COMMANDING OFFICERS

Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Brazill, CD

Commanding Officer

2002-2005

Jim Brazill was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1966 and led a fairly uneventful life until he joined Army Cadet Corps 2719 where he wore a gunner cap badge for the first time and has never looked back.  He rose through the cadet ranks to become Cadet Chief Warrant Officer in 1984 and while in the movement had the opportunity to travel to England and spent a couple of rewarding summers instructing at Cadet Camp Whitehorse.

In 1984 he enrolled in the reserves as an Officer Cadet in the affiliated unit of his old cadet corps, 2nd Field Regiment, RCA in Montreal.  He only discovered after joining that this was the successor unit of the one in which his grandfather served during World War II.

From 1987 until 1989 he served as a staff officer in the Automated Data Processing section of Force Mobile Command Headquarters in St Hubert while continuing to parade with his home unit in Montreal.

Jim remained in 2nd Field Regiment, filling most key unit appointments and attaining the rank of Major, until 1995 when a transfer from his civilian employer moved him to the Toronto area.  He transferred into 7th Toronto Regiment, RCA that same year, where he would spend the second half of his 21 years of reserve service.

Service in 7th Toronto Regiment included time as Operations Officer, Second in Command and Battery Commander including command of the gun battery for three years.  Jim was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 2002 and commanded the Regiment in Toronto until his retirement at the end of 2005.  During his command he had the pleasure of commanding 350 soldiers in the field as part of the composite Ontario artillery regiment formed for the area summer concentration exercise in 2004.

Since transferring to the Supplementary Reserve in 2006 Jim has become an active member of the local artillery association, the Toronto Gunners, and has remained a card carrying member of the Artillery Association of Montreal.  He became involved with the RCAA as a Committee Chair while still in command of his unit and was brought into the Executive in 2008, eventually serving as President from 2010 to 2012 and continues as a Committee Chair today.  He serves as the Secretary of the Toronto Artillery Foundation since accepting that appointment in 2014.

Jim graduated from Concordia University in Montreal in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.  He was recruited by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada that same year in the field of Information Technology.  He filled numerous IT roles of increasing responsibility before moving into Operations at Sun Life.  He is currently the Operations Director of the Canadian Document Services department.

Jim lives in Mississauga with his partner, Tianna Ivens, and is proud father to one son, Christos, who currently attends high school.

 

v.2017