Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan’s military career in service of Canada and Canadians spans over 35 years. She was promoted to her current rank in 2021 and has served for the past three years as Chief, Professional Conduct and Culture, National Defence. She is the first person to hold this role, which was created to lead transformational change in the way systemic misconduct is understood and addressed within the department and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
Fully bilingual, Lieutenant-General Carignan was raised in a working-class neighbourhood in Val-des-Sources, Quebec. She was commissioned into the Canadian Military Engineers in 1990 and went on to command two Combat Engineer Regiments, Royal Military College Saint-Jean, and the 2nd Canadian Division, where she led more than 10,000 soldiers and spearheaded crisis operations during flood relief efforts in Quebec. In 2008, she became the first woman in CAF history to command a combat arms unit. The following year, she deployed to Afghanistan to head the Task Force Kandahar Engineer Regiment. She is also a veteran of deployments in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Syria. More recently, she led NATO Mission Iraq from November 2019 to November 2020, helping strengthen Iraqi security institutions and forces to fight terrorism and stabilize the country.
In recognition of her leadership and valour, Lieutenant-General Carignan received the Meritorious Service Medal in 2011 and the Meritorious Service Cross in 2021. That same year, she was invested by the Governor General as a Commander of the Order of Military Merit. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Gloire de l’Escolle medal and of an honorary doctorate in Business Administration, both from Laval University. She was named one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women by the Women’s Executive Network in 2011.
Lieutenant-General Carignan is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, where she earned a Bachelor of Engineering. Over the course of her career, she also earned a Master of Business Administration from Laval University as well as a Master in Military Studies from the United States Army Command and General Staff College and the School of Advanced Military Studies, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Additionally, she is a graduate of the National Security Programme from the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, Ontario.
Lieutenant-General Carignan is the mother of four children, two of whom proudly serve in the CAF.