassment. In a written statement to media, he said an administrative investigation he ordered into his male senior officers' actions, and the decisions in which he was involved, "revealed proper procedures were followed, however, the entire chain of command could have provided more effective support to the persons involved."
In June 2023 Santarpia retired from the Canadian Forces.
Awards
Santarpia's personal medals and commendation include the following:
Command Commendation
References
Canadian admirals
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
{{Canada-mil-bio-stub