After more than 33 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Military Engineers, Col Jean-Pascal Levasseur, CD, will retire on 29 October 2023. A DwD function will be held at the Army Officers’ Mess in Ottawa in late August or early September. Congratulatory messages, well wishes, and anecdotes can be sent to Maj K.S. Madore at Kevin.Madore@forces.gc.ca.

Colonel Levasseur joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1990 as an Officer Cadet. Graduating from the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston in 1995, he began his career at 5 Combat Engineer Regiment (5 CER) where he served in a number of staff and command positions at all levels. He had the honour of commanding the Unit from 2011 to 2013.

In early 1998, as a troop commander, he participated in Op RECUPERATION in the province of Quebec following the ice storm. In the summer of 1998, as a newly promoted captain, he was posted to the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) as a technical advisor for a period of one year. In 2004, promoted to Major, he was deployed for Op ATHENA as G3 Engineer with the Kabul Multinational Brigade Headquarters, which works under a NATO mandate.

His extra-regimental appointments brought him to CF Joint Headquarters in Kingston (2000 to 2002), as a coordinator and then as a project manager for the Director Land Requirements (2006 to 2008) with Canadian Army Command. As Lieutenant-Colonel, he served as the Chief Engineer to the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command Headquarters (2009 to 2011). Promoted to his current rank in June 2013, he was posted to 1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters for two years. From 2016 to 2019, he has served as the J3 Effects & Influence at the NATO Joint Force Command Naples, in Italy. He was then appointed as the Canadian Joint Operations Command Liaison Officer to the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) for three years and also acted as the Ukraine Multinational Joint Commission’s Executive Committee until its invasion by Russia. During the last year of his career, he was accredited as the Canadian Defence Attaché to France.

From RMC, Colonel Levasseur has earned a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, a Master of Applied Military Science in 2006, and a Master of Defence Studies in 2009. He also holds a Master of Public Administration from the Ecole nationale d'administration publique. He is a graduate of the Land Force Command and Staff Course (Kingston) and the Joint Command and Staff Program (CFC Toronto). He graduated from the U.S. Army War College with a Master of Strategic Studies.

He is married to Christine Harvey and together they share the hobbies of skiing, photography, golf, and trekking with their two French Spaniel dogs.