by David J. Bercuson

It isn’t often that anyone in this nation seriously debates issues touching on the nature and effectiveness of the Canadian Forces. When they do, however, the number 1 topic is generally something like “how ready are the Canadian Forces for combat operations?”

We have recently seen that concern addressed by a number of agencies and organizations from the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs to the Royal Canadian Military Institute and the Conference of Defence Associations. Some of the debate was acrimonious, with serving members attacking retired members for waiting until they had left the Forces before voicing their concerns. It was all a debate worth having because it touched on the most important immediate question that the nation’s military faces: can it fight if called upon to do so at short notice?

But even though preparedness, or combat effectiveness, or whatever it is called, ought without doubt to be the key measure of Canadian military capability, it is a measure that applies mostly over the short run. In the long run–over years, even decades–the true measure of the Canadian Force’s effectiveness will lie not in how well it prepares itself for war educationally, technologically, or even tactically, operationally and strategically, but in how closely it comes to reflect the values and ideals of Canadian society. And in that area, the story is currently one of major difficulty.

It is a simple truism that in democracies, armed forces are rooted in society. Society creates armed forces for defence and to serve national interests. It gives those forces a mandate to wreak death and destruction on its behalf. It pays for recruiting, training, educating, equipping, and deploying the forces. If the citizenry should lose touch with those forces, or those forces fall out of step with the citizenry, then the essential link between the armed forces and the nation is endangered.

In the long run, the greatest danger to Canadian military effectiveness lies in the growing ethnic, racial, religious and national origin differences between the Forces and Canadian society.

Visit virtually any bustling downtown in almost any large Canadian city these days, or go to virtually any junior or senior high school across the nation, especially in Montreal, in Southern Ontario, or in Western Canada, and the new face of this nation is on display. Major changes in immigration policy that were first introduced in the mid-1980s have had a major impact on the nature of Canadian society bringing literally millions of people to Canada from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Immigration from once traditional- source nations such as Britain, Germany, Holland and those in Central and Southern Europe has been eclipsed by the new inflow and yet the Canadian Forces has largely failed to follow this demographic shift.

It is not easy today to get a good picture of an ethnic or religious cross-section of the Canadian Forces. The unit once tasked to study those key questions–the Canadian Forces Personnel Applied Research Unit–disappeared in the deep budget cuts of the mid-1990s. But a visit to just about any major Canadian Forces base today, whether army, navy or air force, leaves the strong impression that the Canadian Forces of this new century is pretty much like the Canadian Forces of the mid-90s. At the time that the research unit disappeared, about 70 per cent of the officer corps was Protestant, almost all other officers were Christian, almost all Regular Canadian Forces members were of British, French or European origin. Quebec was under-represented and Western and Atlantic Canada were overrepresented.

What is true of the Regular Force is less true of the reserves, especially the army reserves. In those cities where army reserve units maintain close community ties, and armouries are located in areas of mixed population, non-European and aboriginal Canadians have joined up in larger numbers. That has been even more true of the cadets and even though the cadet movement is, strictly speaking, not a military organization, it is close enough to being one to demonstrate that visible-minority Canadians are not reluctant to have their children join a group that is quasi-military in status if it is fun and interesting.

It is easy to draw the conclusion that even if special efforts are not made to bring larger numbers of visible-minority Canadians into the military, the problem will resolve itself by the inexorable move of some cadets to some reserve units and some reservists to the Regular Force.

But such movement is not only not inexorable, it in fact barely exists. Very few cadets join the reserves and only a small percent of reservists move over to the Regular Force, even after they may have opted for a six-month operational rotation.

The fact is the nation will not have a Canadian Forces that more closely represents a cross-section of Canadian society without a special effort to make the military more widely known, more attractive, and more accommodating to new Canadian visible minorities. It was just such a deliberate effort by DND, especially from the late 1940s through the 1970s, that brought so many francophone Canadians into the Forces and made the Canadian Forces one of the few truly bilingual and bicultural institutions in the nation.

DND has been sensitive–some will no doubt say over-sensitive–to gender issues, but it has not done nearly enough to address the even more important issue of how to make the Canadian Forces more of a mirror of Canadian society and a true national institution in a changing nation.

What can be done? Brigadier-General Ed Fitch, who recently completed two years as commander of Land Forces Western Area, experimented with a number of initiatives including the Tommy Prince Program, aimed at introducing young aboriginal Canadians to the possibilities of a career in the military. More recently he has suggested to the Canadian Forces chaplains that they loop in “associate” clergy of faiths such as Islam, Hinduism, or Sikhism so that religious minority members joining could more easily have their religious needs attended to within the Forces

Though important, such initiatives are but a small beginning. It will take years to properly introduce the Canadian Forces to visible-minority Canadians as an attractive career choice, so the job must begin without delay.

More Eligible For Canadian Volunteer Service Medal

More civilians qualify for the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal after recent VAC changes.

The federal government has broadened the eligibility requirements for the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal or CVSM to include volunteer members of certain civilian groups that functioned closely with the armed forces or merchant navy under military-like conditions during WW II.

The CVSM was originally available to those who served in the military for 18 months between Sept. 2, 1939 and Sept. 2, 1945. Members of the merchant navy became eligible in 1994.

Now eligible for the medal are members of the following groups.

Auxiliary services includes personnel engaged and paid by The Canadian Legion, Knights of Columbus, Salvation Army and the YMCA, organizations that provided canteens, recreational services and equipment to Canadian Forces personnel serving overseas.

Canadian firefighters are members of The Corps of Canadian (Civilian) Fire Fighters for Service in the United Kingdom, who helped fight fires during the Blitz.

Overseas welfare workers and the voluntary aid detachment includes members of the Canadian Red Cross Society or the St. John Ambulance Brigade who worked either overseas or in Canada in medical support functions.

Ferry Command, the pilots and aircrew under contract to deliver aircraft from North America to Britain and to other theatres of war, will be eligible.

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan instructors are eligible who, instead of becoming full-time members of the air force, were selected to be flying instructors for the many flying schools set up across the country as part of the air training plan.

Members of those groups are also eligible for a bar for overseas service, worn on the ribbon of the medal, if they served outside Canada.

To qualify for the CVSM, the civilians require at least six months’ service, any part of which was outside Canada, and must have been honourably discharged or retired from their service. Those who served under the Red Cross, St. John Ambulance or who were instructors under the air training plan may qualify if they served for at least 18 months, regardless of location. Also qualifying are all volunteers who were honourably discharged or retired as a result of injury or disease attributable to or incurred during their service. The medal is also awarded to survivors of volunteers who were killed in action or died as a result of service-related injury or disease.

The amendments to the CVSM order, announced by Veterans Affairs on March 1, also clarifies that persons may qualify for the medal if they were voluntarily serving on active service in the armed forces on Sept. 2, 1945, but had not attained their 19th birthday by that date and were subsequently compulsorily honourably discharged before completing the minimum qualifying period of 18 months.

Interested persons who want to apply for the CVSM or obtain more information about the changed eligibility for the medal should contact Veterans Affairs Canada, Honours and Awards Unit, 66 Slater St., Room 1411, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0P4. Or call toll free at 1-877-995-5003.