The ship has a 118-square-metre (1,270 sq ft) flight deck to land helicopters, but unlike larger Canadian Coast Guard vessels she has no hangar.

[1] Named after the sailing vessel Le Griffon, the ship's keel was laid by Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon, Quebec.

[8] In December 1989, Griffon was deployed to the Great Lakes to aid several vessels that became stuck in ice following an unusually extreme cold period.

[11] On 13 February 2009, the vessel broke ice at the mouth of the Grand River that had caused a flood in the small towns of Dunnville and Cayuga, Ontario.

[12][13] In February 2015, Griffon, working with Samuel Risley, freed the US merchant vessel Arthur M. Anderson which had been trapped in ice on Lake Erie for five days near Conneaut, Ohio.

[14] On 15 July 2015, the Government of Canada announced that a contract was awarded to Heddle Marine Service Incorporated for $2.7 million to perform a refit for Griffon.

[15] On 26 August 2020, the Government of Canada announced that a contract was awarded to Heddle Marine Service Incorporated for $4 million to perform a refit for Griffon.