Major-General Michel-Henri St-Louis is an infantry officer from le Royal 22e Régiment, currently serving as the Defence Attaché to the United States. Born in Managua, Nicaragua, he and his family moved to the south shore of Montreal in 1978 during the time of the Sandinista Revolution. 

 

Before assuming his current responsibilities at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, MGen St-Louis was the Acting Commander of the Canadian Army. This followed his appointment as the Canadian Army’s Training Authority. Preceding this, he served as the Commander of Joint Task Force - IMPACT in the Middle East for more than a year (mid 2019 – mid 2020). 

 

Other previous commands and appointments include Deputy Commanding General for Operations of America’s First Corps (I Corps - US Army) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (2017-2019), command of 5e Groupe-Brigade Mécanisé du Canada (2015-2017), as well as commander of the last Canadian Battle-Group in charge of combat operations in Panjwai, Kandahar (2010-2011). 

 

Through his service he and his family have lived in Saint-Jean, Québec City, Oromocto, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Washington, D.C., Washington State and Kingston (Ontario). He has deployed on 6 different missions, to such places as Srebrenica (Bosnia), Rastevic (Croatia), Zgon (Bosnia), Kabul, Kandahar (Afghanistan) and the OP IMPACT Middle East area or operations (Kuwait-Iraq-Jordan-Lebanon). 

 

He has attended the US PINNACLE and CAPSTONE Leadership Programs, followed seminars at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NDU) and the US Army War College. He is a graduate of the National War College (Washington, D.C., U.S.A.), the Canadian Forces College, le Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean, the Royal Military College in Kingston, and the Canadian Army Command and Staff College. His three Masters degrees have focused on the study of war, defence and strategy. He served as chief of staff at the operational level in the 1st Canadian Air Division. In addition, he served three times at the strategic level with the Director General of Strategic Planning, within the Canadian Army Staff and with the Strategic Joint Staff. 

 

Major-General St-Louis is an Officer within the Legion of Merit (US) and the Order of Military Merit (CAN). He was decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal for his command of the battle-group in Panjwai and with the Meritorious Service Cross for his command of Joint Task Force IMPACT. All of this is enabled in large part by the support and resiliency of his wife and their two teenagers.