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Colonel (Retired) St-Cyr enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1978, earning his military pilot wings and officer commission in 1981. During his military career, he held several supervisory positions and accumulated more than 5,400 flight hours on various tactical aviation aircraft. He had the privilege of commanding 430 Tactical Helicopter Squadron from 2003 to 2005.
He served as a staff officer at the headquarters of 10 Tactical Air Group, acting as project officer for the Canadian Forces Tactical Transport Helicopter program, CH146, and as Air Safety Officer for 10 Tactical Air Group. He also served as a National Defence liaison officer with the Canadian Space Agency.
Colonel St-Cyr’s international experience includes the following assignments: Advisor to the Canadian Ambassador at the Canadian Mission to the United Nations in New York; Operations Officer and Deputy Commander of the helicopter squadron of the United Nations Mission in Haiti; Commander of the helicopter detachment of the Canadian contingent with NATO’s Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Director of the Evaluation Program at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons; Deputy Commander of the Canadian Task Force while concurrently serving as Commander of the Canadian helicopter detachment with the Multinational Interim Force and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti; and Senior Advisor with the Strategic Advisory Team in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He also served as liaison officer for the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command and Task Force Afghanistan with NATO’s Joint Force Command Headquarters in Brunssum, the Netherlands. Colonel St-Cyr was deployed to Haiti for a third time as Chief of Staff of the military force of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
After completing Russian language training, he served from 2010 to 2012 as Canadian Defence Attaché at the Embassy of Canada in Moscow, Russia, with accreditation to Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. He subsequently served as Canadian Defence Attaché at the Embassy of Canada in Kyiv during the 2014 Ukrainian crisis, and was also accredited as Defence Attaché to Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania.
Colonel St-Cyr is the first Canadian citizen to receive three Meritorious Service Medals. He holds a bachelor’s degree in military and strategic studies from the Royal Military College Saint-Jean and a master’s degree in project management from the Université du Québec, UQAM and UQTR. He retired from the Canadian Armed Forces after nearly 37 years of service.
Since then, he has served as a lecturer at the Université de Montréal, a mentor in the training of Canadian Defence Attachés, a trainer since 2018 at Université Laval’s Winter School on the Practice of International Relations, a professor in the Advanced Leadership Program at the Robert Osside Institute of the Royal Military College Saint-Jean, and as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Corps des Commissionnaires du Québec. He also served as a Director on the National Committee of the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires from June 2020 to June 2024.