We regret to advise of the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Jacques Hamel, OMM, CD, PEng (Ret’d) on Friday 24 May 2019 at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montreal (CHUM) due to complications following a major surgery. Jacques served a full career with the Canadian Military Engineers and was a graduate of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College in Kingston, the UK Royal Military College of Science in Schrivenham, and the UK Army Command and Staff Course in Camberley. He was a Professional Engineer with l’Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec.
Jacques joined the Canadian Forces in 1977 and graduated from the Royal Military College in Kingston in 1982 with an Honour Degree in Engineering Physics. He then joined 5e Régiment du Génie de combat (5 RGC) in Valcartier, QC for his first posting where he served in a number of regimental assignments including Troop Commander, Adjutant, and Squadron Commander. After a short tour with 10e Genie in Quebec City he returned to 5RGC in 1987 as the Deputy Commanding Officer. During this period he served on a number of deployments In Canada, Norway, Germany and Cyprus.
Jacques then moved on to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, ON (1991-93) where he joined the J3 Engineer Staff as a Project Director for a wide range of Combat Engineering, Command and Control Automation and Geomatics Capital Projects as well as the J3 Engineer-Sustainment on the Joint Staff. In 1994 he was appointed G3 Plans in Land Forces HQ in St Hubert QC where he was responsible for international and contingency planning. During this period he participated in the planning and support for operations in Kuwait, Cambodia, Croatia, Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Rwanda.
Jacques was appointed to the Directorate of Army Doctrine in 1993 as the section head responsible for Force Protection doctrine and was Acting Director of Army Doctrine during 1997 and 1998. Jacques next joined the Army Strategic Concept staff in 1999 as the Director of the Army Experimentation Centre. He was the Program Manager of the Canadian Land Force Command and Control Information System (2000 – 2003). Jacques was next appointed Project Manager Intelligence Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Omnibus in 2003 where he was also responsible for the implementation of other Army force Protection and C4ISR Projects. Jacques retired from the Canadian Forces in 2010 and accepted a civilian Project Manager position with ISTAR. He had recently retired from this position.
Jacques’ performance throughout his career was recognized by a number of awards. He was appointed Officer in the Order of Military Merit in 2006. In 2009 he received the Chief of Land Staff Commendation for his Engineering and project Management activities related to the delivery of Small UAV capability to the CF to support on-going operations. He also received a Deputy Minister/Chief of the Defence Staff Innovation award for work as a part of the Manley Projects Team where he was charged with the rapid acquisition and deployment to Afghanistan of high-performance small unmanned aerial vehicles. Jacques also received the Canadian Chief Information Officer of the year award in 2004 from the Canadian Information Productivity Association (CIPA) for his work in knowledge management. In 2005 he received the CDS Commendation for his Engineering and Project Management work in support of operations in Afghanistan.

A Celebration of Life of Jacques will be held at Beechwood Cemetery, 280 Beechwood Ave, Ottawa from 13:00 to 15:00 hrs on Saturday, 15 June 2019.